Legacy Gold Rewards, "You must have enough in your prepaid service balance..."?

[Zipy]

Can anyone confirm that adding only $1.00 (not $10) will still count as a one year renewal? I have like $90 in the account.

[brad15]

Can anyone confirm that adding only $1.00 (not $10) will still count as a one year renewal? I have like $90 in the account.

1) Yes
2) Just try it, worst case you'd have to add $11 in total if it did not.

[pakle]

Can anyone confirm that adding only $1.00 (not $10) will still count as a one year renewal? I have like $90 in the account.

Would love to know if you try it! The most recent data pt on this seems to be March 2023 that $1 refill was still working. I have to refill a legacy line for a relative next month.

[JaTaN]

$1 still works -- you have to log out and back in to see new 1yr exp date

Available service balance $5.22
Balance Expiration 08/29/2024
Gold Rewards Active

[pakle]

$1 still works -- you have to log out and back in to see new 1yr exp date

Balance Expiration 08/29/2024
Gold Rewards Active

Thanks so much for that data pt!!

[Zipy]

Yep, $1.00 still works! Extended me to 08/29/2024.

[stayintouch]

Still works for me too although I guess the way my state/city taxes, there is a flat fee + the % taxes. So, $1 ended up $1.4x something but $10 would be $10.7x something.

[whacker]

I just added $1.00 to my Gold Rewards Legacy plan on the T-Mobile website, to extend for a year. Total for me (in Michigan) was $1.12, paid to a credit card.

No snags, except upon completion the site said it was sending a confirmation message to my email address on file (still valid). No message ever received there, but I did get a text to the account/line/phone itself. Works for me.

[dmart]

I just added $1.00 to my Gold Rewards Legacy plan on the T-Mobile website, to extend for a year. Total for me (in Michigan) was $1.12, paid to a credit card.

No snags, except upon completion the site said it was sending a confirmation message to my email address on file (still valid). No message ever received there, but I did get a text to the account/line/phone itself. Works for me.

Same result when I added $1.00 yesterday, except my total was $2.71 (in PA). I didn't bother trying to change the address to get lower taxes/fees.

[pakle]

I just added $1.00 to my Gold Rewards Legacy plan on the T-Mobile website, to extend for a year. Total for me (in Michigan) was $1.12, paid to a credit card.

No snags, except upon completion the site said it was sending a confirmation message to my email address on file (still valid). No message ever received there, but I did get a text to the account/line/phone itself. Works for me.

Thanks for the tip! I just added $1 to the Legacy plan, changed the e911 to Detroit, MI, so $1.12 for me as well! Log out & log back in to see the updated balance and new expiration of 9/23/24.

[trackVW]

when you add these small amounts does it change your per minute rate ?

and is there a way to get better than 10 cents a minute rate on Gold Rewards ?

[brad15]

No, 0.10/min is the best you're gonna get.

This is a plan that came out under the VoiceStream brand in the 90s and at the time it were created.. 0.10/min was a steal... I remember my dad paying $50 for like 300min on AirTouch, while I was paying $0.10/min on my VoiceStream phone.

His plan only included Central Ohio as well, when we got more than ~2-3 counties away, he'd always ask to use my phone so he was not paying a crazy roaming rate. His of course had a broader coverage area thanks to analog, but my phone typically worked anywhere with population.. but in more rural areas where my family lived, I usually had to walk outside to use it.. but it still worked.

This was on my Nokia 5190, which I still have somewhere in a drawer with a completely DOA battery.

They will likely never improve the plan past anything it has now, the $1 refill was just an overlooked thing when they migrated us to the new billing system, and just done by accident.

I can imagine we are such a small subset of customers at this point, they'll just leave it as is and hope we all eventually go away as 2G is shut down next year.

[dmart]

I can imagine we are such a small subset of customers at this point, they'll just leave it as is and hope we all eventually go away as 2G is shut down next year.

Why would we go away with the 2G shut down?

I keep the plan because it works on cruise ships and many international destinations. Usually 50c to send and normal 10c to receive texts; not cheap but good for an emergency phone.

[pakle]

I keep the plan because it works on cruise ships and many international destinations. Usually 50c to send and normal 10c to receive texts; not cheap but good for an emergency phone.

I did not know that so thank you! Just found it on the website:
https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/pr...tional-roaming
T-Mobile prepaid calling rates may vary (see table below).* Additional rates for other plans include:
Text messaging
Canada: $0.10 to send and receive
All other countries: $0.50 to send, $0.10 to receive
Picture/video messaging: $0.25 to send and receive
Data roaming: not available with prepaid plans
----

I bought a data-only Esim to go to Canada recently, and told people I wasn't reachable by phone/text (except maybe iMessage), but I'll use this Legacy phone # next time as an option for urgent phone/text needs.

[Slepy]

I bought a data-only Esim to go to Canada recently, and told people I wasn't reachable by phone/text (except maybe iMessage), but I'll use this Legacy phone # next time as an option for urgent phone/text needs.

https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...ming-in-Canada

Text is $0.10 each, but talk is $1.00/min. A bit pricey.

Overseas rate is pretty outrageous...

https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...6#post17103856