T-Mobile whips out a forgotten tactic to make some of you pay more

T-Mobile may be done with plan rate hikes for the year, but that doesn’t mean it has run out of ways to make you pay more.

Like many other service providers, T-Mobile penalizes subscribers who don’t pay on time by charging a late fee. At the moment, the late fee is the greater of 5 percent of your monthly charges or $7. What this means is that if your bill remains unpaid past the due date, T-Mobile looks at two numbers for the calculation of the late fee (5 percent of your bill or $7) and picks the larger number.

That means that $7 is the minimum late fee right now. Starting in November, this will increase to $10. Not everyone will get hit with the same penalty, though. State law caps the late fee in Washington, D.C. (2 percent), Maryland (1.66 percent), and New York (2.08 percent). If you live there, you will pay less than everyone else.

Customers who don’t pay their bills on time will be penalized more heavily from November.”&nbsp

T-Mobile applies a penalty for late payment to encourage users to pay on time and push them toward AutoPay. This free service allows customers to link a bank account or debit card to their account so payments can be deducted automatically every month.

The last increase in the late fee occurred in 2022. At that time, the carrier changed the penalty from the greater of $5 or a variable percentage allowed under state law to the greater of $7 or 5 percent of applicable monthly charges.

Technically, you can avoid these payments by not falling behind on bills. While that sounds doable in theory, life doesn’t work like that. That’s why customers are angry at T-Mobile for increasing the penalty.

If you don’t clear your past due balance, your service might be terminated. In that case, you will have to pay a $20 account restoration fee for each line on your account to reinstate service.

“Iconic Phones” is coming this Fall!

Rediscover some of the most unique and memorable phones of the last two decades! “Iconic Phones” is a beautifully illustrated book that we’ve been working on for over a year – and it’s coming out in just a couple short month!

“Iconic Phones: Revolution at Your Fingertips” is a must-have coffee table book for every phone lover out there. Covering the stories of more than 20 fan-favorite phones, it takes you on a memorable journey through the technological revolution that shaped our lives. Sign up now to secure an early discount price!