Simple Mobile, a Tracfone-owned T-Mobile MVNO has announced the launch of a new program that will give customers credit towards the purchase of a new phone every 18, 12 or 6 months. The way it works is that you sign up for one of three special “Phone Upgrade Unlimited Plans” and with every top-up, you gain points. Once you’ve accumulated 18 points, you can get $200 -$300 towards the price of a new phone purchased from Simple Mobile’s partner company.
Here are the
Simple Mobile Phone Upgrade Unlimited Plans (whew, what a mouthful!). All of the plans include unlimited talk, text, international text and 1 GB of data, in addition to a limited number of international minutes that can be used to call Mexico or Canada.
- $50 plan (1 point per ReUp. After 18 months, you’ll get a $300 coupon)
- 100 international minutes
- $60 plan (1.5 points per ReUp. After 12 months, you’ll get a $300 coupon)
- 200 international minutes
- $70 plan (3 points per ReUp. After 6 months, you’ll get a $200 coupon)
- 300 international minutes
You can switch between any of the three plans as often as you like, and the phone points will stay on your account until you redeem them. Points can only be redeemed in increments of 18, and I am pretty sure they stack. If you let your account be inactive for 6 consecutive months or if you port out of Simple Mobile, you will lose the points. They aren’t redeemable for cash or anything like that.
Of course, there are always catches to any program, and I kind of think that you might be better off in simply setting aside $10 – $30 every month towards a new phone instead of giving it to Simple Mobile, who will just keep the money if you decide to switch to a different carrier. As a comparison, here are their regular plan offerings:
- $25 plan – unlimited talk, text, international text, no data
- $40 plan – unlimited talk, text, international text, 1 GB data (equivalent to the plans above, minus phone incentive)
- $50 plan – unlimited talk, text, international text, 3 GB data
- $60 plan – unlimited talk, text, international text, 10 GB data
Then again, if you really liked Simple Mobile and you sucked at saving money I guess I could see how something like this could be nice. Personally, it seems like a bad idea to me. What do you think? Let me know in the comments!]]>
