AT&T is lowering its AutoPay discounts on credit cards

After T-Mobile, AT&T is lowering its AutoPay discounts for users paying their phone bills through credit cards. The carrier recently announced that accounts that use credit cards for AutoPay and paperless billing will see their monthly discounts drop from $10 to $5 per line starting October 2, 2023. T-Mobile has completely ended AutoPay discounts for credit cards, Google Pay, and Apple Pay.

AutoPay is a program that all major wireless providers in the US offer to their customers. It enables them to automatically debit the monthly phone bill from the customer’s registered payment method every billing cycle. The companies offer AutoPay discounts for each line enrolled in the program. The discounts vary from carrier to carrier, usually ranging from $5 to $10 per line per month.

Until recently, T-Mobile and AT&T offered AutoPay discounts with all payment methods. But, the former ended the discount for credit cards and wallets last month. It previously offered a $5 discount on the monthly phone bill for those payment methods. AT&T is now following the same route, at least for payments made through credit cards. It isn’t completely ending AutoPay discounts, though. It’s decreasing the discount from $10 to $5 per line.

According to the official announcement from AT&T, this change will also affect the AT&T-branded Points Plus Card from Citi. If you use this card or any other credit card to automatically pay your monthly AT&T phone bills, your bill amount will increase by $5 starting in October. Like T-Mobile, AT&T is encouraging those users to update their payment methods to a debit card or bank account.

You can update your AT&T AutoPay payment method by visiting the company’s official website. You can also reach a customer support executive over the phone call at (800) 331-0500. Note that it can take a couple of days for your payment type to change. AT&T lets you manually make a one-time payment if needed if your bill is due within that timeframe.

This AutoPay change will save AT&T a few bucks on processing fees

Wireless carriers pay a higher processing fee on credit card transactions than on debit cards or bank payments. By ending or reducing AutoPay discounts on credit cards, the companies are trying to save a few bucks. However, this change may annoy a few AT&T and T-Mobile customers as some credit card operators offer additional benefits such as phone insurance if they pay their phone bill every month with their cards. Note that Verizon still offers AutoPay discounts on its Verizon Visa credit card.