T-Mobile Cards at Walmart
Here is our review of T-Mobile Prepaid Service. T-Mobile is the fourth largest cell phone operator in the U.S., and is owned by Deutsche Telekom, the German national telephone company www.telekom.com. They operate all over the country, on GSM bands 850 and 1900. Skimming their website, at www.t-mobile.com , as of the date of this post, the pre-paid kit consisting of a sim card, support documentation, and $3.34 usage credit, cost $6.99. There are several prepaid handsets, ranging from about $20 to about $50. All are dual band 850/1900 except for the $50 Samsung t349 which adds the 1800 band, to make it a triband.
The top-ups can be done by retail card purchase, in $10, $25, $50 and $100 denominations, or over the phone itself, if T-Mobile has your credit card on file. There is a gold status, which is obtained after spending $100 on refills. If on gold status, the next refill qualifies for a 15% bonus in minutes. Here are the rates as of the date of this post. The last column shows the rates on gold status. Buying a $100 refill card automatically qualifies you for gold status, and minutes are good for a year, otherwise they expire after 90 days.
| $10 | 30 min / 90 days | 35 min / 1 year |
| $25 | 130 min / 90 days | 150 min / 1 year |
| $50 | 400 min / 90 days | 460 min / 1 year |
| $100 | 1000 min / 1 year* | |
There is no data plan for pay as you go, but there is SMS text messaging and MMS picture messaging. Texts are $0.10 to send, and $.05 to receive. Picture MMS is $.25 to send and receive. There are international rates as well as roaming in Canada and Mexico.
Pay by the Day
There is another prepaid plan that T-Mobile offers, and it’s called Pay by the Day. With this plan, you are charged $1 each day that you use the phone. For this dollar, you receive unlimited voice calling between 7PM and 7AM, and $0.10 per minute at other times. SMS and MMS rates are the same as pay as you go.
Sidekick
This is the third plan. For $1 per day, you get unlimited text messaging, and a call rate of $0.15 per minute. Neither the Pay by the Day, nor the Sidekick plans offer the gold rewards.