AT&T Prepaid is increasing the size of the autopay discount it will offer on it's two prepaid unlimited plans to $20/month. The change will take effect on November 1, 2019. According to @KingOfTechDeals some Walmart locations have already started putting up new signage advertising that change as part of their holiday offerings. The current autopay discount is a limited time offer for new customers for $15/month off for life. AT&T has stated that offer ends on 10/31/2019. With the new discount, customers will be able to get an unlimited LTE data plan starting at just $45/month plus taxes and fees. (Update 11/1 - in addition to the autopay billing discount change, AT&T Prepaid has also lowered the base price of its most expensive plan from $85/month to $75/month).
Last week BestMVNO reported that "prices are fall fall falling at Walmart." That marketing slogan is being replaced to mark the start of the upcoming holiday shopping season. AT&T Prepaid customers at Walmart can now shop for the "perfect Presents" with "Savings on smartphones" and "Deals on data."
Deals On Data
The "Deals on data" tagline is being used to market the $20 discount on AT&T Prepaid's unlimited LTE data plans. It's also being used to market the longstanding offer available exclusively at Walmart that gives AT&T Prepaid customers triple data on the $50 plan. The triple data offer gives customers who purchase a new phone 25GB of LTE data a month on the $50 plan ($40 with autopay) instead of 8GB. The offer had been used by AT&T to attack Straight Talk's similar offer of 25GB of LTE data a month priced at $45/month. Straight Talk is sold in-stores exclusively at Walmart. Now Straight Talk's competing plan is about to be directly challenged by AT&T's newly discounted unlimited LTE data plan.
$20 Autopay Billing Discount Offer Fine Print
The $20 autopay billing discount offer will be available on both of AT&T Prepaid's unlimited LTE data plans. It is scheduled to be available until 1/9/20 (update, it has been extended until at least 3/23/20 online and 4/2/20 in stores) and requires customers to signup for an unlimited plan with autopay billing enabled. Customers who pick up the offer at an AT&T owned retail store or who require in-home expert activations may have to pay a $9.99/line activation fee. Customers will receive the $20/month autopay discount with their phone plan for life, as long as they stay on the plan. Subscribers that switch plans and later return to the $65/month plan will lose the $20/month autopay discount and instead will receive the standard autopay discount rate of $10/month. The autopay discount offer is for new lines of service only.
The two unlimited LTE data plans that customers can elect to subscribe to are described below.
- $65/month (limited time offer of $45/month with autopay billing) - unlimited LTE data with video streaming limited to 1.5Mbps or a resolution of about 480p. Any time network is congested users may temporarily experience slower data speeds. No mobile hotspot allowed.
- $75/month (limited time offer $55/month with autopay) - unlimited LTE data, Includes 10GB of mobile hotspot at 4G LTE data speeds. Hotspot can only be used in the USA. Customers who consume more than 22GB of data in a month may have their data speeds temporarily slowed during times of heavy network congestion. Videos stream at a resolution of up to 1080p. Previously priced at $85/month without autopay billing.
Both plans also include unlimited talk, text, and data that can be used both domestically and while traveling in either Canada or Mexico. Taxes and fees cost extra. Multi-line discounts are available on the plans. A maximum of 5 lines are allowed with multi-line discount. Subscribers who add one or two additional lines (lines 2 and 3) will receive an additional $10/month offer per line. Lines four and five receive an additional $20 off each line. Each line also receives the $20/month autopay discount. So as an example, someone with 4 lines on the $65 plan with autopay billing enabled would have a price structure like this:
- line 1 - $45
- line 2 - $35
- line 3 - $35
- line 4 - $25
Total cost = $140/month vs. $180/month for 4 lines without multi-line discount.
Perfect Presents With Savings On Smartphones Offers
The "perfect Presents" with "Savings on smartphones" offers are currently the same as they were for the prices are fall fall falling marketing campaign. Briefly, those offers were:
- Nokia 3.1A 32GB - $79, regular price is $89
- Samsung Galaxy J2 Dash 16GB - $59, regular price is $79
- Samsung Galaxy J2 Shine 16GB - $59, regular price is $79
- Alcatel idealXtra 16GB - $39.88, regular price $49
- LG Phoenix 4 16GB - $39.88, regular price is $49
There are extra savings for customers who activate some of those devices in-store. Not all of the savings were noted in the previous article. Customers who activate in-store will receive an additional $30 off on the price of the Nokia 3.1A, and $20 off the LG Phoenix 4. Shoppers can also get $50 off the original LG Xpression Plus. The LG Xpression Plus is $99 or $49 with the in-store discount and is probably marked down to make room for the newly launched LG Xpression Plus 2. Additionally, customers who buy an iPhone 6s and activate in-store can pick one up for $194.
The phone discounts will be available until 2/2/20 and require customers to activate on an AT&T Prepaid plan priced $35 or higher.