T-Mobile Starts Charging $5 for In-Store Bill Payments

Paying your bill at T-Mobile could be more expensive at this moment depending on how you pay for it. For many of you, you’ll see no change to the monthly charge T-Mobile slaps you with to continue using their service. For a certain other piece of the wireless population, a $5 payment charge will welcome you.

Effective July 19, T-Mobile added a $5 (plus applicable tax) “Payment Support Charge” if you pay your bill in-store. In other words, if you are the type to walk into a T-Mobile store to pay your bill, whether that’s with cash or a card, you’ll find an extra $5 charge accompanying your payment.

Why would T-Mobile add $5 onto your bill if you pay it in-store? They are likely considering the time of their workers in those stores who have to handle your payment when they could be upselling customers on who knows what kinds of other add-ons to plans or phones. So because you are taking them away from selling to process a payment, they want you to pay extra.

How can you avoid paying the in-store $5 bill fee? There are a number of ways, none of which involves you paying in-store. T-Mobile wants you out of stores if you plan to just pay your bill, it seems. Anyway, here are your options:

• Pay online in your T-Mobile account
• Use the T-Mobile app, in the Bill tab
• Setup Autopay (and save extra by doing so!)

For those really wanting to ask, “Who on Earth pays their bill in a store?” You’d be surprised at how many people do this. In this reddit thread, where T-Mobile employees are sharing their super non-fun stories about angry customers being asked to pay this fee since yesterday, they also explain that lots of older folks pay in-store, as do those who prefer to pay with cash.

// T-Mobile