Yeah, although IME they keep messing with grandfathered plans. I don’t even know what mine is called anymore since they’ve changed it so many times. All that matters to me is that they don’t ever take away our free upgrades. We haven’t had to pay for our phones in like a decade and I have no idea how it’s profitable for them to keep buying them for us given that the cost of my lines are less than what they’re paying for our phones
Tell me more lol
I only see trade in credits, but free upgrades only with switching from grandfathered to their top plans.
Even with SIM protection, there were people still having issues. Weak point at T-Mobile was lower paid employees from what I heard.
They just give me $1,000 per line every 2 years for the $40/mo unlimited lines (not the random promotional ones that you can pick up every so often that effectively become free). My lines are all inclusive of tax and fees and come with all their random freebies (Netflix, Hulu, etc), so I pay $960 in bills and receive a $1,000 iPhone every 2 years. Financially I’m not sure how it makes sense for them but it’s been great for me
What plan do you have? I’m on the old One and haven’t got free phones since ~COVID.
Looks like it’s called Go 5G Plus. Before that, Magenta Max, I think. Before that, I can’t remember. I’m actually due to upgrade a bunch of our phones but I think I’m gonna wait til the new iPhones release in September.
They try baiting me into account/plan changes all the time (change to this better plan for FREE!) but I know they’re just looking to break me out of the existing agreement so they can price hike me. Plus, I’ve got like 10 family members and friends so I prefer to keep it simple.
I’m actually on an even older One plan and whenever I looked into switching those plans used to be more expensive. Moved a few lines to Spectrum for a free first year, will have to decide how to proceed because Customer Service is equally horrible at both and get no free phones at either. Get free Hulu that I don’t really care about and whopping $6.99/mo towards Netflix.
I recall being on a One plan or something after I initially switched from AT&T in like 2013-2014ish. I’ve never understood the logic for automatic plan changes over the years. The only time I exercised a change is when they’d introduced that very initial “forever upgrade” promo and since then have just sat quietly. I imagine that may be why we are on different tracks. I wanna say I did that right around 2020. I believe they reprised it later in like 2021 with a reduced $800 credit and I remember feeling glad I made the change when I did
Similar to what I have now is $35 + taxes/fees more, when before it was all included. And no more grandfathering - they give 5 years price guarantee instead.
Ha.. I remember with Verizon I was grandfathered in with one of the first unlimited data plans they had, and it was quite cheap compared to the newer plans. If I “upgraded” my phone I would’ve been forced to transition to a new plan..so I paid for my phones in full (outside of Verizon). That went on for several years. Eventually they stopped that loophole as well. Grandfathering became completey dead and I got to pay a million dollars for the phone plan like everyone else. 
Unfortunately that’s about as good as it gets these days so long as you qualify. Just keep your eyes peeled and perhaps one day they’ll bring back a good long-term upgrade promo. Chances are you won’t be able to do it on your particular plan though. I don’t think they ever previously offered it for the plan you’re on now so you’d probs have to switch to a standard plan if the day ever comes
Just for fun I have my USMobile (Verizon) on my phone as well as RedPocket $30 plan (ATT) and keep an eye on the bars.
So far 90% of the places I go to has better Verizon and one place I went to yesterday had no signal on both services.
So I guess I’[ll keep USMobile pointed to Verizon for now (They support all 3 carriers and can switch twice a month)
Got tired of Verizon never having service where I live in Southeastern PA, so signed up for T-mobile and AT&T free trials. Both add esims to your current phone and you can switch between them. Ran about 50+ speed tests over the course of a few days in the places I frequent where VZ service was bad. Glad I discovered this was possible, I almost blindly switched to AT&T which wasn’t much better than VZ. We switched to T-mobile yesterday.
Just switched to Visible+ $30/mo from Spectrum Mobile $40/mo…seamless and quick porting 5 minutes or so. Needed a Porting PIN from old carrier-easily found in the account online. Will be saving about $10/mo and service should be slightly better as priority to Visible on the VZ network vs Spectrum on the plan that I had…iPhone 17 Pro Max
Last day 3/31/26 of their current promo for $5 Off for 60 months and it can not be combined with any other offers (Referral $20 or the iPhone 17e $600 back in credits etc. but need to be on the Visible+ Pro $45/mo plan to get the essentially FREE phone)
Where do you see the “essentially free phone” plan or option? Looks like you always have to pay out of pocket or bring your own phone ?
Yes-you buy the phone and then they apply $25/mo in bill credits for 24 months…so “essentially free” but that offer was for March, don’t know if April is the same…
Ahh thanks for clarifying.
They have the Samsung Galaxy S26 offer now $20/mo in credits for 24 months so $480 total back
Anyone tried https://heliummobile.com/
Was wondering how it is? There is a free line, just pay taxes on it.