The United States federal government has been partially shut down since December 22, 2018, furloughing hundreds of thousands of federal employees for the Christmas holidays and now a week into the new year. As this shutdown becomes the third-longest in US history, those employees are facing a growing pile of bills that they may or may not have personal savings to cover in the absence of their paycheck.
T-Mobile and Verizon are offering to help lessen the burden of these workers' wireless bills.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile announced on January 5 it is ready to help federal employees directly impacted by the shutdown by offering deferred and flexible payments:
Customers who are Federal government employees and need short-term account assistance can work with T-Mobile Customer Care representatives on solutions tailored to meet their needs, including flexible payment options that allow customers to spread their service payments over time. Payment deferral is also an option. T-Mobile is offering the same support to government account customers.
To discuss how T-Mobile can help, customers who are Federal employees or Federal government account customers need to call T-Mobile Customer Care (611 from a T-Mobile device or 1-877-746-0909 from any phone).
Verizon
Verizon announced on January 7 that it has the back of federal employees, offering flexible payment plans.
Verizon is standing by to help with flexible payment options to keep your service running. Our Promise to Pay program allows you to set a future date for payment quickly and easily.
You can set up a promise to pay arrangement in the My Verizon app, or in My Verizon with your smartphone, tablet or computer browser. Any government employee customer impacted by the shutdown can utilize any of these self service tools or speak with one of our financial services representatives for further assistance at 1-866-266-1445.
