[Discuss] T-Mobile pre-paid plans

[mark at buttery.org (Shirley Márquez Dúlcey)]

On 7/10/2012 3:39 PM, edwardp at linuxmail.org wrote:

> Actually, you're both correct.  When the due date is coming up, you can
> add as little as $10.00 to it and all of the minutes will be valid for
> an additional year, this is provided you have previously added at least
> $100 in refills to the account beforehand.

The detail that was wrong in the other post was that there is no need to 
bring the account back up to the $100 level to keep your status. In 
fact, you never have to have had a $100 balance at any given time, just 
spend at least $100 over time. Though if you like the service the 
easiest thing to do is just buy a $100 card and get it over with.

The other nice thing about T-Mobile is that if you have achieved gold 
status and have had your phone for a few months, they will give you the 
unlock code for it with no argument at all. It's handy if you're 
planning some international travel; using a SIM from the US is useful 
for emergencies if you're with a carrier that supports it, but if you 
plan to make any significant number of calls (or data use for a 
smartphone) it's WAY cheaper to buy a local prepaid SIM. (They are 
readily available in most parts of the world.) I guess T-Mobile is not 
worried that you'll take your phone so you can get a better deal with 
another US carrier because there aren't any better deals out there.