According to a leaked internal memo we received from our sources, T-Mobile will start offering accessories on EIP. From July 20th, you’ll be able to pay for your premium accessories monthly over a period of time. Typically, with smartphones and tablets, that’s 24 months.
If you take the $199.99 retail price as the example, that’s roughly $8.30 per month for 24 months. So you’ll be able to walk in, get your new phone, grab a set of great earphones or a smartwatch and walk out without paying anything up front.
We’ve not heard many specifics on this. But we’ll make the assumption that it works on the same principle as the EIP on phones. So it should be 0% interest. What we’re not clear on is perhaps a key question: Can you only use EIP on accessories when buying a phone at the same time?
We’re also unclear on whether or not there’s a minimum value for the accessories being bought on EIP. I’m presuming we won’t see customers adding $9.99 screen protectors or MicroSD card readers on to a financing agreement. But, accessories upwards of $99 would be a much more realistic price point.
It’s clear from the memo that T-Mobile wants to sell more accessories. It would sell them to every customer buying a phone if it could. Giving a customer the ability to walk out without paying anything outright for a pair of Beats could be too good for some consumers to refuse.
