T-Mobile Cuts $300 Off Second Apple Watch Ultra 4 in Holiday Promotion

Q: Does T-Mobile's $300 Apple Watch discount actually trap you into paying more for carrier fees over three years?

Yes—if you would not otherwise pay for two Apple Watch cellular lines, the $300 discount can easily be outweighed by three years of carrier fees. The key catch is that T-Mobile applies the $300 as monthly bill credits over 36 months, not as an instant discount. New customers must activate two wearable lines to qualify, and those lines typically carry their own monthly charges. Even using a relatively modest estimate of about $10 to $15 per watch line per month, two lines over 36 months would cost roughly $720 to $1,080 before taxes and fees. That is far more than the $300 credit. There can also be extra costs beyond the line charge. Carriers commonly add activation or connection fees, and some plans may not include taxes and regulatory fees in the advertised price. If you cancel early or pay off the device and leave, you generally lose the remaining bill credits. That is the real “lock-in”: the savings only fully materialize if you stay for the full term. The offer makes better sense for people who already want two cellular Apple Watches and would keep those lines active anyway. In that case, the promotion lowers the hardware cost of the second watch. It is much less attractive for buyers who mainly want Bluetooth use, do not need standalone cellular service on both watches, or might switch carriers before three years are up. So the deal is not automatically a trap, but for many shoppers it can become more expensive overall once recurring carrier fees are counted.

3 articles · Updated · Tom's Guide · Oct 13

$300 in bill credits is available on a second Apple Watch when shoppers buy one eligible model at full price from T-Mobile for a limited time.
The promotion covers Apple Watch models from the Series 10 through the Ultra 4, with the discount applied to the second device over 36 months.
New customers must activate two new wearable lines to qualify, making the offer strongest for buyers adding multiple watches to a shared plan.
The Ultra 4 is T-Mobile's headline model in the deal, featuring continuous heart-rate and HRV tracking, a new Readiness Score and up to 50 hours of battery life.