T-Mobile is cooking up yet another fee increase (that's totally not a price hike)
While T-Mobile is usually the one that likes to mock, ridicule, or simply point the finger at its wireless industry rivals for various types of ploys and tricks designed to squeeze more money out of consumers and deliver less value, Verizon experienced a highly unusual meltdown of sorts last month, calling out the "Un-carrier" for a long line of "#TMyths" culminating with a number of controversial fee changes.
The reason these made Big Red so angry, of course, was that they came mere weeks after T-Mo bombastically unveiled its Price Lock initiative under which subscribers were guaranteed their monthly plan prices would never be increased.
Although that's obviously still technically true, Magenta is apparently preparing yet another change likely to make both the competition and its own customer base boil with anger. According to an internal document dug up by the always reliable folks over at The T-Mo Report, there's one more fee hike to take into account if you're considering leaving the magenta-coated ship.
Starting October 1, 2022, late fees are all but guaranteed to go up for many customers, although the actual value of your penalties will continue to depend on a number of different factors. If this is a problem that's impacted you at least once within the past 6 months due to financial or just memory issues, you should expect to be notified of the upcoming change at some point between July 26 and August 4 by email or text.
Naturally, a late fee is not something you can opt in and out of, so whether you like it or not, T-Mobile will begin to charge you in the fall "the greater of 5 percent of your applicable monthly charges or $7 where allowed under state law" whenever the need for such a fee shall arise.
While we're definitely not talking about a small fortune (or a big increase) here, most late payers will have to cough up 7 instead of 5 bucks for every delay. You'll still be able to easily avoid that with AutoPay or simply by remembering to always cover your monthly bill in time, although that might not be possible for everyone all the time... for fairly obvious reasons.
And while T-Mobile is technically still keeping its promise, we can't help but feel this move is in a way even worse than an actual price increase for everyone, looking to draw more money from less fortunate customers.
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