RIP Free Phone Plan – FreedomPop Login Link To Cancel Your Account

While FreedomPop was always difficult to use, it was the last true $0 phone plan that also offered free data (at 200mb / month). Being an AT&T MVMO, the service was excellent no matter where I went. At one point, this free plan, with friend bonuses, gave me as many as 700mb data per month!

It was not my first choice for a phone plan. I first used RingPlus, a Sprint MVNO, and while the free plan I was on gave 2GB of data / month, Sprint’s service was extremely unreliable, making it a frustrating experience. Then RingPlus ran out of business, and I moved to FreedomPop. At the time their sim cards cost 99 cents to ship, and while it was a pain to set up my account (just look at how long the instruction is here), the free accounts really were free! It was one of the best ‘travel hacks’ I used – This was my go-to SIM card when traveling in the US. I did not have to pay roaming fees or get a travel sim card and plan. It even advertised free roaming in 25+ countries, but I never had a chance to try that out.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Yes, over the years FreedomPop did everything to devalue its free plan, such as lowering friend data bonuses from 50mb to 5mb per friend, and introducing a minimum top-up credit requirement in order to activate the free plan. Nonetheless, the 200mb / month free plan remained truly free and usable for those who got in early. In recent months FreedomPop had been emailing users telling them this free plan will be ending and users were given a deadline to switch to a newer SIM card and a free plan that offered a lot less in data allotment, but the emails did not say what would happen past the deadline date. Those who didn’t act on it found out nothing happened past those deadlines, and continued to use the plan as is. Honestly, if the plan wasn’t free, I don’t think anyone would have kept their accounts with FreedomPop.

Well, it appears FreedomPop is finally killing its free plan effective May 1, 2021. In an email this week, FreedomPop announced that those who do not migrate to a new plan will be automatically enrolled into a $3.99 plan:

For those who wish to continue receiving 100% free talk, text, and data, you must upgrade to a Premium SIM by May 1, 2021. With FreedomPop Premium, you get true cellular voice, text, and data – no app required! This means you can experience FreedomPop’s amazing value while using your phone as it was meant to be used. Upgrade today at FreedomPop.com. 

If you do not migrate by May 1, 2021, your account will be automatically enrolled into the Essential Plan which offers 350MB and 200 minutes / 200 texts each month for only $3.99/mo. 

We hope this notice gives you ample time to make the decision that’s right for you. Please take action by either upgrading your account to a Premium SIM, changing your current subscription to any other plan, or cancelling altogether by May 1, 2021. 

This is also being discussed on Reddit. Bottom line: If you still have the legacy 200mb data / month free plan, it will be terminated at the end of this month. Let’s analyze the options given here:

  1. Migrate to another free plan – Not only does this requires a new SIM which costs $10 to ship, but the amount of data included in this plan is only 25mb (plus 10 minutes of talk and 10 SMS) – rendering this option totally useless except for keeping as an emergency SIM.
  2. Get enrolled automatically into a paid plan at $3.99 / month – which offers 350mb of data, plus 200 minutes and 200 SMS each month. While this is not that bad of a plan and remains one of the cheapest out there considering you do get 350mb data – the plan is no longer free.
  3. Cancel the plan and move to another provider, such as US Mobile, Ting, Red Pocket, etc.
Given the negative experiences I had with FreedomPop in the past, I will be cancelling my service with them, and search for a better provider. If you have a free account and would like to cancel as well, you can do so without contacting support by accessing the legacy FreedomPop portal here:

https://my.freedompop.com/login

Then click on the gear icon on the top right, and then Account Status, and click Cancel Account. Don’t click on green Close button, but click on the grey Cancel Account link under it. And that’s it! Your account is cancelled. Reddit thread indicates you have to contact support, but I managed to do it all on the self-serve portal.

With FreedomPop killing its 200mb / month free plan, sadly, the days of free phone plans with data are gone.
100% Free no more (Image from Amazon.com)

Kevin