Have Verizon and T-Mobile Price Increases Pushed You to Switch Plans or Carriers?

The change in the US to a 3-carrier system is starting to show exactly why having fewer choices and less competition is bad for consumers. Some of us were certainly concerned about price increases following T-Mobile and Sprint merging back in 2020, even if T-Mobile committed to not doing so for the first three years. Now that the initial no-increase period is up, well, guess what is starting to happen?

In recent weeks, T-Mobile started informing customers on semi-older plans that they would have to pay more. In some cases, folks will pay $5 more per line, while others were hit with a $2 per line increase. For those with multiple lines on a T-Mobile plan, their bills could see significant increases. Customers are rightly pissed about the situation.

This increase is not at all a surprise. We talked about this when the 3-year countdown began, that T-Mobile wasn’t making any commitments beyond those 3 years and would really only commit to keeping prices lower than others. And in many ways, they do have lower prices than Verizon, even with increases. Still, the minute their merger with Sprint became official, we all knew what was coming.

Now, T-Mobile is not alone in raising prices recently. Verizon raised prices on their 5G Do/Get/Play More plans by $4 per line at the beginning of March. They then followed up that increase by bumping their smartwatch plan to $15, an increase of $5 per month. Verizon is a regular participant in price increases on older plans.

I’d imagine that some of these price increases have forced (or at least tempted) you into looking at another carrier, possibly to save money or simply because you feel wronged. With fewer choices now, it might not be as easy as it once was to save money on your wireless bill, especially if you stick with a big carrier. Thankfully, there are (for the time being) still lots of prepaid players that offer multi-line plans, use the networks from the big 3, and offer solid perks, making them solid alternatives.

For those on Verizon or T-Mobile, have you decided to switch? Where’d you go?