T-Mobile is giving bad news to customers who don’t pay on time

Back on the first day of this month, we told you that T-Mobile was supposedly going to hike the late fee it charges to subscribers who don’t settle up with the carrier on time. A report today found in The Mobile Report states that the carrier is now sending out emails to alert those who pay late that the penalty for this behavior, the dreaded late fee, will be hiked by the once customer-friendly T-Mobile.

T-Mobile subscribers paying late will be socked with a fee of $10 or more

Starting on November 1st, the late fee charged to T-Mobile subscribers will be 5% of the past due amount, or 10%, whichever is the greater amount. At the minimum, the late fee has risen by a significant 42.9% from $7 to $10. With the aforementioned formula, the actual percentage increase could be higher. If the amount that you paid late is more than $200, your late fee will be more than $10, which comes to an even higher increase with the late fee.

T-Mobile does say that whatever amount the late fee comes out to, it won’t be more than the maximum amount that T-Mobile can charge late payers under the laws of each state. For example, if you live in Washington, D.C. your late fee is capped at 2%. Live in Maryland? Then your late fee cannot be higher than 1.66%. Those living in New York have a late fee cap of 2.08%. Keep in mind that you can avoid this charge by making your payments on time. If you are the type that forgets when a payment is due, AutoPay can make the payment for you automatically and take the money out of your bank account each month.

T-Mobile subscribers using AutoPay can save $5 per month on their monthly bill

Now I could say that this is evidence that T-Mobile no longer cares about putting the customer first like it did in the days when the beloved former CEO of T-Mobile John Legere ran the wireless provider. T-Mobile will tell you that the higher late fee is being imposed in an effort to get more subscribers to opt-in to AutoPay so that they don’t have to worry about paying their bill on time. I’m not sure how many of you actually believe that is why the company is raising its late fee.

The new late fee takes effect on November 1st

November 1st not only is the start date of the higher late fee, it also is the date when Srini Gopalan takes over the CEO role from Mike Sievert. The new CEO will apparently be the one running T-Mobile as it transitions into its new life as an all-digital carrier with customers using the controversial T-Life app to manage their plans, order new phones and purchase accessories.

To become an all-digital carrier, you can expect T-Mobile to close many of its retail stores, and layoff hundreds of its reps. We’ve seen the carrier’s executives force the T-Life app on not only its customers, but also on its salespeople even though the app has been nothing if not buggy. By making this transition, more of the revenue generated by the carrier will drop to the bottom line as the lower amount of overhead means larger bottom line profits for T-Mobile. 

In theory, this should result in a higher stock price benefiting those T-Mobile executives with massive holdings of the shares. That would include outgoing CEO Mike Sievert who owns 336,221 shares of T-Mobile as of this month. Those shares have a current valuation of $75.5 million. The shares are down $4.31 or 1.88% today to $224.48. Over the last month, as concerns about T-Mobile‘s transition have started to grow, the shares have declined by more than 6%.

“Iconic Phones” is coming this Fall!

Good news everyone! Over the past year we’ve been working on an exciting passion project of ours and we’re thrilled to announce it will be ready to release in just a few short months.

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