Carrier price guarantees are a marketing promise as old as unlimited data plans. But carriers themselves have found so many ways around them that you would almost look naive for trusting one. In a recent settlement, New York Attorney General Letitia James secured more than $38 million in value for New Yorkers after T-Mobile broke its promise.
In 2017, it assured customers that it wouldn't ever change the price of its Price Guarantee Plans, then went ahead to raise them by about $5 per line in 2024. Affected customers can now get refunds, a free 5G phone, or a price freeze until 2029.
T-Mobile's promise came with fine print
The settlement involving T-Mobile follows an investigation by the New York Attorney General's Consumer Frauds and Protection Bureau. It found that between 2017 and 2019, T-Mobile advertised Price Guarantee Plans to its 4G customers with a promise to “never change the price you pay.”
The company backed that up with press releases and a CEO interview claiming the offer effectively “abolishes price hikes.”
In 2024, T-Mobile raised the price of those plans by about $5 per line. Customers on roughly 252,957 Price Guarantee Plans in New York saw their bills go up. The carrier then pointed to fine print on its website that it said gave it the right to raise rates.
The Attorney General's office rejected the defense. Under New York law, hidden disclaimers or confusing language don't excuse misleading customers. James said New Yorkers deserve “clear and honest prices, not misleading offers with hidden fine print.”
Now, customer compensation depends on your phone. T-Mobile will identify customers still on 4G phones and give them two choices. You can cancel and get your last month's payment back plus a $25 gift card, or stay and get a free $250 5G phone or a $150 credit toward a more expensive one.
Everyone else, including customers who have already upgraded to 5G, can cancel and get their last month's payment refunded, or stay on their current plan. Anyone who stays gets a guarantee that their plan price won't go up until at least 2029.
The fine print problem isn't going away
There's more to the settlement than refunds. Not only is T-Mobile reimbursing affected customers, but it's also bound to honor every current and future price guarantee and clearly disclose any limits on those promises. On top of the reimbursements, it will pay $98,000 to the state of New York.
T-Mobile's current five-year price guarantee covers the plan rate itself, which is the base monthly charge for talk, text, and data. Its own FAQ says the guarantee excludes taxes and fees, per-use charges, plan add-ons, and third-party services. As it would seem, it used that gap on October 12 and raised its Regulatory Programs and Telco Recovery fee to $5.49 per voice line, up from $4.49.
Mobile internet lines went from $2.10 to $2.60. It was the third increase in under two years, after the fee rose from $3.49 to $3.99 in April 2025 and to $4.49 in January 2026. That adds up to $2 more per voice line in 18 months, with no change to the plan.
T-Mobile describes the fee as covering the cost of government mandates like E911 and the charges other carriers bill it for completing calls. It isn't a government tax, so the carrier controls it and can raise it without touching the guaranteed plan price.
The settlement only covers the old Price Guarantee Plans from 2017 to 2019, and it only applies to New York customers. There's no word yet on similar deals in other states.
