Question

Expiration date bug for Legacy Pay As You Go?

  • 24 December 2021
  • 45 replies
  • 6701 views
O
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I’ve had a back-up T-Mobile Legacy Pay As You Go with Gold Rewards account for more than a decade.

Early this year, in 3rd week of January 2021, I refilled another $10.  After refilling, I saw the expiration date extended to 2022 for the same date in 3rd week of January as expected.

It looks like T-Mobile had a system/software change during the past year as the UI looks different, e.g., no longer shows how many minutes/SMSes the balance would cover.

Whether or not due to that system/software change/migration, I am guessing there’s a bug somewhere as my expiration date got shortened by 2 weeks.  From Transaction and Activity history, it looks like that happened either mid-August or early October 2021.

  1. Anybody else noticed the same expiration date being shortened?
  1. Was there a system change/upgrade that T-Mobile did during 2021 that you’re aware of?
  1. How do I contact T-Mobile Chat Support to get this fixed?  A few days ago, I saw a way to do so through lower-right corner but don’t see it today.
  1. I’m also curious how many Legacy Pay As You Go users are still around?

Thanks for any reply and help in advance and Happy Holidays!

45 replies

V

UPDATE 3/14/22 (A very discouraging development):

Almost 3 months since I added funds to my 2 legacy gold accounts.  I now can’t even get the expiration date info on these accounts from the t-mo website.  i keep getting this “F451 Service Unavailable error … try again later”message when I try to go to the page that used to show the remaining minutes and expiry dates (I’m still able to logon and it shows both lines still active).  This error has persisted for about 3 weeks now.  I’ve tried using different browsers (firefox, edge, ie, savana) like one forum suggested but none worked.  I’ve also  tried disabling ad/tracer blocking,but still doesn’t work. My incorrectly shorten (3 months instead of a full year) expiry dates are coming up and i can’t even tell if they’ve fixed the expiry date problem or my accounts will expire soon (like in a couple of weeks).

I don’t think this is a coincidence.  I think this is t-mo’s deliberate attempt to get rid of legacy gold account holders or at least make it very inconvenient for them to keep their accounts.  Customer Service Reps may be oblivious to this, but they probably know about this at the higher up.

O

vkwong, same here, F451, etc.  Their site has been so often inaccessible for long periods in the years of my legacy account that their deliberate sabotage, as opposed to amazing ineptness, does seem a reasonable guess even though I generally suppose the latter. I never got the claimed call back or correction for the web site in 72 hours from  their Customer “Support” last week.  However, the employee did tell me that, from the cell phone, I can get the expiration date using #225#  via its keypad.  That did work and it showed the correct Feb 2022 expiration date for that phone, as shown via my PC  at their site when it was last working in Feb.  A pain in general and much less helpful for the phone on my account that my brother has, but it is something.  

O

Correction    expiration 2023, of course. 

O

Update.  Although I never got any message from Customer Service in 72 hours as promised, or any other time, I have tried  their site every other day or so and now, 2 weeks after my call, I did get to the account with the 2 legacy gold phones today and I was able to add $15 for one and got an expiration date of 3-23-23.   I now had to log out and log back in to get from one phone’s info to the other, but that’s not terrible as long as it stays usable.    

V

(UPDATE: 3-31-22)  Things are ok now.  Just added $10 each ($11.20 w/ tax) to my 2 legacy gold accounts and the expiry dates correctly show a year away (March 2023).  #225# works, but to my surprise, even their website is working again.  I.e. I no longer get the “F451 Service Unavailable error … try again later” message. I can actually to go to the page that show the remaining minutes and expiry dates

All is good for now.  Let’s hope they don’t screw things up again later.

G

Hello I have a legacy pay as u go T Mobile and topped up 04/16/ 2022 for  $30 and it shows the balance expiration date as 07/13/2022 so only in 3 months when in the past its always been balance expiration in a year. Anyone know how to solve this as tried calling and have been un successful in getting through? is there no e mail or chat you can contact them on?

M

Mine is happy now. I waited until it was closer to the early expire date to try adding the smallest amount. Selecting $1.00 to add (used to be $10 minimum of course) did work. Note that it is actually $3.50 due to tax/fees. But the main thing is that my expiration did extend a full year. So if you don’t really need to add more dollars/minutes then it seems to just require $3.50 each year to keep it running.

P

I just added $10 to my $112 balance on my Legacy Pay As You Go Plan, that was expiring in 1 day. And, the entire plan was extended by 1 year, as it should be.

H
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I too have had a Pay As You Go legacy plan now for I figure at least 15 years. It’s a back up phone I only use rarely but for 10 bucks a year it’s nice to have.

I paid my 10 bucks back in Feb. and it actually has the correct 1 year expiration date, I wasn’t aware of an issue with the dates until I read this thread.

I came here looking for info on changing my phone. I have an old (really old) Samsung E105 flip phone and I suspect with the shutdown of 3G it’s going to stop working very soon and I’ll be forced to get a new one. My question is if i do get a new phone will i lose my Pay As You Go plan?

I don’t want to become a monthly prepaid user: I already have that set up with another carrier. Ten, 20 even 25 bucks for an entire year however is fine and well worth it.

I’m just afraid if I try to activate another phone T-Mo will have an excuse to eliminate my Pay As You Go and I’ll be stuck with a phone I don’t want.

 

I should also add that the SIM card in the E105 is too large to fit into the newer phones. I discovered that when I upgraded a 2013 Samsung A3 to a new moto e (my US Cellular prepaid)

In that case I had to call CS and they were terrific setting it up and they let me stay on my current lower cost monthly plan.

M

“My question is if i do get a new phone will i lose my Pay As You Go plan?”

You should be able to keep your legacy plan. It was years back when I had to get a new SIM to get the smaller size options. It was (still is I hope) the case that you could contact T-mobile and have them switch you plan to the new SIM without issue. It does not matter how many times you swap that SIM to a new phone, the SIM is the thing that has the IMEI.

 

P

“I too have had a Pay As You Go legacy plan now for I figure at least 15 years. It’s a back up phone I only use rarely but for 10 bucks a year it’s nice to have.”

 

I agree with magenta9868641, above. I recently went from a bar phone (don’t laugh. LOL) to a flip phone and needed a smaller SIM card. I tried cutting the larger SIM card down as others have done, but it didn’t work for me. So, I ordered a new SIM from T-Mobile which works great. When I added $10 to my account to, the minutes were updated to another year.

As magenta9868641 wrote, “It does not matter how many times you swap that SIM to a new phone, the SIM is the thing that has the IMEI.”.

 

H
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Thank you both for the swift replies. I tried calling CS but didn’t feel like sitting on the phone for an hour so I hung up.

I just bought a Nokia 225 4G bar phone pretty cheap that I checked with the T-Mo website “Bring You Own”  IMEI STATUS CHECK and got these three messages:

*This device is fully compatible with T-Mobile’s network technology.

*This device is not blocked from use on our network.

*Your phone uses a physical SIM card to hold wireless account information.

 

Obviously the SIM in my old Samsung is HUGE and is not going to fit into the new phone.

But I confess I’m confused by what you mean by the SIM having the IMEI.

I understand the IMEI is tied to the SIM yes, but  If I have to buy a new SIM card from T-Mo, (which I am sure I’ll have to) how will my Pay As You Go continue with this new phone? Isn’t the Pay As You Go plan tied to that old, huge SIM?

 

Thanks again for your help 😀

 

 

P

hellokitty04, you are correct. about the IMEI number, it’s tied to the device and is actually the device serial number. However, your SIM card has a Serial Number, also. This Serial Number and your cell phone number are tied to your Pay-As-You-Go account. Call T-Mobile and order a new SIM card for your phone number. They’ll send you a card preprogramed with your phone number. This SIM card will have its own Serial Number (the Serial Number is on the back of the card you will receive). Your new SIM Card says to go to t-mobile.com/SIM for setup instructions. I’ve attached an image of the card I received with my new SIM Card. As you can see in the image, there are three different sizes you can use. I needed the smallest size, so I just pushed/punched out that size from the card. The Serial Number is on the back of this card. So, again, call T-Mobile and order a new SIM card for your phone number. They’ll send you a card preprogramed with your phone number. I hope all this helps?

 

H
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Hi Peter,

Ok I understand it now. Thanks for your help. I’ve learned more from you than the t-mo website.

 I found that there’s a T-Mo store just a few miles from me and i just called them. Spoke a a really nice young man who said they could swap out the SIM card for me no problem and not to worry, I can stay on my Pay As You Go. He said “don’t worry, we won’t take your plan away from you” LOL

I explained that I’ve had this plan for many, many years and keep this as a back up emergency phone and the new one I just bought is a cheap Nokia.

He told me to wait until I get the new phone and bring it in along with my old Samsung with the huge SIM and they will take care of it in the store.

If the carriers weren’t dropping 3G I’d still keep this old Samsung. It’s a rugged flip phone, built like a tank LOL

Thank you again Peter for your excellent advice. I will update next week after i get the new phone and visit the T-Mo store.

H
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Just want to follow up on my experience changing phones.

Yesterday my new, cheap Nokia bar phone arrived from ebay. I took it along with my current phone to the T-Mo store here in town.

After explaining the situation (of course the man I spoke to last week wasn’t there lol) a nice woman tried to do the SIM swap but for some odd reason there was an issue with my zip code. Why, I don’t know, maybe because I don’t have a billing address and only use refill cards.

Anyways, they had to call the store manager, He was at another store and said he would drive over and do the SIM swap himself.After he arrived the whole swap only took about 5 to 10 minutes.

I’m very happy with my new, cheap phone and I am indeed still on the Pay As You Go plan. Checked my expiration date which is Feb. 2023.

 

So a huge thank you Peter, magenta and the T-Mo employees at my local store. 👍

P

Just want to follow up on my experience changing phones.

Yesterday my new, cheap Nokia bar phone arrived from ebay. I took it along with my current phone to the T-Mo store here in town.

After explaining the situation (of course the man I spoke to last week wasn’t there lol) a nice woman tried to do the SIM swap but for some odd reason there was an issue with my zip code. Why, I don’t know, maybe because I don’t have a billing address and only use refill cards.

Anyways, they had to call the store manager, He was at another store and said he would drive over and do the SIM swap himself.After he arrived the whole swap only took about 5 to 10 minutes.

I’m very happy with my new, cheap phone and I am indeed still on the Pay As You Go plan. Checked my expiration date which is Feb. 2023.

 

So a huge thank you Peter, magenta and the T-Mo employees at my local store. 👍

Thank you for the update, Ms. Kitty! 😉 Glad everything worked out for you! -Peter

1

Hi, are folks still having trouble with the expiration on the Legacy Pay As You Go Gold Rewards plan? I refilled $100 on Jan 2, 2023 and the balance expiration date shows April 20, 2023 when it should be one-year later. I live mostly abroad and am trying to avoid having to call customer care to resolve this…

Thanks in advance for any tips you can offer.

H
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Hello Hiccup

I think you will have no choice but to call customer care…..I know, I know…...I dread it as well.

After finally getting set up with my new phone last June I started to see my PAYG balance going down EVERY DAY and get this: the phone is shut OFF

My balance dropped fast, and customer care added 10 bucks back to my account -twice but the problem persists even after they sent a new SIM card. It seems the phone is actually sending messages to NO ONE and  I’m getting charged 10 cents every time, sometimes as much as 10 times a day!

After many phone calls to CC, trying to explain what the phone is doing and getting nowhere I finally got the right person who was able to send a “work” ticket to the tech dept. Let’s just say the messages have slowed to maybe one every other day even though  it hasn’t stopped. Every couple of months I add a 10 dollar refill just to be sure.

One of the reps asked if I wanted to convert my PAYG to their new ten dollar a month prepaid plan I almost said yes but then thought the better of it. Ten bucks isn’t bad if it’s your main phone but I’d rather pay 10 bucks every few months. I know once you change plans you can never go back lol

 I just added 10 dollars March 1st and it now says my  balance expires Feb 29, 2024.

As I said, I think you have no option other than calling and explain the situation. Hopefully you get a rep who helps the first time and you won’t  have to make multiple calls. You certainly don’t want to lose this plan.

Please give us an update and good luck

 

1

Many thanks @hellokitty04! I ended up calling customer service and spent 45+min on hold and then another half an hour getting the situation resolved. It looks like they were able to correct it in the new system and my balance expiry is in 2024 now. 

Like you, I also get charged 10c quite often but it seems to be happening whenever I log in and need to get a OTP. So I guess I’m being charged for the text message that is used to verify my T-Mobile ID.

Thanks again for sharing your experience - all the best!

S
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T-Mobile appears to be actively trying to force users off the Legacy PAYG plan. It used to be that I would get a warning text a few days before my annual renewal was due, but that stopped a few years ago. Then, after getting the Account Suspended text without any warning, I would get my previous balance reinstated by refilling and calling Support. This year I had a balance of $70.65 when I missed my renewal date. I was told by more than one offshore support person that I could only get my money back if I changed plans. Minimum plan is $10 per month. WHAT A RIPOFF! I have requested unlock codes for my phone.

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