T-Mobile’s Limited Time Promotion: 4 Lines for $120!

If you haven’t come across this news yet, T-Mobile has outdone itself by launching a new Magenta Friday promotion.  This is a limited time 3-day promotion which starts TODAY, November 18th.  According to the promotion details:

“Starting this Friday, November 18^th through Sunday November 20^th – for three days only, a family of four can get two lines FREE at T-Mobile.”

The T-Mobile ONE plan costs $70/month for the 1st line, and $50/month for the 2nd line.  With the 3rd and 4th phone free, this comes down to $120/month (plus taxes & fees) for 4 lines of unlimited talk, text, and data. It’s going to be hard for other carriers to beat this promotion with an average cost of $30 per line.

This is a great family plan deal especially if you live in an area with good T-Mobile coverage, and you are not on a grandfathered plan that offers you a better value somehow.  According to the promo details, this offer extends to new and existing customers including those on the Simple Choice plans.

Perfect Timing

The timing is impeccable.  Just last week, I wrote this post summarizing why I finally decided it’s time to move on from Sprint. I had since contacted Sprint to see what other options they have for existing customers. The best plan that is available to me (since I want unlimited data) is to switch to Sprint’s “Unlimited Freedom Plan” at a price of $190/month for 5 lines.  While it is slightly cheaper than my current “grandfathered” plan, the T-Mobile’s promotion still has it beat.

I am ready to move into a GSM network, and I am also looking for some cost savings now that 2-year contracts* are no longer available at Sprint.  Presumably, I would be able to get 5 lines at T-Mobile for $140 with this promotional offer which offers considerable savings over the long term.

Getting New Phones in order to Switch

Unfortunately, our Sprint iPhone 6 phones are not  domestic sim unlock (DSU) capable, because the phone came out before the February 2015  deadline that would require carriers to launch DSU-capable phones.  I’ve gone down this road with Sprint before.  While I generally love my service with Sprint, I’m miffed that Sprint built their phone in such a way that I can’t take my phone to any other carrier once my phone is fully paid for.

What this means is that I will need to get new phones to switch over to T-Mobile.  My existing phones on Sprint – since it operates on the CDMA network – isn’t compatible with T-Mobile.  If you are on the same boat, you will need to weigh the benefits of the plan with the cost of buying new phones.  Generally speaking, the cost savings from the plan will help offset the purchase of the new phones over the long term.

Possible Stacking?

As of this post, I am not aware of iPhone 7 deals for T-Mobile for Black Friday, even though there are iPhone deals for other carriers.  The timing of this promotion is a bit tricky, since the promotional period does NOT overlap with the some of the Black Friday deals.

For example, in the same ad,  T-Mobile listed an Black Friday offer:

Upgrade them to a FREE Samsung Galaxy S7 after 24 monthly bill credits when you trade in a Galaxy S6, Galaxy Note 5 or other device with T-Mobile ONE or Simple Choice Unlimited.Black Friday trade-in offer on Samsung phones for 24-months credit.

Since we have a Samsung user in our family plan, I will likely stagger the switch to T-Mobile to take advantage of the 4 lines for $120 promotion first. Then, during the Black Friday promotion, I’ll switch the remaining line to stack with the Samsung trade-in promotion.  The cost savings from this promotion might just be the push I needed to switch back to T-Mobile.

If you see other T-Mobile promotions in the next few days that’s stackable, please share below.

Monitoring Deals

I think this T-Mobile promotion is a solid contender if you are in the market for new family plan, or a competitively priced one.  I hope that other carriers will match this offer.  After all, when T-Mobile came out with the trade-in offer for the iPhone 7, all the major carriers matched.  That said, I just can’t realistically see Verizon and AT&T dropping their plan pricing any time soon.

If Sprint matches, it would make me a very happy camper as well.  I would be able to realize some cost savings and postpone the purchase of new devices.  Either way, it will be interesting to see what kind of deals unfold in next few days. It’s always good to have competition, especially if it means more choices for the consumers.

It’s funny how the tagline of this promotion is “Black Friday, You’re on Notice”.  I’ve already given notice to my family that we might change carriers this weekend.  Thanks for kicking off the ball, T-Mobile.  I still want to see what else is on the field, but I think we’re ready to play.

*  “Technically”, 2 year contracts are available per the Sprint representative.  The caveat is that $25 will get added to the bill for each phone that is under contract.