
Reviewers say T-Mobile Prepaid offers an excellent combination of voice quality, phone options and flexible-rate prepaid wireless plans. The cheapest option is $10 for 30 minutes, which don't expire for 90 days -- making this a good option if you don't plan to use your phone very often. There are also packages for $30, $50 and $100. The $100 package gives you 1,000 minutes, good for an entire year. See our review of T-Mobile's Prepaid Annual Plan (*Est. $100 for 1,000 min.). If you replenish your account before your minutes expire, the unused minutes roll over. You can do this online, from your phone, or at one of 90,000 retail locations nationwide. You can also sign up for automatic refills.
T-Mobile also makes it easy to get a prepaid smartphone: If you already have an unlocked GSM phone, you can insert T-Mobile's $7 prepaid SIM card and use your phone on T-Mobile's prepaid network. T-Mobile also sells prepaid Samsung Gravity Smart (*Est. $200) and Nokia Lumia 710 smartphones (*Est. $350). However, T-Mobile's unlimited talk-and-text monthly plans cap data at 100 MB (*Est. $50 per month) or 2 GB (*Est. $70 per month), unlike Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk Unlimited (*Est. $60 per month), which offers unlimited talk, text and data and a more advanced smartphone.
Prepaid wireless cell phone services such as T-Mobile Prepaid can be judged most effectively by customer surveys in which users are polled about network coverage, circuit overloads, dropped calls and customer service. ConsumerReports.org, J.D. Power and Associates and PCMag.com all run annual polls, ranking T-Mobile against other prepaid providers. PrepaidReviews.com posts an editor's review and up-to-date user comments.
Our Sources
1. ConsumerReports.orgDetails/Subscribe
T-Mobile is one of six prepaid wireless providers included in ConsumerReports.org's latest rankings. Editors poll more than 66,000 cell phone users to find the best and worst wireless services.
Review: Prepaid Cell Phone Service Ratings, Editors of ConsumerReports.org, January 2011
In this survey of about 6,400 prepaid wireless cell phone users, T-Mobile rates just above the industry average overall, but falls squarely in the middle of the pack of nine prepaid cell phone carriers reviewed.
Review: 2011 Wireless Non-Contract Customer Satisfaction Index Study, Editors of J.D. Power and Associates, March 31, 2011
This article addresses overall satisfaction with cell phones and cell phone service as reported by PCMag.com readers in 2012. T-Mobile gets the Reader's Choice award for prepaid carriers. A chart shows how each service stacks up in a dozen categories, such as price and handset choices.
Review: Reader's Choice Awards 2012: Smartphones and Mobile Carriers, Ben Gottesman, March 28, 2012
T-Mobile comes in the middle of the pack at TopTenReviews.com's 2012 roundup of prepaid cell phone services. Earning high marks for usage plans and for customer help and support, it falls short in features and phone selection. Note that TopTenReviews.com's evaluation of prepaid cell phone providers is based only on features, and doesn't look at how each phone service performs.
Review: 2012 Prepaid Cell Phones Comparison, Editors of TopTenReviews.com
Editors here give T-Mobile Prepaid 4.5 out of 5 stars. It ties for the top spot among 29 prepaid wireless suppliers rated here. Like all prepaid providers, however, T-Mobile draws its share of customer complaints, earning only 3 stars out of 5 overall from users.
Review: T-Mobile To Go Prepaid Cell Phones, Editors of PrepaidReviews.com
Prepaid Cell Phone Plans Runners Up:
4 picks including: J.D. Power & Associates, MSNBC…
3 picks by top review sites.
2 picks including: The New York Times, Viewpoints.com…
1 pick including: J.D. Power & Associates…
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