It happens to the best of us, but still, falling behind on your bills can be a scary and costly experience. Thankfully, as a last resort option, T-Mobile’s payment arrangements have helped a lot of people get back on track. You can set them up via the T-Life app, but some people either prefer to call in or visit a store—even though this carries a small fee.
Now, though, this option is going away completely—and if grandpa needs more time to pay his bill, you’ll have to teach him to use the T-Life app.
The future of T-Mobile is 100% T-Life
According to internal sources, starting October 30th, T-Mobile will begin restricting the creation of payment arrangements to its T-Life mobile app.
Previously, customers who needed extra time to pay their bill could set up an arrangement by calling customer service, visiting a T-Mobile retail store, or using the automated phone system. Beginning on Thursday, these channels will no longer be available for initiating a new arrangement.
This is yet another step in the conversion to 100% app-based transactions for T-Mobile. We’ve heard that T-Mobile is set to do 100% of all customer business via T-Life, even in-store, by sometime in January. T-Life has become a point of contention among long-time customers and new customers alike. The T-Life app is known to have issues occasionally, which is to be expected when you cram everything into one app.
What is a payment arrangement?
A payment arrangement is a formal agreement with T-Mobile that allows a customer to pay their past-due balance at a later, agreed-upon date while avoiding service suspension. It does not change the bill’s original due date—the account is still considered past due, and late fees may still apply to the account—but it will help you in case service is about to be suspended on your phone and you can’t make a full payment just yet.
The company already charges a $5 in-store payment support charge and a $10 payment support fee for customers who choose to make a standard bill payment with the help of an agent in a store or over the phone, respectively.
Now, not only can you not do them via support, but even if an agent does want to help you, they won’t be able to unless it’s justified—apparently a manager-level override will be required for a support agent to manually create the arrangement. The option is likely still there just in case a non-tech-savvy person calls in who might not know their way around the T-Life app. For most people, though, you’ll have to learn, and the workaround will likely go away entirely soon enough.
If you need to access payment arrangements, the option is located within the app’s billing section, under the “Manage” tab, where an option to “Set up a payment arrangement” appears for eligible accounts.
The new change will take effect Thursday, October 30th. This comes right after the news that T-Mobile will no longer allow any credit card bill payments if you want to keep your autopay discount.
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