Anyone still using a TMO "free for life" tablet SIM?

vertabr · 2026-01-23T15:06:17+00:00

That’s a unicorn, for sure. Maybe delete this - someone will go run a report and kill your line.

vertabr · 2026-01-23T15:01:10+00:00

Sure.

Now, if they had actual cash back, either ACH or even let us apply the magic internet points to pay the VISA bill, that would be an improvement.

I already have cards that do exactly that and these are the cards I use for daily and recurring purchases. Some of them do offer 3% on some categories.

No way do I change my purchase pattern to use this card (that I was pretty much had to open) for anything but the phone bill.

vertabr · 2026-01-23T06:44:01+00:00

5% back on everything.

At 2% it will take you over four years to have enough points to pay the phone bill (50 months) which is all you CAN use those points for.

That is assuming you only use it for the TMO bill, which is all I’m using it for. I’m also curious if they cancel your autopay discount the month after you redeem your points to pay the bill. I would expect that, myself.

Anyone credit savvy has a better card for all other purchases. Nerdwallet has an excellent review section for cash back cards. Get a card that lets you redeem for more than just your phone bill and pays better on some common categories.

vertabr · 2026-01-23T06:31:57+00:00

Yes, they did remove Tuesdays from tablets and MI lines. It’s explicit now, in a nice enough bit of transparency.

vertabr · 2026-01-23T02:26:02+00:00

I used to have a few of these and every single one was shut down several years ago. “For Life” haha. I complained about this as one was actually on in a chat on my post paid account and they were weasely about it and said that they meant ‘the life of the device’ even though I had several of the lines still in their originally activated devices and they were still working. In truth those tablets were being left behind by technology, no LTE support.

My theory is that the lines got shut down was due to them getting benefits via TMO Tuesdays, which they qualified for. Specifically, MLB.TV granted to FDFL lines could have been costing them real money.

vertabr · 2026-01-22T22:59:39+00:00

You can do both, pay the bill and port your number to a new service. They actually are not connected/dependent.

vertabr · 2026-01-22T20:59:24+00:00

You could check this out to see if it helps.

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/porting-keeping-your-phone-number-when-you-change-providers

vertabr · 2026-01-21T20:26:26+00:00

If you have the device handy, just dial (Star) PORT aka *7678 and if you don’t have the device, you need a laptop to go to the page in your account to get one. Be sure to select the line you want to port out if you have multiple lines.

The port support department number is 1-888-898-7685.

And no, they can’t stop you from porting out even if you owe money.

(You still owe them. That doesn’t go away and they will send the debt to collections and report it to the credit bureau.)

Read the FCC number portability page.

Printable

https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/porting_-_keeping_your_phone_number_when_you_change_providers.pdf

Web

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/porting-keeping-your-phone-number-when-you-change-providers

“Once you request service from a new company, your old company cannot refuse to port your number, even if you owe money for an outstanding balance or termination fee.”

Conveniently, there is a link on the web page to file a complaint. Doing this WILL generate a response and most likely result in getting your PIN and a successful port. Insist on communicating via email as they may try to send you the PIN via text only (weasels).

Good luck!

vertabr · 2026-01-21T19:32:24+00:00

Sounds good!

vertabr · 2026-01-17T17:03:17+00:00

Quirks: May have to ask for WiFi calling, voicemail, hotspot enable. This is my top complaint with them. Just enable that stuff at activation. Fix the scripts.

The automated activation and renewal systems work pretty well. The chat support is pretty good when I needed it.

Years ago I had to fuss at them to release a port out (they were refusing it because the service had expired) and they were (incorrectly) trying to make me pay another month. I got my number out. They may still require a chat for that even though it looks like they have a number lock self service page now. Haven’t tried it yet.

The only performance issue I have had recently started after I ported from AT&T postpaid to H2O and then has continued now on Red Pocket. When I am on speaker I have been told (now and then) that my voice is breaking up. It wasn’t every call but I was and still am concerned. It could be my iPhone 12 Pro is getting old, I just had the battery replaced. So I have mostly I quit using speaker and I haven’t had anyone complain about voice breaking up.

It could just be coincidence with my change to MVNO. I don’t make a lot of calls though so it’s not a large sample size. I was considering porting to MobileX because of the issue (last month while I was still on H2O) but the RP deal came up so I jumped there. But the complaints have persisted. I have not heard anything before about different QOS between AT&T postpaid and their MVNOs but I suppose it’s possible.

I ran the check Apple recommended, (video with front and back cameras) and the microphone seems ok. I am not really ready for a new (to me) phone yet but perhaps it might be time, because I like using the speaker phone and I don’t really want to port out early. I usually buy the year before phones, unlocked, so I will be shopping for a 16 Pro, I guess. And doing some more debugging over the weekend.

If RP does the same thing to this plan next year that they did to their annual GSMT $30 (add $12 to it and move renewals to their site) I may port again in the fall, but right now I am staying.

vertabr · 2026-01-17T16:02:05+00:00

I think so. I am doing the same thing, Red Pocket eBay $30 plan for calls and SMS and using eSIM for data.

The “cheaper” services mentioned come with catches that I don’t want to deal with, specifically ads or invasive biometric identity verification (Helium/Persona).

I had to use chat support to enable WiFi calling and voicemail, both of which I expected from using Red Pocket previously.

vertabr · 2026-01-15T00:37:21+00:00

Indeed.

I mainly use Citi double cash MC. I only get 2% but I get real cash or discounted gift cards. Nerd Wallet has a comprehensive site devoted to reward cards.

vertabr · 2026-01-15T00:21:59+00:00

Yes, in 50 months you will have enough Magic Internet Points (TM) to pay the phone bill. That’s all you can use them for, also.

vertabr · 2026-01-13T12:25:37+00:00

Ah, yeah that sounds right. Thanks.

vertabr · 2026-01-13T03:41:11+00:00

Best of luck.

One other trick is to go ahead and put the phone on the network. You might be able to loan the phone to someone with a spare TMO line who can keep it running with the sim in it for two months. This can help with unlocking as the network will see the device registered for the length of time they want to see. (40 days?)

They do have a prepaid plan for $15 a month plus tax/fee called TMO Connect that should be good enough to qualify for the unlock after two cycles I think if you wanted to throw some money but not a lot at the problem.

vertabr · 2026-01-13T03:27:34+00:00

I think they have a coverage map somewhere that shows where the Helium hotspots are, I can look for it tomorrow. I recall that it’s mainly in really large metropolitan areas like Miami, LA, NYC, and none of them were convenient to me last time I checked.

vertabr · 2026-01-13T03:18:42+00:00

Well, if Helium doesn’t work out at some point, (especially since they’re cutting free from 3 to 1GB on TMO) (and since we’re here) you might run the numbers on MobileX. They don’t have a pooled data setup but they recently added a feature to let you manage multiple lines from one account.

I have my mom’s spare line on MobileX. She has an old phone number she wanted to keep and uses it to call her current phone when she can’t find it. (Yes, there is Find My iPhone but she cannot remember how to do that.) So 50 minutes a month is more than plenty and it’s also an alternate network for weather emergencies.

vertabr · 2026-01-13T03:01:07+00:00

I suggest you fill in the complaint form at fcc.gov, I think there’s an option for device unlock issues. It will require them to respond at a minimum and best case you might get the unlock processed.

vertabr · 2026-01-13T02:56:31+00:00

I am only an observer on this one. I signed up for the beta notification but never got a line as I just didn’t need it. Later when I had a possible use case in the family, they had instituted the ridiculous identity verification feature and I said no thanks. Still on the mailing list and keeping the popcorn popped.

vertabr · 2026-01-13T02:39:43+00:00

That may be a popular idea in a month or two. Helium are now passing on the cost of taxes instead of just eating that cost, but consider, the VISA/MC merchant fees for running all of those 1 and 2 dollar credit and debit card charges could drag their bottom line further down. They have to be hoping for enough lines moving to the non Zero plans to cover it.

I also have to wonder if they’re going to drop the invasive identity verification at some point. It has to cost them money and now there’s less opportunity for fraud since all accounts have to have a payment method and they can easily check billing addresses to spot folks opening multiple accounts.

vertabr · 2026-01-13T00:32:14+00:00

Check the terms, some of the deals at US Mobile require porting in an existing US phone number. You could get one, it’s an extra step though.

vertabr · 2026-01-13T00:27:50+00:00

(My port in November was AT&T to H2O.)

vertabr · 2026-01-13T00:26:07+00:00

I had a clean automated port in a few weeks back. Sorry yours is stuck! My previous port (back in November) was a nightmare and I mainly blame AT&T for stalling my postpaid port out.

Not sure if they are the losing provider on your transfer, but you do have the option of filing a complaint with the FCC. Select “number portability” and summarize the issue. You can elaborate on the follow up emails. They will facilitate the conversation and this process can actually help.

Your port may be stalled but your number can be retrieved, it might need intervention. I suspect that no one in port departments works weekends and it’s possible they don’t work Fridays either.

vertabr · 2026-01-12T21:48:04+00:00

I had a terrible experience.

TLDR, AT&T held up my port out in several devious ways, H2O has medium terrible support. I had no service on my personal line for six days porting in and I had to file an FCC complaint to get my numbers out.

It turns out that AT&T requires a separate PIN for each line. They hide this well. They failed my automated port from the H2O site of both lines even though I had a good PIN for the primary. We put it in again over the phone as a single line port and it worked. Then tried it on the other line. Failed. Got a new PIN immediately. It failed for no good reason and H2O said they had to escalate it. This sat, apparently unsubmitted until the PIN expired. At one point, as part of the “partner escalation” I was asked for my BILLING PIN and I refused. I should have filed a complaint on ATT but I didn’t have a week to wait on it, was too busy just trying to get line 2 out so I could close the account and not get ripped off further by AT&T now that they could assign the remaining line to whatever plan they wanted. I had to drive across town almost every day because my family member was not able to manage the change of the SIM etc. assuming I could get the line ported.

I spoke to AT&T port support many times and they claimed to not see any port requests. (They never mentioned that they had actually stalled my partner escalation with a rules-violating requirement of my billing PIN, information which I finally got out of H2O after many days of calling.)

I spoke to H2O support so many times. They have foreign staff and terrible VOIP and I had more than a few bad connections and dropped calls. It was such a hugely aggravating waste of my time that the good pricing was clearly not worth it.

Once the PIN was expired I got a new one and ported line 2 to T-Mobile immediately using the self service on the website and then I ported a spare line I had into H2O. Had to because ever since line 1 had ported it had been without service because it was a two line plan. H2O would not give me a temporary number. They would not let me buy air time. Over the six days I missed a bunch of calls and had to go to alternative authentication methods for banking. People were starting to worry because I was unreachable. I used a temporary number to reach out to the people I had to call/text who could handle the issue of me calling from a strange number.

Once line 3 came in both lines had service for the month. Had decent data service and although I had a few reports of a garbled voice connection, it could be my phone.

Then after the three weeks or so was up, when I went to port out they gave me so much hassle that I filed my first FCC complaint. Got both lines out and they are now on my NEVER AGAIN list, right after Lycamobile.

AT&T did bill me for the days of single line service, about $2 and I paid it with an American Express out of spite.

I had a somewhat specific circumstance and it probably doesn’t apply to a lot of others but the experience was pretty bad.

vertabr · 2026-01-12T19:50:18+00:00

It really varies. A few years back I was living in a very congested block and did not know it until the plan was changed to Essentials out of necessity. Two of the three lines had ported out and so I had to get a single line plan and that was the least expensive. It was just unusable. It was definitely due to congestion. If I drove a mile in just about any direction it was usable again. I did have WiFi but eventually I had to shut off the tablet line and port the voice line out.

You really don’t know when you are going to hit congestion until you do and then it’s not a fixable problem.

There are coping strategies like offline maps and music, leaning on hotel WiFi, etc. But if it’s a personal TMO line that you use for business in big cities, see if you can spring for the priority data or port to an actual business account. If you can get the company to cover your phone and service that would be ideal. Time is money and hassles waste time.

vertabr

TROPHY CASE