T-Mobile subscribers who pay their bills on time will soon get better deals on new phones
Whenever you sign up for a postpaid account with a wireless provider (meaning that you receive service from the company and then are billed for that usage at the end of the billing cycle, usually one month), you have your credit checked by the company prior to activation. This way the carrier can come up with a credit limit so they know how many lines you can sign up for without having to leave a deposit. It also allows them to know how many devices you can finance and whether you're eligible for the best deals.
According to an internal T-Mobile document obtained by The Mobile Report, the nation's second-largest wireless carrier is about to make a change in how it figures out subscribers' credit limits. Instead of using "credit classes" to group subscribers' creditworthiness, it will compute credit limits on an individualized basis which allows them to be considered "well-qualified" for the best deals on devices based on their "positive credit history with T-Mobile."
This will allow a customer's credit line to be raised, lowered, or stay the same depending on his/her history of paying T-Mobile invoices on time. Six months after an account is first activated, an account will be evaluated based on payment history. If you pay on time each month, you might find your T-Mobile credit limit rising and be asked for lower down payments on new devices. On the other hand, Pay late multiple times and you might see your credit line decrease and be asked for larger down payments.
After that first evaluation, T-Mobile will take a look at your account from time to time. The changes will take place starting on June 21st according to the leaked documents. After that date, subscribers will be able to raise their credit limit and be required to put less money down on a new phone simply by keeping track of their monthly billing cycles and paying on time.
The system it replaces is less flexible as it places a customer in a credit classification without giving him the chance to improve his credit standing by paying his invoices on time. After an account is activated, all of the credit checks, including the one that will take place six months after activation, are not made by requesting a score from credit reporting firms like Experian or TransUnion. The only data that will be used after activation is generated from the subscriber's history of paying his T-Mobile bill. It should be pointed out that prepaid T-Mobile accounts and Metro by T-Mobile accounts will not be covered by this change.
The bottom line is that this is a good thing for customers since it gives them an opportunity to hike their credit limit and get better deals on devices by paying their bills on time. It also helps out T-Mobile since it gives its customers an incentive to pay bills on time.
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