Join our FREE personalized newsletter for news, trends, and insights that matter to everyone in America

Newsletter
New

T-mobile Retroactively Locking Phone Due To Someone Else’s Balance.

Card image cap

Location: Oregon
Apologies if this is not the right flair.

I was on a T-Mobile family plan with my mother starting in 2015. I bought an iPhone 14 Pro when it launched and used T-Mobile payment plans. By late 2024, I paid off the phone early, called T-Mobile to unlock it, and moved my number to my own Mint account.

My mother died in March 2025, and I believe her estate never settled her phone account; she died with no money and significant debt, so she may have owed something. Today, while switching from Mint to a new Verizon account, my phone shows carrier-locked to T-Mobile. After two hours on the phone, a representative said it was re-locked (???) due to an outstanding balance on my mother’s account. He claimed nothing could be done until that balance is settled, even though it is not my account. I left her plan in good standing and had my phone unlocked six months before she passed.

Can T-Mobile retroactively lock a phone I paid for because of someone else’s balance? My phone no longer works with Mint, so I will likely need a new Iphone tomorrow which I wasn’t planing on. I am incredibly frustrated because I paid for this device and left the plan months before any issue, after they had already unlocked it and I was on my own account in good standing since.

submitted by /u/LondonJag1980
[link] [comments]