T-Mobile FlexPay Plan, FlexPay Billing, and FlexAccount FAQs

[darthyami]

I'm new to flex pay and i want to know if i sign with flex pay and want a sidekick3 then will i have to pay 400 even if i choose to go with a contract. Do i need to have credit to get a contract with flexpay?

[li2327]

I got the flex pay with no credit check on the month to month. And I have the flex plan.

[darthyami]

That did not answer much. so would i pay 400 for the phone if i chose the contract. Could i choose the contract even if i have no credit?

[kflan]

That did not answer much. so would i pay 400 for the phone if i chose the contract. Could i choose the contract even if i have no credit?

You would have to have your credit run to determine if you're eligible for a contract plan. It is possible for you to get a contract even if you don't have credit as the system checks EFUNDS (debit transactions) if there are no hits at the bureaus. If you are not eligible for a contract, you will have to pay full price for the phone. With a contract, you will be able to get a discount. If the dealer isn't going to give you a discount and you'll be on a 1 or 2 year contract, go to a different dealer. Make sure you check a corporate store as well if you're looking to sign up at an authorized dealer. Corporate stores give the same discount whether it's a regular account or flexpay. Some authorized dealers may not give the same amount of discount on flexpay as apparently they get a smaller commission on flexpay activations.

[darthyami]

Thank you that answered alot for me. So if i got the sidekick3 with a contract discount how much would it might be, 200? What would i have to pay at the store? I went to a bogus tmo store before so i know what to watch out for.

[OKRB20DET]

How do plans with FlexPay differ from prepaid accounts?

You get the flexibility of prepaid with the value of a rate plan.

what if you have t-mo internet add-on and you never use all of your minutes?
does that mean you can pretty much pay for one months service and not have to pay again for 3 months if you don't ever use your minutes? OR would you have to pay monthly for the added on features

lets say 39.99, 1000 minute plan
19.99 unlimited internet add on

and in 3 months i've only used 700 minutes

all i would have to pay for is the 19.99 internet? UNTIL my minutes are up, then pay full price over again

[kflan]

what if you have t-mo internet add-on and you never use all of your minutes?
does that mean you can pretty much pay for one months service and not have to pay again for 3 months if you don't ever use your minutes? OR would you have to pay monthly for the added on features

lets say 39.99, 1000 minute plan
19.99 unlimited internet add on

and in 3 months i've only used 700 minutes

all i would have to pay for is the 19.99 internet? UNTIL my minutes are up, then pay full price over again

That's 1000 minutes per month. If you don't use them all, they do NOT rollover (that's At&T that does that). If you're not using all of your minutes, drop down to a lower minute plan.

[OKRB20DET]

then its not the flexibilty of prepaid , with a rate plan....like they state.

[B'ichela]

Sorry about the lenghth of this post, I am just happy that things went well with my Flexpay setup
Thought I would let you know that I moved one of my Alltel lines to T-mobile's Flexpay. No problems with setup other than a few small mites.

I activated my Flexpay at my aparment and called Customer Service and activated my phone. I chose the 1000 minute plan with Free Night and Weekends and set up for Easypay. My Alltel number was ported by 9AMl, I had set it up at 2AM btw on Monday. Things are working OK but now the mites....

Because of my desire to check to see if I was eligible for Postpay, I did a credit check, I inadvertently selected to go with a Flexpay with a 1yr contract, not really what I wanted, more on that later . The activations man told me that he appoligized and that maybe I can get it switched to a month to month arrangement. Turned out to be more of a hassle than keeping the 1yr contract. as it meant canceling the line, and losing the number I just ported. Not an option, I kept it as the 1yr flexpay, may even help my credit as I will be paying on time every month with easypay.

The second mite is more of an issue using http://my-t-mobile.com from my computer. it sent my tempoary password to my phone, but it does not seem to want to let me log in. Tech support checked into it and found they had problems with their systems. Hopefully soon it should be fixed and working.

What I like about the T-mobile service is that it has better call quality than Alltel CDMA. (I still have Alltel for my Nokia 3585I phone btw.) I also like the way I can easily check my remaining anytime miutes by punching #min# <send> on my phone to get how many anytime minutes used. Unlike Alltel, its reports are accurate and in a good easily understood format.

Yes you have #999# like on T-mobile ToGo which shows your flexaccount balance and #bal# which shows you your last payment and current balance. Not sure if thats going to be very often used by me as I set up easypay.

Since I don't SMS and Web on the phone, I have a Machintosh for that on Broadband. I did not order that stuff. my first flexpay charge was only $55.32! Thats a bit cheaper than my Alltel Family Share play with My Circle. (my phone was not MyFaves compatible and I didn't want to risk getting into a quagmire with T-mobile over that)

If anyone wants to do an activation for Flexpay over the phone, you don't need to fax anytinjg. Just give your State Drivers License number, Social Security number and billing address and you should be all set to go. You may want to Enforce month flexpay upfront by telling the activations person to do so. I didn't as I was also trying to see if I was eligible for postpaid, I did a credit check as well, thats how the plan got activated with a 1year contract. Of course you need a unactivated SIM card and a GSM compatible phone with 1900MHZ, Unlocked unless you are getting a T-mobile branded phone. Just grab a T-mobile ToGo kit at Walmart and activate it as flexpay! Thats cool with T-mobile as well.

Sorry about the long post but I am glad I finally got the Flexpay working and it works very well for me.

Lastly, you need to call from a different phone than the one you are activating (DUH!) , it helps to have the SIM serial number and the phone's IMEI ready to give the CSR beforehand. it sames both of you time. I had my new SIM in the phone and turned off until told to turn it on. Worked right off the bat!

Oh yes, the late night activation also did not result in me waiting in line. I got serviced right away.

[mikeg2k]

Does this attachment make sense to anyone?????? Its from my online account.

[WolfCamera]

So did I read correctly that handset pricing at corporate store is the same for FlexPay as Post-plans as long as the customer is doing a 2-year contract?

[kflan]

So did I read correctly that handset pricing at corporate store is the same for FlexPay as Post-plans as long as the customer is doing a 2-year contract?

That is correct, but it's the same for 1 year contracts as well. Pricing at authorized dealers MAY be different between flexpay pricing and regular postpaid (varies from dealer to dealer).

[wralford]

But the entire point and advantage of FlexPay is to avoid a contract by paying full retail for a phone. You will skip two years of threats of EFTs and be month-to-month from the get-go.

[mikeg2k]

But the entire point and advantage of FlexPay is to avoid a contract by paying full retail for a phone. You will skip two years of threats of EFTs and be month-to-month from the get-go.

Thats the question I wanted to ask too. If you sign up for a contract in a flexpay account then how does it become any different than the post pay account?

[kflan]

Thats the question I wanted to ask too. If you sign up for a contract in a flexpay account then how does it become any different than the post pay account?

You don't have overages. If you run out of whenever minutes, you can only make daytime calls if you have money in your flex account (20 cents per minute). No international dialing or roaming (except to Canada and Mexico). You know what your monthly charge is going to be every month. It will only change if the taxes in your area change (or you change features or price plan of course).