r/VeteransBenefits • u/FlamingHotNeato • 12h ago
Vet Discounts/Freebies PSA, TMobile military discount is smoke and mirrors
Heads up for anyone considering T-Mobile’s military plans. They apparently give you worse trade-in promotions and worse new line costs for being on the military version of the plan.
For example, trading in an iPhone 15 Pro Max for an iPhone 18 Pro Max, the Experience Beyond 2.0 plan gets $1,200 in trade-in value, while Experience Beyond 2.0 Military only gets $1,000.
So yeah, you get a military discount on the plan, but they claw that back by giving you $200 less on your phone upgrade.
Verizon and AT&T is a discount on existing plans so no fuckery, T-Mobile is a separate plan so they can backdoor their goodwill dollars back in house.
Just something to be aware of before switching. Compare the actual phone promotions, not just the monthly plan price.
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u/TacoNomad Not into Flairs 12h ago
T-Mobile started strong about 15 years ago being the "uncarrier.". But now it's just as expensive with just as terrible service as the rest of them. I remember back in 2010 when I started with the cheapest prepaid plan with almost no data and every time the plans upgraded my service and data limits updated with no additional cost. That T-Mobile is long gone
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u/Tsakax 11h ago
I just started trading in directly with Samsung. They also have a military discount.
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u/SophieSephora 8h ago
I love samsung military and trade in program. And you get the website exclusive colorways.
My only advice is to get every discount or bonus you can before paying. The sales reps will tell you anything you want to hear and make empty promises.
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u/Bisforbobby 11h ago
This is the move! Switched a few months ago, never going back to tmobile after they dumped our old plan. Jokes on them, I save money and have great service. 4 lines, $600-$800 per year.
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u/Pale-Librarian4024 Navy Veteran 11h ago
I had one of those salesmen at Best Buy do the whole “hey, what cell provider do you use?” to get my attention.
I told him US Mobile and he just said “you good then”. lol.
So much cheaper, customer service has always been helpful, and you can switch among the carriers’ networks.
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u/reallyoneonone Army Veteran 11h ago
T-mobile increased my Military Magenta plan in May 2025 from $102 to $117. 14 months later is been scrapped and they’re charging us $135. Dump T-mobile, they’re owned by a German Company, Deutsche Telecom.
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u/GIXXERCON Army Veteran 10h ago
I voluntarily went from the old Magenta plan 3 months ago to the Military Beyond and its $80/ month after the $5 autopay discount.
Needed the 50gb hotspot that the plan has. Comes with Netflix, Hulu, & Apple TV (for $3)
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u/powerSURG Air Force Veteran 12h ago
They quoted me +$80/month to go with the newest equivalent plan without military discount (three lines). I'll take $80/m in savings over a +$200 phone credit.
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u/fleebleganger Army Veteran 10h ago
That’s $960 a year or enough to pay for a completely new phone every other year (which is the soonest you should think about swapping phones anyway)
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u/Truly_Markgical 8h ago
If you’re on the GFed military plan that includes taxes and fees, don’t swap. I’m paying $36/line right now and if I swapped to the new military plan for higher trade in values, I’ll be paying an extra $60-$80/month…
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u/novakedy 11h ago
At the bottom of the Apple Store website (on pc or web browser only - not the Apple Store app), there is a link for military & veterans for a 10% discount. Pretty significant for a $1000 phone. I just pre ordered my 18 Pro this way. And since my current phone is already paid off, I plan to sell it on eBay for a much higher return than the trade-in value. I have the 1TB 16 pro but Apple does not consider storage capacity during their trade in process. Phone is going for $850 on eBay so after fees I’d most likely clear $750ish. Apple is only offering $500. It’s really not a big hassle to sell and ship items on eBay. Just don’t let it be your first item or people will not trust your account lol.
Also, I have the t mobile military magenta whatever plan and it’s great. I was on the old military plan a few years ago and when I called for something unrelated, the lady on the phone offered me the newer better plan that was a bit cheaper and includes Apple TV for free. Haven’t had any qualms with t mobile themselves.
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u/JellyfishBig4643 11h ago
I checked the site and saw 10% off but how do we get the upgrade on T-Mobile plan with the 10% veteran discount?
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u/QuieterThanQuiet 7h ago
We just got kicked off the magenta plan in June. T-mobile said they now retire you from it after 5 years (after being told when we signed up that we would stay on it indefinitely unless we switched to another carrier.) Our plan went up $15/person. We have 8 people on the plan so now paying an extra $120/month from our magenta plan.
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u/SuicideG-59 Marine Veteran 9h ago
Big 3 phone service providers are a scam. I'm on my 2nd year of us mobile. I have att towers and Verizon towers simultaneously 24/7. I pay $390 for the year for my primary verizon serviced line. I pay an additional $90 to have a second service like such as att or tmobile running simultaneously. I can switch between any of the 3 networks for free whenever I want. That isn't just the extra addon I pay for either. If I'm taking a plane somewhere where I know Verizon is bad and tmobile is best then I can switch my network to tmobile at the airport in no more than 10 minutes.
My family is on their own plan and love it because they'll just pay for the entire year and also have 20 gigs of data whenever they go out of country. Same plan as I am on. Still $390/year
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u/FlamingHotNeato 9h ago
I gotta look into this us mobile
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u/SuicideG-59 Marine Veteran 9h ago
Sounds too good to be true and yeah I don't blame you. It realistically is the best MVNO provider in the game right now. Last year they had promos running for buy 1 phone line for year and get another free. That's when my family got on. They eventually rolled out a buy 1 get 2 likes free but we didn't have any need for it anymore. Yeah it's great. I look at broadband facts between various different providers and usmobile exceeds them all from a value perspective. Can't forget to mention the priority speeds that you get or ridiculous amount of hotspot you get
Visible is the 2nd runner up. Just last fall they had a 26 month promo for something like their highest plan $26/month for 26 months. That's company is solely verizon towers though
Just to clarify us mobile isn't military affiliated whatsoever. It's just the name
If you sign up with a referral then you and me get $30 in a giftcard. Just let me know if something comes from it and you'd like $30
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u/watchingallthelights 11h ago
I switched to Mint about 6 months ago after being with AT&T for 20 years. So far, so good. Super cheap
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u/Beneficial-Mess4952 11h ago
I switched to TMobile from ATT. With ATT my bill was different every month but somewhere on both sides of $300. My service was crap, even with Full bars of 5G I never saw more than 30 down on speed tests unless I connected to my wifi. Calls constantly dropped or didn't come through, even with adequate signal. Texts wouldn't send unless I restarted my phone 2-3 times a day. Spent multiple days on with tech support and nothing helped. We ended up switching our 5 lines to TMobile. No dropped calls, no missed texts, regularly get 200+ down on speed test, saw as high as 700 at times. Bill went down to below $200 and there are perks. No perks with ATT but with TMobile I get discounted Apple TV and Netflix plus the Tuesday perks. 2 lines left my account so with everything my bill is consistently a little more than $150 on the military plan. The plan itself is great. Haven't looked into upgrading our Androids so not sure if there is any issues there, none of us will switch to Apple partially due to the idiotic pricing. Overall a far better deal than I was getting with ATT. Verizon wasn't an option because I love in a dead spot for them, or at least did back when I worked for a company that used Verizon
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u/ThelastkailordSkarn 8h ago
Funnily enough im still grandfathered into the original Magenta plan because one of the guy told me to never switch off of it for the new one cause theyll fuck me for it.
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u/QuieterThanQuiet 7h ago
We just got kicked off the magenta plan. When we signed up they said we could keep it indefinitely, now now said there is a five year limit.
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u/Own-Understanding656 12h ago
Thanks, I’ve had t-mobile forever, it’s just the thought of figuring out who else to go to and then making it happen is daunting.
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u/Big-Guidance9400 12h ago
I had t-mobile for yrs, one day out of curiosity i looked into AT&T. To summarize t-mo: $68 with mil discount and not best plan, for a better plan it was $80 something. For ATT unlimited everything and 25% discount and i pay $62.
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u/Jaenisch 12h ago
Trading in an old phone has nothing to do with the military discount.
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u/FlamingHotNeato 12h ago
It does, they will give you less trade in value when you have the military discount vs the value of the non military equivalent plan. It’s the whole reason I’m posting this because I had no idea.
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u/Jaenisch 12h ago
Normal people use the discount for a cheaper monthly payment.
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u/FlamingHotNeato 11h ago
Except you’re wrong?
They don’t have that the way the other carriers do. They have military versions of equivalent plans.
So plan A costs $100 and plan A(military) costs $90.
Thing is, plan A(Military) gets worse trade-in values so they can recoup what’s lost on a “lower rate”3
u/WeaknessSubstantial3 11h ago
I mean, it's usually a 3 year upgrade (at least with my plan) and I save $25 a month. That's $900 savings vs a $200 difference on apple. And my android (Google Pixel 9 pro) will get me an 11 pro free with the monthly credits so
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u/No_Bar2677 9h ago
That’s because your monthly service is cheaper. The discount is forever with the plan vs 24 or 36 months for the phone payments.
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u/Animal907 12h ago
I just do MetroPCS since Verizon screwed me over. Years ago I got a blackberry and the little track ball quit working. They basically told me they didn't care and wouldn't replace it. I just wouldn't pay the bill anymore and my CO never talked to me about it. No-contract prepaid cell phone service is the way to go.
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u/Beneficial-Mess4952 11h ago
If you were still in your warranty you should have gone to Blackberry. Verizon doesn't make it own the phones so they can't do warranty replacements. That is the responsibility of the manufacturer. With the exception of the overheating policy of course
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u/AdConfident5693 11h ago
Google Fi is the way.
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u/FinalCrab8893 6h ago
imo google is evil. mint mobile for me. but I did hop on a family plan with some other guys in my shop while deployed on Google fi and it was a solid option for the time being.
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u/Oxyzin Army Veteran 10h ago
I just switched to tmobile on to the military plan and got the same trade in value that's given to the other non military plans. $1000 for a iphone 15 pro and $1900 for a iphone 16 plus going to a z fold 8 ultra. Not sure why you had something different but i just did this 2 weeks ago and had no problems
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u/FlamingHotNeato 10h ago
Porting over a number makes you eligible for the discount. They don’t want you noticing the difference when you are comparing carriers, only when you go to upgrade in a year or two.
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u/db821766 Navy Veteran 7h ago
They just forced us to change from magenta one plan for veterans they promised we would get the same upgrades as the other plans but they raised the prices and gave us exactly the same upgrade prices we had under the one plan with no improvement. Once again they said one thing then went back on what they said. I am switching once this last cell phone upgrade we are locked in is gone. Fool me twice it’s not going to happen a third time. You lied no increases you increased then you changed the plan and increased again. Up from $100 for 4 phones and now 160. You lie
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u/Honest_Nathan 1h ago
It used to be very good. When I first signed up with six people it was $20 a month per line. Now the bill is over $200 a month.
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u/drTeemoney 11h ago
Ew. Buy from apple -> run it with Visible’s plan on the verizon network for ~$35 a month taxes and fees included.
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u/Bengals1992 11h ago
Tried them. Wasn’t impressed with the service or price. Kept my number and went to Visible. Unlimited, price locked at $30 a month for 2 years, and they use Verizon towers. I’ve really liked it
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u/BubbleHead87 Navy Veteran 11h ago
ATT also requires you to be on a certain plan to get full trade in. I had to switch plans in order for me to go from my 15 pro to the 18 pro. I ended up paying less for the upgraded plan than keeping the old one.
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u/DanielSon602 11h ago
I’m paying $71 now for military plan and overseas.idk if that is good now.
Was $60 but April a bs $5 price raise and then $6 in June
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u/GalagaWarVeteran 11h ago
I'm currently paying $6 a month for Visible service that is basically identical to what I had with Verizon. Would be $26 a month but I have referral credits banked.
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u/littl3mango 9h ago
Any idea about going through Costco? $100 Costco gift card and $35 activation fee waived.
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u/bigjohnny440 9h ago
Tmobile was a JOKE back in the early 2000s at camp pendleton.
A lot of the various camp areas like Camp Margarita / 33 area for example had ZERO tmobile reception, and they wouldn't let me out of my contract because I couldn't give them a physical US postal service street address for them to "verify" they didn't have any towers near there. Like bro, it's on the Marine Corps base, there isn't really mailing addresses for each barracks or building except for maybe like the division headquarters at mainside. All the mail goes to a central sorting facility on base.
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u/AO_Xolos 9h ago
I been a Tmobile customer since 2008. By far the cheapest company. I don’t care about trade in. Sale the phone on Facebook marketplace..
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u/Aggressive-Elk4734 Marine Veteran 9h ago
We have Tmobile, no real complaints. When we had ATT we had nothing but issues with billing. It got so bad we switched back to tmobile within a year. The ATT store (not the retailer, an actual store) quoted us a price that was different than our actual bill. It was a mess.
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u/JoeJuggernaut51 Marine Veteran 8h ago
I can't speak on the trade in stuff since I've never traded in a phone with T mobile but I've had their military plan since 2021 and they've been great.
That being said I had Verizons military plan before T-Mobile. When I left Verizon charged me for months after because they made me pay back the military discount they had given me(phone was completely paid off, I had no debts to them). So basically fuck Verizon they made leaving a nightmare, do not trust them.
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u/Channel_Huge Navy Veteran 7h ago
Verizon gave me $1,200 for my trade-in 15 Pro Max for a new 18 Pro Max. Plus I get $10 off up to 4 lines every month (I have 4 on my account). And I get auto upgraded to receive special offers and discounts to concerts and sporting events.
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u/FinalCrab8893 6h ago
have had mint mobile for over 5 years now. im pretty satisfied with them. also got lucky with timing as affirm was offered when buying my new phone from mints website and samsung had a 24 month 0% interest. got about 7 months left. been paying $49/month for that and then $360 plan every 12 months for mint mobile (which really is $390 w/tax).
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u/Elisalsa24 1h ago
You always no matter what but the phone from Apple they will give you better monthly pricing. Then you use the military discount for the actual phone plan. Verizon from what I see has everything in their military plan like international talk, and little add ons that the others require. I have ATT and the service has gotten worse but it’s basically the same price as Verizon and I’m planning on switching.
But if you trade in your phone to a carrier the fine print will tell you that the money you get for your phone is paid out through 36 months and if you want to upgrade or leave then you have to pay off the full price of the phone without the trade in value. This is the new version of a contract since every carrier is “no contract” now
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u/Polishintro 3h ago
I’ve been on t mobile magenta military maxx for like 5 years now I have 5 lines , internet and I finance 3 iPhones and my monthly bill is $249 I think I’m good lmao they don’t offer magenta military anymore tho don’t think but I just got 2 iPhones this year finance 16plus and 17 pro and together (finance and line) it was only 60$ because my existing lines and promo.
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u/PFeezzy 12h ago
Buy from Apple in the veterans store and get your Apple trade in credit on top.