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Carrier Thinking of switching from Verizon to T-Mobile
- Thread starter lelex
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Yes you can. T-mobile will cover up to $350 in ETF's, which is what Verizon will charge you if you just renewed your contract. However, you would have to trade in your "device" and purchase a new one from T-mobile.
As per T-Mobile:
"You would need to trade-in a mobile phone or tablet and purchase a new device with T-Mobile on a qualifying postpaid Simple Choice plan (you would not be able to sign up for a T-Mobile prepaid or Simple Choice Family Plan with no credit check). All lines must be activated in the same T-Mobile market with the same billing address."
http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/switch-carriers-no-early-termination-fee.html
Per Verizon's Customer Agreement:
"If you cancel a line of Service, or if we cancel it for good cause, during its contract term, you'll have to pay an early termination fee. If your contract term results from your purchase of an advanced device, your early termination fee will be $350 minus $10 for each full month of your contract term that you complete."
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Just make sure you have decent coverage on tmobile before your switch. I am lucky enough not to have any problems where I live but heard of other cities can be bad.
So if I go to a t-mobile store tomorrow and say that I'd like to move to their service from Verizon, I would then have to pay them a fee of $350 to end up my contract with Verizon?
Idk i think the coverage is pretty decent. My sister and her husband are with tmobile and they haven't any problems so far where they live and in my area.
No, you go to the store with an old phone (any phone is fine) and say you want to switch to tmobile. You buy a new phone, trade in the old one, they port your number, then Verizon will send you a bill. You submit the bill to tmobile and they send you the ETF amount on a visa gift card. You'll likely have to pay the Verizon bill before you receive the gift card though.
Pretty vague comment. TMobile has great coverage where I live, in Chicago.
http://opensignal.com/
And BTW, I'm in same boat. No contract with my 5 and Verizon, unlimited data, but the bill is so high, and they are no throttling their data. Ill head to TMobile store today and Sprint to see what they offer.
so what do I do with that visa gift card with the EFT amount on it? I hope I don't have to end up paying the $350.
Verizon = best coverage.
T-Mobile = hit or miss. But mainly miss
Good luck, as you are going to need it. T-Mobile sux in the area's I have been in from home, work, everywhere I went. Has to cancel within my grace period and I didn't have to pay for any data as I was unable to use it. Customer service rep checked my account because they didn't believe me, low and behold, had almost data used on my account.
That is how bad the service/signal is.
Granted, this was 2 years ago, so may be things have changed, but it is not worth me revisiting or being the beta tester again.
T-Mobile = hit or miss. But mainly miss
Good luck, as you are going to need it. T-Mobile sux in the area's I have been in from home, work, everywhere I went. Has to cancel within my grace period and I didn't have to pay for any data as I was unable to use it. Customer service rep checked my account because they didn't believe me, low and behold, had almost data used on my account.
That is how bad the service/signal is.
Granted, this was 2 years ago, so may be things have changed, but it is not worth me revisiting or being the beta tester again.
I have a friend who recently switched from Verizon to T-Mobile. I asked him how coverage was and he said that it was NOT comparable to Verizon's but that his bill is slightly cheaper now.
You get what you pay for my friend so choose wisely.
I've never had T-Mobile but I used to be a Sprint costumer as well as AT&T and they both were/are absolutely horrible in comparison to Verizon's service.
You get what you pay for my friend so choose wisely.
I've never had T-Mobile but I used to be a Sprint costumer as well as AT&T and they both were/are absolutely horrible in comparison to Verizon's service.
You can use it like any other debit card.
T-Mobile will not pay the Verizon ETF for you directly. Instead, you pay it first, submit the bill to T-Mobile, and then T-Mobile will issue you a reimbursement. So yes, you will be out $350 for a month or 6 weeks until the visa gift card comes.
We use T-Mobile. The network is clearly worse in terms of signal strength compared to AT&T and Verizon, but the data speeds are clearly faster when I do have service, which is 95% of the time still. God help you if you go somewhere rural though.
The bill is about 30-40% cheaper than AT&T was, and we're getting unlimited data on some lines instead of sharing 2GB across all devices, so that's nice.
I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile a few weeks ago. So far, so good. Just use their coverage maps to ensure that the areas you will be in the majority of the time have good coverage. My neighborhood and office show the highest speed coverage colors and that has proven to be correct from my testing. I like many of their policies/packages much better than AT&T (like unlimited data for the $50 plan without any overage charges and mobile hotspot included).
So far, so good with me. Want to refer somebody onto the service soon so I get unlimited LTE data for a year (along with that person).
So far, so good with me. Want to refer somebody onto the service soon so I get unlimited LTE data for a year (along with that person).
Also, keep in mind that the ETF is not necessarily $350, it depends on where you are in your contract. You can always call Verizon and ask what your ETF would be but there's a calculation, something like 350-$10/per month you have left on contract after an initial period. But yes, you can use the gift card anywhere that accept visa.
The way I understand it, T-Mobile will pay up to $650 per line ($300 depending on value of phone + $350 for ETF).
To use an example, if your phone was worth $100 (you can check on T-Mobile's website) and you had $150 left (ETF) on your contract, T-Mobile will give you $100 credit towards your bill for the value of your phone while sending you a $150 pre-paid card for your ETF.
So you would pay your ETF out-of-pocket, then receive the same amount back in the form of a pre-paid card later.
I'm also going through this process so I'll update if anything is different from what I posted.
To use an example, if your phone was worth $100 (you can check on T-Mobile's website) and you had $150 left (ETF) on your contract, T-Mobile will give you $100 credit towards your bill for the value of your phone while sending you a $150 pre-paid card for your ETF.
So you would pay your ETF out-of-pocket, then receive the same amount back in the form of a pre-paid card later.
I'm also going through this process so I'll update if anything is different from what I posted.
Awesome website! Thanks! T-Mobile is third in coverage in the Bay Area but it's very similar to AT&T for me so I should have no problem at all when I switch!
T-Mobile Trade-ins
I'm thinking of keeping my unlocked iPhone 5 from Verizon when I switch to T-Mobile. Will they take my old iPhone 3G from AT&T? Even though it isn't Verizon? Or should I track down a Verizon flip phone to trade in? I obviously don't care about getting money back from the phone, just about getting the ETF reimbursement.
I'm thinking of keeping my unlocked iPhone 5 from Verizon when I switch to T-Mobile. Will they take my old iPhone 3G from AT&T? Even though it isn't Verizon? Or should I track down a Verizon flip phone to trade in? I obviously don't care about getting money back from the phone, just about getting the ETF reimbursement.