Question

Expiration date bug for Legacy Pay As You Go?

  • 24 December 2021
  • 45 replies
  • 7078 views
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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

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.

 

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

J

Same here, just updated and got the 3 month expiry.  Guess I’ll try calling later - don’t have signal at the residence, so have to drive into town.

gramps28
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Easiest way to contact Tmobile support is by using messenger on one of tmobile's social media platforms or scroll to the bottom of this post where it says connect with Tmobile and select the appropriate icon you want to use.

K
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maybe for new refills it shows correctly

but those of us who refilled the last week of december still show incorrect date

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.    

K
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Same here, just updated and got the 3 month expiry.  Guess I’ll try calling later - don’t have signal at the residence, so have to drive into town.

 

i have a feeling this error is not gonna get fixed promptly.

 

they really screwed up this expiration date for legacy users.

T
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Also have a prepaid legacy plan, minimum $10 for one year.

 

Went to the store today to add $10 to keep the account active for another year.  After paying, saw the resulting paperwork with an expiration date of 3 months (3/26/22), not the full year I was expecting.  They said it was because of a new system that went into effect this year.

 

Had the store employee call their customer service.  Because of the wait time (~2 hours), I asked that when the employee gets a reply, to call me.

 

They called a while later, and left the following message:

 

 

I will check back at the store next week, to fully insure that the expiration date is now truly one year, instead of three months.

 

J

The web page now reflects a 12/2022 expiry on my account.  Didn’t check with anyone.  Seems takes about 24 hours to sort out for some reason.  Possibly have to match to an old database?  Who knows ….

Still have to call about PIN that was apparently reset in August during that debacle.

M

I noticed due to getting a new phone and then finding that #999# did not work. I eventually tried #225# and that did show my balance but it also showed an expiration this month (6 months early). Checked my account page and it shows the expire in May. On hold with PAY-AS-YOU-GO support @ 1-877-778-2106.

M

The support rep was able to quickly confirm that my last payment was 9/4/2021, so the May expire is clearly wrong. The added language was that my account was switched from legacy to Rebellion in 8/28. I don’t know if that is the actual cause or not. My guess is that it was caused while I was switching to a new phone. I did the “stop international calls” thing for example.

 

Status. The support rep turned it over to the tech group and she or they will get back to me. I will try to remember to update progress here.

 

P.S. I found “Rebellion” from as far back as 3 years ago, with somebody complaining about that system.

V

Same here. Two legacy Gold accounts.  Both showed 3-month expiry dates after refill.  One refilled on 12/28/21, the other refilled today 12/31/21.  As of today system did not correct itself, both still showed expiry after just 3 months.  Have not had time to contact T-Mobile yet.

X

I just refilled my legacy pay as you go account and instead of a 1 year expiration it is now only 3 months. what has everyone done to get this resolved? calling seems pointless with a wait time of eternity.

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.

K
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both my legacy accounts still show March 2022 expiration as of right now.

I have 3 legacy accounts, only 1 of which shows the correct expiration date. It was refilled on 12/20.

The other 2 accounts which have the incorrect expiration date were refilled on 12/23.

 

TMO support has been very quiet on this message board.

 

J

I have another that will naturally expire in March.  Yeah, there’s surprisingly little traffic about this on the interwebs.  Maybe we’re down to the last dozen or so people using these accounts.

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