Don't use T-Mobile Money

October 1st, 2021
(last modified on June 15th, 2024)

TL-DR version: If you ever change your email address, and you lose access to your old email address, you'll no longer be able to reset your T-Mobile Money password via email. If you're not a T-Mobile Wireless customer, you won't be able to reset your password via text message either. So, you may lose the ability to reset your password altogether.

The Setting

I have used T-Mobile Money for more than 2 years now, as a secondary spending account. (I put the money there that I have saved up to spend on "fun" stuff.) I like the interest rate that I earn, and it has been a friendly experience. There is no monthly fee. (I assume they get their profits from the "credit card interchange fees" that they receive from a merchant when I purchase items with the associated debit card.)

However, I recently changed my email address, and this change appears to have put me at risk of losing access to my money.

The Symptoms

T-Mobile Money, like other banking services, permits me to change the email address which they will use for correspondence (such as my statements, or the spending alerts that I configure).

However, my "username" - which was set automatically to be my email address when I first signed up - cannot ever be changed, apparently. As they note on their FAQ page:

As a reminder, your username is an email address or T-Mobile wireless phone number you used to sign up for a T-Mobile MONEY account.

At first, I thought this would only be a source of minor confusion. Having to use my old email as the username is unintuitive, but I use a KeePass password manager, so I could always look up the correct value and (I thought) no actual harm could befall.

The problem came when I was having trouble accessing the site, and to troubleshoot I tried resetting my password. I tried entering my new email address, and I got the message:

Sorry, something you entered does not match our records. Please try again.

OK, I thought - this must say "please enter your email" but really mean "please enter your username". So I tried entering my old email address. This time, the message displayed indicated a temporary login URL would be emailed to me. And, it was -- to my old email address.

There are multiple problems with this, but the one I am concerned with here can be framed by one question: What if I could no longer access my old email address? Apparently, if that were the case:

I'd never receive my password reset email;
If my previous email provider gave my email address to somebody else, the new owner of the email address could get my password reset.

What are my options?

I could try entering my phone number into the screen above. However, this does not work (I get the same error message that I got when entering my new email address). I believe that's because I am not a T-Mobile Wireless customer, so my phone number cannot be my username.
I could reach out to a customer service representative over the phone. However:
- This is too time-consuming;
- After speaking with a customer service representative on the phone, it is not clear that they can reset my password either under these circumstances. (As we all know, you can speak to multiple customer service representatives and get different answers, so I suppose I could call back and try again.)
I could close my account and then open a new one. This is what the customer service representative recommended to me in light of my concerns. However, if I am going to go through the effort of closing my account, I figure I will open an account with a banking provider who does not have this problem.

The Outcome

As soon as practicable, I believe I am going to withdraw my money from T-Mobile Money and close my account.

I haven't actually lost access to my old email address yet - but I will (I know when it's going to happen), and although it's unlikely, it could be given to someone else.

There are multiple banks that can provide a similar service to this one, and I believe they don't include the same "gotcha" scenario.

Note: I haven't enabled any way for you to leave a comment here on this article, sorry. But if you'd like to get in touch about what I wrote, feel free to send me a note via my contact form.

Sincerely,
David Smedberg