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T-Mobile's 'Smartphone Equality' Program Ends Credit Score Requirement for Loyal Paying Customers

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Apr 12, 2001
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T-Mobile today announced a new program that makes it easier for customers with poor credit to receive discount pricing on devices and other deals previously only available to credit-worthy customers. CEO John Legere kicked off the new "Smartphone Equality" promotion with a video blog that explains the rationale behind the program.

Legere notes that half of Americans do not qualify for most carrier-advertised phone deals due to poor credit or a lack of credit history, and T-Mobile aims to change that by "putting our relationship with you above some number pumped out by a credit bureau, some huge faceless bureaucracy."

With its new "Smartphone Equality" program, T-Mobile is emphasizing the customer's relationship with the carrier instead of their credit score. As part of the initiative, customers who have paid their wireless bill on time for 12 months will be eligible for discounted pricing, including the carrier's popular zero down and no credit check programs. The "Smartphone Equality" program will be available starting next week to eligible customers.

T-Mobile has been shaking up the cellular industry with its ongoing Un-carrier promotions, which broke new ground by removing the cellular contract from a smartphone purchase and offering generous early termination bonuses for customers who switch to T-Mobile. Recently, the wireless carrier introduced its Un-carrier 8 initiative, which includes a new "Data Stash" program that rolls over unused monthly data and makes it available for the following 12 months.

Article Link: T-Mobile's 'Smartphone Equality' Program Ends Credit Score Requirement for Loyal Paying Customers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/01/22/t-mobile-smartphone-equality/
Am I the only one that was actually looking forward to a Sprint/T-mobile merger with Legere at the helm?
 
I applaud their move (as will most since as he says, most americans don't have great credit)... but the key is will this add the type of subscribers they want? We'll see. It didn't go well for Sprint back in 1999-2000 when they did the "no credit, no problem" promotion and took everyone and anyone. Time will tell I suppose. But then again, back then if you talked all day and all night, you'd have a $5,000 bill... today if you do the same thing your bill is going to be $50 still. In a world where cell phones have become less of a spend than most people spend in Starbucks, I suppose this makes sense... and with no overages, no international roaming charges, etc... there's really very little risk to TMO.

Ok, in one paragraph I went from opposition to support, haha. Thanks for joining me in my thought process, hehe
 
I love this guy.

One of the weirdest and punitive thing about U.S. credit system is, even if you are keeping your credit card payments on time, if for whatever reason your credit score drops, these credit card companies will increase the interest rate on those credit card payments, on the existing balances. This causes these people to pay more on interest which causes more financial hardship and they fall further behind which reduces the credit score even more and on and on.

I am glad T-Mobile dude is doing something about that by putting his relationship with his customers at a higher priority than whatever this customer may or may not have done with other aspects of their financial life.

Kudos! Hope it all works out for him and hopefully it will encourage others especially the banks to change the brain dead process they currently have.
 
I switched to T-Mobile a little over a year ago, and have not regretted it once. It just keeps getting better!
John Legere is an awesome CEO, pushing the whole industry in the right direction for the most part.
 
This is not a new idea but i am so glad some one is going to ahead with it. I agree with him. I just want him to stop the ETF buy outs so he can keep this train moving and not get the pinch from home office.
 
shenan1982 said:
I applaud their move (as will most since as he says, most americans don't have great credit)... but the key is will this add the type of subscribers they want? We'll see. It didn't go well for Sprint back in 1999-2000 when they did the "no credit, no problem" promotion and took everyone and anyone. Time will tell I suppose. But then again, back then if you talked all day and all night, you'd have a $5,000 bill... today if you do the same thing your bill is going to be $50 still. In a world where cell phones have become less of a spend than most people spend in Starbucks, I suppose this makes sense... and with no overages, no international roaming charges, etc... there's really very little risk to TMO.

Ok, in one paragraph I went from opposition to support, haha. Thanks for joining me in my thought process, hehe
Click to expand...


This is somewhat different. You must pay your bills on time for 12 month period. If you can prove this, then they will trust you with their incentives. They will still run credit against new customers though until they reach their 12 month.
 
MacRumors said:
T-Mobile aims to change that by "putting our relationship with you above some number pumped out by a credit bureau, some huge faceless bureaucracy."
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A bit melodramatic. They're still more than happy to trust those "huge faceless bureaucracies" when they're assessing new customers.
 
That's great, but what happens when half of these subscribers can't pay their mobile bills?? T-Mobile taking it on the chin like a champ. :eek:
 
Ray Brady said:
A bit melodramatic. They're still more than happy to trust those "huge faceless bureaucracies" when they're assessing new customers.
Click to expand...

As they should. It's the only tool they have to assess new customers. But they're not letting that be the end all and be all, which is great.

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Col4bin said:
That's great, but what happens when half of these subscribers can't pay their mobile bills?? T-Mobile taking it on the chin like a champ. :eek:
Click to expand...

They've looked at their own data and found that won't be the case.
 
Ray Brady said:
A bit melodramatic. They're still more than happy to trust those "huge faceless bureaucracies" when they're assessing new customers.
Click to expand...

Just anything to complain about huh? Honestly that's a big step up. Unfortunately with so many scammers and carrier jumpers who all owe money, this is something that should be expected. The hardware is given up front, so if you skip out on the bill then you are a liability. Creditworthiness to unfamiliar customers is important.
 
unplugme71 said:
This is somewhat different. You must pay your bills on time for 12 month period. If you can prove this, then they will trust you with their incentives. They will still run credit against new customers though until they reach their 12 month.
Click to expand...

This. Which just means "most" of the customers probably have good credit. This sounds nice, but doesn't really change anything. The problem with bad credit is getting a phone cheap initially.
 
Reminds me of the "good old days" prior to credit checks by faceless bureaucracies. To get a telephone (yes, a "land line") you either had to have previously had phone service in good standing or you had to make a security deposit for the equipment. After a year of on-time payments you got the deposit back. As long as you stayed with the same telco after a move you didn't have to make a deposit again.
 
This guy is so ****ing cool. Every time I see an interview with him, he knows exactly what he's talking about and is so different to other CEOs - with mannerisms, attitude, even clothing - but predominantly he seems to really appreciate the position of consumers, and what consumers want.
 
This is actually good news for Apple. This makes iPhones more affordable to those people that couldn't afford it.
 
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