An exciting new policy change took effect last week at AT&T Wireless. Have you recently started a new job, or joined a group that provides discounts on your cell phone service? Guess what? You get to pay a $36 fee per line in order to get your discount!

Wait, what?

There’s a way around this, see. Just sign up for any discounts you’re eligible for when you first sign up for service, or within the first thirty days. Good thing people don’t start new jobs or join associations after the first thirty days of their cell phone contracts!

Check out the new wording on AT&T’s discount enrollment page:

To enroll your account in the AT&T Sponsorship Program to take advantage of corporate discounts and other benefits available to qualified Individual Responsibility Users, you may be charged a $36 Sponsorship Fee for each line of service under your account.

This took effect last week.

Let’s say that you save 15% on your bill, and have a family plan where the portion of your bill that qualifies for the discount is $70 per month. Saving $10.50 per month, it will take just about seven months to recover the $72 you paid in fees for two lines. Not too bad, on a two-year contract. However, if your two-year contract is up, you’ll need to sign a new one in order to get the discount, as well.

Some employers and groups are nice enough to pay the $36 fee for you. Maybe you’ll be lucky, and your company is one of them!

AT&T Sponsorship Program [AT&T Wireless]

(Photo: adamjackson)

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