Does T-Mobile Sell Unlocked iPhones? (finally Answered!)

Have you ever asked yourself if T-Mobile sells unlocked iPhones? Well, let’s dive in and find out.

Purchasing an unlocked iPhone isn’t the easiest thing in the world these days. Most, if not all of the resellers out there will lock it once you have your SIM card in, through some means or another, until you fulfill their requirements, whatever that may be.

So, does T-Mobile sell unlocked iPhones? No, T-Mobile, is no exception, as you cannot buy an unlocked iPhone from them. However, you can get it unlocked, so long as you meet T-Mobile’s requirements for unlocking your iPhone. They’re very similar to AT&T in their unlocking methodology, so prepare to jump through a few hoops.

Unfortunately, just about the only way to purchase and immediately own a truly unlocked iPhone, is to purchase it through Apple directly.

Apple sells all of its phones completely unlocked and you can choose which carrier you want to go with and switch around as much as you want.

T-Mobile isn’t the worst of the bunch, because they give you some leeway in certain circumstances that you won’t get from the likes of Verizon.

However, your iPhone is not your iPhone until T-Mobile says it’s your iPhone, which may be irksome for some consumers.

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How to Unlock Your iPhone with T-Mobile

Like AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile has a few stipulations that you have to adhere to if you want to get your iPhone out of carrier jail. So long as you take care of T-Mobile’s requirements, you will be able to request an unlock code from T-Mobile, which we’ll cover more specifically below.

Your iPhone must have been purchased from T-Mobile
You cannot have requested more than two unlock codes per line in the course of a single year
Your iPhone must satisfy T-Mobile’s Terms and Conditions
Your T-Mobile account must be caught up and in good standing
iPhone must have been active for a minimum of 40 days
Cannot have been reported lost, stolen, or blocked
If prepaid must have been active for a year

That are quite a few prerequisites just to ask T-Mobile for permission to have your iPhone belong to you and to you alone. If any one of these things is an issue for you right now, then you’re probably not going to be able to unlock your iPhone.

Now, when T-Mobile states that you can’t request more than two unlock codes in the space of a year for a single line of service, that is just referring to your line. It covers your phone only and not any of the other iPhones on the account.

For instance, if you have requested more than two unlock codes on your iPhone, but one of your kids, who has an iPhone on a second line on your account, has not, you won’t be able to unlock your iPhone, but you can do so for your kid’s iPhone.

Before you bother trying to request an unlock code, check your account to make sure that everything is in order before you do. A single day late on your bill and T-Mobile won’t unlock your iPhone for you.

Remember, you also have to have your iPhone as an active line on a T-Mobile account for a minimum of 40 days.

If you are on a prepaid account, you have one of two options. The first is to have your iPhone active on the T-Mobile network for a period of at least a year. According to T-Mobile, a year is exactly 365 days so you can wing it and send in an unlock request on day 364.

The second option, is you have to have at least $100 in refills since it was funded. The second option will be much quicker to achieve than waiting an entire year but the choice is yours on that one.

How to Send T-Mobile an Unlock Request

If everything is in order and you’ve fallen in line with T-Mobiles extensive requirements for unlocking an iPhone through them, you can go ahead and send a request to T-Mobile to have your iPhone unlocked.

There’s just one problem. If you’ve done everything that T-Mobile has asked of you, paid for your iPhone in full, followed all of the guidelines, and have never even been late on a single payment since you originally opened an account with them, they can still deny your request.

Based on what? Well, nothing, of course. T-Mobile has the right to refuse an unlock request for any reason that the company determines on its own, period. They don’t even have to tell you why.

It sounds like garbage and that simply can’t be helped. If you are all set to request an iPhone unlock, then you are way too far down the rabbit hole to turn back now. There are a couple of ways that you can request an iPhone unlock from T-Mobile.

The first method is by contacting T-Mobile’s Customer Service via phone. It’s not going to be an immediate thing, but that’s how you get the ball rolling.

The second method is to waltz into a T-Mobile retailer yourself and talk to a representative there.

Your best bet is to take the second option. The reason is that a service representative is going to be a lot more receptive in a face-to-face encounter than someone over a phone is. You’ll have a better chance in person.

There is a third option, however, and it may or may not be feasible. If you love T-Mobile’s service but hate their dictatorial power over your iPhone, even when you already own it, buy from Apple.

Apple is the only way to truly purchase a full unlocked iPhone. There is no other way outside of jailbreaking it and that comes with its own terrible possibilities.

Purchase from Apple and you can do exactly what you want with your iPhone when you want and how you want.

Final Thoughts

T-Mobile does not sell unlocked iPhones, however, they will (most likely) unlock your iPhone if you meet all of their requirements and whoever gets your request woke up on the right side of the bed that morning.

Even if you do everything that T-Mobile wants, you may still be turned down, although they should go ahead and do it. Just cross your fingers or buy from Apple.

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