I have some friends who use Mint Mobile for around $18 per month and, in their words, it provides essentially everything that Verizon or T-Mobile do for $130 per month.
I’m convinced there must be some catch, so…what is the catch? What do I currently enjoy on my $130/month T-Mobile plan that I will lose by going to Mint Mobile?
Any advice is appreciated.
Let’s start with what you get on your $130/month plan. I hope a big part of that is paying for a really spiffy phone, because if it’s just for the network service, even if it’s unlimited everything, then you are getting royally screwed.
Chances are you don’t get nearly as much data on the $18 plan, so if you’re streaming videos half the day, you wouldn’t be able to do that. There might also be limits on talk time and number of texts.
We just switched over from AT&T. For three of us we don’t use much data, we got the 4GB plan for $15/month. For my daughter, who is an endless data user, we got her the unlimited plan for $30/month.
So, $75/month compared to the roughly $160/month we were paying before.
We’ve been on the new plan for about a month, and it’s not clear to me that we’ve given up anything at all, but we’re saving quite a bit of money.
Check with me in a few months and see if anything changes… But I’d note that Mint is on the T-Mobile network, so whatever connectivity they have, we should have.
PS my son switched over to Mint about six months ago when I kicked him off our AT&T family plan, and he has had no issues with it… in fact, he’s the one that talked me into it.
So, a couple of things.
Resellers do get low priority on congested networks - peak hours, crowded events, etc. This is not an issue 99.5% of the time, but it is something to keep in mind.
Second, most low cost plans are data limited (the big killer) - so for those who use comparatively little, I have in multiple threads recommended various pre-pay options. The one I do the most (as a former TMO employee) is Connect by T-Mobile.
$15 per month (plus taxes and fees) is unlimited talk and text and 3 gigs of data per month.
With the basic Mint-Mobile package on their site, it’s 4 gigs of data, and otherwise the same AFAIK.
So, what do you get on the ‘full price’ plans, normally $40 or so a month?
One, normally unlimited data (for values of unlimited), perks like tethering and wifi calling which may or may not be enabled on resellers, muuuch better customer service and tech support, various carrier specific perks (for example, TMO service for unlimited calls and texts includes all of North America), and (most importantly for some customers) the chance to get trade-in promos, or other paid sub-promos.
In general, my TMO bill for unlimited service on 4 lines is $160, - $30 per month because only one of the 4 ever goes over 2G a month, and if your usage is under that, you get a $10 per line credit. I could probably save a bit by going all prepaid, but several of the perks (10G of smartphone mobile hotspot when travelling or other outages) are nice enough that I haven’t bothered.
I have the Mint 10Gb plan, which is really way more than I am likely to use. It costs me $250 a month — no, wait, that is two fifty a year. That is one of the hugely appealing aspects of Mint: you can pay your bill once a year and not have to think about it at all until next year. I mean, I understand you can get auto-pay, but I really like one payment a year better.
The other point not mentioned is roaming. The prepaid plans usually only provide coverage on one of the big 3 carriers. The expensive plans provide roaming on many of the dozens of much smaller carriers. This can matter if you are traveling.
Thanks for all the replies in this thread, great so far.
Do apps like WeChat, LINE, WhatsApp, Bank of America, everything all work on Mint like on any other carrier?
Most apps (very, VERY rare exceptions) treat all data as data. Whether you’re on cellular or wifi, secured or unsecured networks. Using a reseller isn’t an issue (security is a different story though).
Of course, what app you use and are supported by the business does depend on the OS - back in the day I used to get the ‘why isn’t my banking app working’ only to find out that their version of the OS (android or iOS) hasn’t been supported in 5 years and so… 
Ryan Reynolds?
What T-Mobile offers that Mint Mobile apparently doesn’t, is internet service. It’s a requirement, at least hereabouts, that you have a T-Mobile phone account to get their Internet. And it’s not like I have other viable choices in this area.
The other thing that the bigger brands offer is generally better customer service. It’s both better in the sense that it’s easier to talk to a person when you have a problem and that the person is more likely to be able to figure out the problem due to a combination of better training and actually having access to the primary provider’s systems.
When I used a MVNO, a few times my internet connection stopped working and after going through their script they said something like “Well, it could be a problem with Verizon. I’ll put in a ticket but they usually take about 24 hours to get back to us. Let me know if it starts working before then.”
Verizon lets you use Verizon networks, Mint does not as it’s on T-Mobile. There are only 3 major networks in the US and a few smaller/regional ones. Then there are hundreds of third party MVNOs (as well as ones owned by the big players - Visible is Verizon). The disadvantage of Mint and other MVNOs is that you can be deprioritized - data slows during times of heavy congestion. Otherwise you’re probably having an identical experience, though customer service varies across companies.
I used Mint briefly as I had a freebie and no complaints but I just prefer Verizon networks. The biggest complaint I think is they’ve had issues with port-out security in the past.
Some of it will depend on where you are. A friend of mine went for Mint because it was so cheap (recent immigrant, didn’t have a phone plan at all) and he hates it because the coverage is terrible where he is.
If you have friends who swear by it, then coverage in your area is probably not an issue. I never seem to have coverage problems with Verizon.
I got a new T-Mobile account last November and somehow they got my name misspelled. I only would notice when they sent a text notification thanking me for my automatic payment once a month and I’d promptly forget about it till the following month. I was also dreading what I anticipated would be a lengthy phone call, lots of transfers, dropped calls, etc. When I finally got around to doing it this summer, it was a snap, maybe 10 minutes.
Come to think of it, they were really easy to work with setting up the account last year.
Around $130 a month would be two lines of T-Mobile’s top priced limitless everything plan.
When I set up Mint Mobile I didn’t fully understand how to implement a family plan, so I called the service line, which answered pretty quickly, and the lady not only walked me through what to do correctly, but she fixed what I had screwed up.
Thus endeth my one service interaction.
Okay, now I’m back and can dig into the subject a bit more.
So, to compare a ‘premium’ major carrier plan like the Magenta MAX linked earlier and Mint mobile, I want to look at the main perks (leaving out carrier perks like Netflix, trade-in/trade-up promos, just stuff you’d use).
First MAX is $85 per month (much less as you add lines, which is true for most major carrier plans), and the Mint Unlimited Data is $30 per month. Yikes!
Except . . . there is a lot of power-user stuff boiled into MAX. I would never recommend MAX to the the casual user, but for the true Phonephreaks out there…
First, MAX has the most unlimited of unlimited data. Unlike the normal plans (pretty much across the board) the MAX programs does not include any data restrictions even to the top .1% of data users. So if you’re actually that guy (I hated him when I worked there) that was regularly hitting 80-90G of data a month on your phone, you’d call me and complain your speed was slow sometimes. And then I’d patiently explain that the top 2% of all users could see a data slowdown during times of congestion, to allow a higher level of service for all the remaining customers.
In my head, it was 'stop hogging it all you BLEEP*. Unfair, but data-pigs are a thing.
Mint starts slowing your data at 35G on their unlimited program. Plus the mobile hotspot is capped at 5G. MAX mobile hotspot is 40G of data before slowing to 3g speeds.
The other big difference a POWAH user would notice is that MAX does video streaming up to 4k HD. WHY anyone would want to watch that on even the biggest phablet is beyond me, but I’m not a power user. Mint does all video streaming at 480p.
So, two very different products for very different users at a (gasp) very different price.
I honestly think though, that unless you’re a power user, any single line customer is going to be better off using a pre-paid option, TMO, Mint, Straighttalk, what have you. They are very good bang for buck. IF however, you travel a lot (nationally or especially internationally) you’re going to be better off with the major carriers, who can provide more service in more locations.
And if you live on your phone, the restrictions of the pre-pay plans (no matter the provider) are going to feel like you’re being fed what you want through a straw.
IF however, you’re a multi-line plan, the major discounts you get on secondary lines often make the major carriers plans a lot more palatable, generally at the 3+ line level. And the major carriers generally do a better job at non-phone device coverage, such as LTE smartwatches, tablets, or non-phone hotspots.
I’d go back to @Roderick_Femm 's point. Are the T-Mobile/Verizon/AT&T plans including the latest and greatest phone under a contract? I have Cricket with 4 line and unlimited data for $90 per month and no phone under contract. I go out and spend hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket for an unlocked phone which for me is a feature not a bug.
As I stated upthread, there aren’t phone contracts but they absolutely use them as retention strategies. You can absolutely get some great deals (free, half off, and the like) as long as you understand that those are in the form of monthly rebates to the cost of said phones over a 2 year period.
And yes, if you leave early, you pay off the remaining financed cost of the phone without those rebates.
But if you do so, it’s no harm, no foul, and under most circumstances (rare exceptions exist) they’ll unlock the phone.
So, once again going back to my prior point, the main carrier plans (and I’d avoid ‘ultra premium’ plans like MAX for 95% of users) they’re good if you use a lot of data, travel, OR want to upgrade/replace your phone every other year or so. Alternately, if you’re on a family plan of 4 or more, where the cost per line generally drops to about $20 for lines after that.
For a single line, or a duo, absolutely I’d suggest a reseller as long as there aren’t any of the outlier issues mentioned in earlier posts.