Let’s break down the Military Discount for all of the major phone companies. Most are offering 15% off part of the bill. There are additional military benefits as well, like getting activation fees and such waived in addition.
Military Discounts on Cell Phone Plans
AT&T – 15% OFF
AT&T offers 15% off the main plan. If you have additional people on the plan, the discount is not applied to the cost of additional users. So this isn’t as good as it seems when you have 6 people on your plan.
Visit the AT&T website to learn more.
Sprint -10% OFF
Sprint merged with T-Mobile in 2020. However, Sprint still honors their previous military discounts, providing qualified military members and veterans with a 10% military discount. All new customers will be directed to T-Mobile accounts.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile has a new military discount that started in 2018.
Visit the T-Mobile website to learn more.
Verizon – 15% OFF
Verizon offers 15% off the monthly bill for military members. They also offer options to terminate your agreement and waive any fees when you are deployed
Visit the Verizon website to learn more.
How to Verify Military Service for Discounts
The easiest way to enjoy these discounts is just to go to a local store and show them a form of Military/Veterans ID, DD Form 214, Military Orders, or a Paystub. If you cant visit the store, you can always contact Customer Support and Email/Fax a copy of your Identification. Many of the companies allow you to apply online. I have provided the links above.
Most of them waive the activation fee or any other associated fees also. For example, I recently upgraded to the new iPhone and I called customer service and told them I was Military. They gladly reimbursed the $35 upgrade fee. Many companies will do it if you have been a customer for over 3 years.
However, one thing that bothers me is that these companies apply the military discount only to the Primary Account Holder. This is a bummer because my brother and I are both on the same account. We are both in the Military, but only my portion of the bill gets the discount. I wish they would change this so that if there were multiple account holders in the military, they could show their military ID and get the discount also or make it so that if the primary account holder was military the whole family or bill would get the 15% discount.
Related Military Discounts
In addition to wireless military discounts, you can also get discounts from a variety of tech providers, including computer companies such as Dell and Microsoft, and cell phone makers, such as Samsung and Apple, which offers military discounts on many of its products.