Disclaimer I am going to start this with a full disclosure. I have been a T-Mobile customer for all but about 18 months since 2007 and I currently have five phone lines and one tablet line with them. I used this method myself even though I have no intent to leave T-Mobile. I thought it might be some useful information that others might want to know about.

Over the last couple years T-Mobile has really rebranded itself with the whole UnCarrier movement. It has instituted some awesome policies including bring your own device, JUMP, Tablet Data for life, no interest loans on devices, and many other cool things that are shaking up the mobile industry. Recently I came across what I thought to be a loophole in relation to having a phone that is ready for a JUMP upgrade.

The T-Mobile JUMP program allows users who frequently change phones to upgrade to a newer model up to twice a year. Since the consumer is financing the phone at the time they start service they are paying monthly on that phone. That amount is somewhere between $6 for a budget phone and $32 for certain flagships. Most monthly device or equipment installment plan (EIP) payments are in the $25-$28 range. That is the price of the phone financed over 24 months with no interest.

I am going to use my case as an example. I have had the LG G3 since launch date last year and I believe the original price was around $650. At the time of purchase I paid the taxes on the phone or somewhere around $45-$50. Then I paid in the neighborhood of $25 per month on top of my service plan. I still owed about $375 on the G3. When I became eligible for my JUMP I decided to pick up the Samsung Galaxy S6. When I went to the T-Mobile store I turned in my G3 and purchased the 64GB Galaxy S6. I paid $150 ($99 for more storage, $50 full taxes on the phone).

My EIP payment was to be about $28 per month. Once you leave with the new device the old one is sent to some 3rd party by T-Mobile never to be heard from again. This is where it got interesting. Today I returned the Galaxy S6 as I was within my return period of a new device. I did have to pay a $50 restocking fee but I would have had to pay that whether I purchased another device or not. When I brought it back I decided that there wasn’t another device that I wanted to get.

Since I have another phone I wasn’t in a position of need to buy another one. I returned the S6 and now my EIP balance that went from $375 remaining with the G3, to $660 with the S6, is down to $0.

The representative in my store assured me that this wasn’t the first time she’d seen this and that even though I no longer had an EIP payment T-Mobile wanted me to remain a consumer because I wanted to remain a consumer. Keep in mind I am not on a contract with T-Mobile, they do not do this anymore. It really made me think about families that are ready to make the move away from T-Mobile and what the best way to do that might be.

As I said, I’m staying put. T-Mobile works where I need it to work and does a good job where I need it to. If a family with 5 lines needed to move carriers and away from T-Mobile what I just did will save them a ton of money. Let’s say for argument sake they are all have $600 phones and all are about midway through their two years so they owe about $300 on their devices and they are paying $25 per month in EIP payments alone, that is $125 per month. Here is the kicker, they still owe $1,500 in EIP

payments ($300 per phone x 5 phones). There are two ways they could go about eliminating this balance. It really depends on what they want to do.

1st Option is if they want to stay: They could use their JUMP on each line and get a new flagship and continue to pay the same thing or more. They could get a new budget phone and lower those monthly payments considerably. Say they purchased a phone that was $150 or $6.25/month. For all five of them that would be only $31.25 per month. They would then only owe $750 on all of their EIP plans together; half of what they owe now. That’s a savings of $93.75 per month.

2nd Option is if they want to leave: This is what I found interesting. Say you owe that $300 on each phone in a five person family. You go to a T-Mobile, use your JUMP, and get 5 new flagship phones. You wait a couple days and return them all and do not purchase another device. There will be a couple hours where you do not have a phone.

After you’ve returned the phones make sure you leave your T-Mobile account active. You can go to another carrier and port your numbers. The only thing you will have had to pay is the $50 restocking fee on each phone. Most of which you will have already paid in the taxes on the phones you were returning.

So what does this mean? It means that T-Mobile has put themselves in a position to do what is best for the consumer. It isn’t best for T-Mobile because now they have five phones that they cannot sell as new any longer. They are, in a sense, allowing consumers to leave if T-Mobile is not the best fit for that consumer. That is awesome! Of course that isn’t what T-Mobile wants but to me it shows that they believe in their service and their selection. I actually struggled to write this because it shows a way to get away from T-Mobile at nearly a fraction of the cost it should. It feels like a loophole. It feels like a slimy way to leave. It feels like such a dirty thing to do to a company….It also feels like the absolute best thing that a company could do for consumers!