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Have an old phone with the grandfathered T-Mobile legacy prepaid plan and have some questions for those really into cell phone plans.
If I were to buy a $30 pay as you go T-Mobile refill card, how many minutes (both regular and gold) would that get me on the grandfathered legacy pay as you go plan? I only see $10, $25, $50 and $100 refill amounts and minutes on T-Mobile's website, but I have seen the $30 refill at big box stores.
If I were to buy a new $30 refill card, could I use it to activate a brand new Samsung t199 phonethat works on pay as you go plans? If I understand the new pay as you go plan, the minimum charge is $3 per month, so would a $30 refill card pay for 10 months of service (assuming I use under 30 minutes each month), or just minutes beyond what's included in the base charge of $3 per month?
I have a $210 gift card to a big box office supply store. If I use the gift card to buy (7) $30 refill cards vs (2) $100 refill cards and (1) $10 card, will the total number of minutes received be the same on the grandfathered legacy plan?
After activation at the cash register, is there a certain amount of time that I must scratch off and redeem the refill cards?
IMO the best way to use T-Mobile prepaid is pay $100 to start with plus tax and you get 1000 minutes and as long as you renew before it expires, you roll over your unused minutes, so then you could use any other card to refill it.
How long are my T-Mobile prepaid minutes available?
A: With T-Mobile prepaid, you can choose from monthly or Prepaid - Pay As You Go plans. When you select a monthly plan, your plan features are available for 30 days.
For the Prepaid - Pay As You Go plan, access to prepaid service is available for 90 days from the date you applied a $10, $25, or $50 refill for non-Gold Rewards customers.
If you applied a $100 refill or have already reached Gold Rewards status, service is available for one year from the date you last applied a refill.
To help ensure that you never lose service unexpectedly, T-Mobile will send you a text message when you have less than 5 days of access remaining. That way, you'll have plenty of time to refill and carry forward any unused minutes.
The $30 card is actually meant for the 1500 minute and 5GB+100 minute monthly plans, but I'd imagine if you apply one to your PAYGo plan, it would give you 20% more minutes than the $25 card (in other words, the same cost per minute as the $25 card, just $5 worth more minutes). The next per-minute price break would then come at $50. I'm guessing here, but it makes the most sense.
But I do agree with the above poster--unless you're super short on cash, definitely refill at the $100 rate whenever you run low on minutes. (However, if you have a surplus of minutes but are running out of days, then a $10 refill is all you need.)
If you are legacy, a $10 card is good for 90 days. Calls break out at .33 a minute.
If you switch to new plan, you can't go back to legacy plan.
New plan is minimum $3.00 a month for 30 minutes. So cost is .10 a minute. But you must have a balance to draw from each month. So you must deposit a 'recharge card' to maintain a balance. Any card amount you choose. If you start with a $30 card, it would be good for 10 months [zero talk minutes used]. If you talked for 1 hour a month, the $30 card would last 5 months. If you talk 2 hours a month, the $30 would last 2.5 months.
I have pay as u go 10 cents per min good for 90 days. IF you paid enough even in $10 incriments once you reach $100 you will receive bonus min & unused mins then last 1 yr. Course the phone used in this way will Not have internet access... tho some phone work with wifi which then you will have Internet but only when on wifi.
There are many plans for T-Mobile I suggest a call to T-Mobile they can thru the phone number which plan you are on.
Thank you for all your responses. I ended up purchasing seven $30 T-Mobile refill cards and I want to use them wisely.
Based on your responses, I am going to keep my legacy plan and give these gift cards to a family member who has never owned a cell phone before but does surf the internet, use email, etc on a regular desktop computer. He's not the chatty social butterfly type but I think it would be good for him to have a basic cell phone for emergencies.
I recently bought a Samsung T199 basic phone that would seem to work well with the $3/month for 30 minutes plan. It's not a smartphone and was wondering if "smartphones" are easy to use for new cell phone users. Is it easy to type on them and "surf the net."? The ability to look something up on the internet maybe twice a month when out and about would be a bonus, but not a necessity, especially if complicated/difficult to do.
I read that prepaid phone cards have to be redeemed 90 days after purchase, so in the next two months I need to apply all seven of these $30 refill cards to a phone. If I apply it to the Samsung T-199 phone on the $3 month plan (which I assume would get my family member 70 months of service at $3 per month so long as he uses under 30 minutes per month), is that phone's sim card transferable to other phones in case the phone breaks or he wants to upgrade in the future?
Read post # 4 again. Legacy plan cards can only be used with a legacy plan with the phone # assigned. Legacy plan is not available to new subscribers. The extra $30 cards would have to be used with a new T-Mobile plan where the $30 would go in an account. $3 a month would be withdrawn for 30 minutes.[whether you use it or not]
If you are legacy, a $10 card is good for 90 days. Calls break out at .33 a minute.
If you switch to new plan, you can't go back to legacy plan.
New plan is minimum $3.00 a month for 30 minutes. So cost is .10 a minute. But you must have a balance to draw from each month. So you must deposit a 'recharge card' to maintain a balance. Any card amount you choose. If you start with a $30 card, it would be good for 10 months [zero talk minutes used]. If you talked for 1 hour a month, the $30 card would last 5 months. If you talk 2 hours a month, the $30 would last 2.5 months.
Thanks for the explanation (it makes perfect sense), however I read a long thread on another forum and on the T-Mobile support website and I am still confused as to whether you need to "top up" a $3 per month pay as you go plan every 90 days even if you have a $57 balance? I have around $200 worth of refill cards I want to add to a new phone/$3 month pay as you go plan I activated recently and don't want a $200 balance to "expire" because I didn't add anything every 90 days. I hope if I have $200 in my account that the account will last 5 years even if I don't use any minutes. Is this correct?
So far, I have entered two $30 refill cards to my new phone and when I enter #999#, it says my balance is $57, which makes sense. However, when I go to the "My Account" section on the telephone it says my balance is $27 and to use by May something? Which is it?
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