Majority of us within the United States have grown accustomed to the ballooning costs of mobile phone plans provided by the ‘Big Three’ service suppliers. All three of them—AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon—have continued to extend the worth of their plans by bundling in extras like safety instruments, hotspot information, subscription companies, and even cloud storage, with financial savings coming solely while you add as many traces as potential.
While these further options can actually be good to have, there’s some huge cash to be saved for those who strip away these unessential add-ons. This is the place Mint Mobile shines, because it sticks to what’s most vital in a telephone plan, providing you with limitless calls and texts on all plans, limitless information, and loads of high-speed information for many use circumstances. In truth, T-Mobile (whose community infrastructure Mint Mobile makes use of) appears to have picked up on this benefit as effectively, much more in order it now absolutely owns Mint Mobile.
Mint Mobile can also be one of many solely few pay as you go carriers providing multi-month financial savings on all of its plans. This implies that for those who’ve bought spare money to pay for as much as a 12 months of service prematurely, it can save you much more. Of course, the minimal three-month plan will likely be a bit an excessive amount of for some individuals to get without delay, however with the primary three months following the 12-month charges, it’s positively value testing Mint Mobile.
Also, there is a restricted time promotion for brand new prospects that brings the charges of all plans to $15 a month, supplied you join not less than three months. So, for those who’re planning to change to arguably the perfect Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on the market, we propose you check out Mint Mobile and avoid wasting money.
Mint Mobile: Plans and availability
At first look, Mint Mobile’s plan construction can appear a bit complicated. However, when you get a hold of how its reductions work, it makes quite a lot of sense. Mint Mobile provides a complete of 4 plans with 5GB, 15GB, 20GB, and limitless (capped at 40GB) of high-speed information.
You can purchase its wi-fi service in chunks of three, six, or 12 months, with the pricing damaged down per 30 days being cheaper for the long run. Fortunately, if you wish to strive Mint Mobile, the primary three months of your service are provided on the lowered 12-month value, so you may take a look at the provider with out committing to a full 12 months. If you do not need to pay something in any respect, Mint Mobile additionally provides a free seven-day trial that allows you to check out the service and see if it meets all of your necessities. This trial runs alongside your present service supplier’s plan and also you even get a brand new quantity for it, so there’s actually no cause to not take a look at Mint Mobile.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | 5GB | 15GB | 20GB | Unlimited (40GB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months (New Customers solely) | $15 per 30 days ($45) | $15 per 30 days ($45) | $15 per 30 days ($45) | $15 per 30 days ($45) |
| 3 months | $15 per 30 days ($45) | $20 per 30 days ($60) | $25 per 30 days ($75) | $30 per 30 days ($90) |
| 6 months | $20 per 30 days ($120) | $25 per 30 days ($150) | $35 per 30 days ($210) | $35 per 30 days ($210) |
| 12 months | $15 per 30 days ($180) | $20 per 30 days ($240) | $25 per 30 days ($300) | $30 per 30 days ($360) |
The most important financial savings with Mint Mobile come from signing up for a full 12 months of service, however you might also have the ability to save by switching to a smaller plan. Although now we have grow to be accustomed to purchasing limitless plans by default, most of us simply do not want that a lot information, particularly if frequent entry to Wi-Fi is out there.
If that features you, we propose checking your final telephone invoice to see how a lot information you used up not too long ago. You can even examine the information utilization within the settings of nearly any trendy Android telephone. For instance, for those who discover that you simply use lower than 20GB per 30 days, you do not require Mint Mobile’s limitless plan. As a matter of truth, you may not even want the 15GB plan.
If you need to carry your entire household over to Mint Mobile, you should use Mint Family to make your upfront funds extra palatable. With Mint Family, you solely must pay for 3 months at a time however can nonetheless avail the low 12-month charges. If you need to get Mint Mobile’s greatest charges for your loved ones members however cannot pay up for a number of 12-month plans without delay, Mint Family is certainly value testing. Do notice {that a} most of 5 traces might be added to a household group.
Buy extra to save lots of extra
Mint Mobile is a pay as you go provider absolutely owned and operated by T-Mobile, and it focuses on giving prospects reductions for signing up for a number of months upfront. It makes use of T-Mobile’s community for protection, with superior New Radio compatibility and provides plans with 5GB, 15GB, 20GB, and limitless information with a beneficiant 40GB cap on utilization.
Mint Mobile: What I like
A mobile phone plan is just nearly as good because the community behind it and in Mint Mobile’s case, which means T-Mobile, which is now additionally its proprietor. During my testing, I used T-Mobile Fourth Generation LTE and New Radio in Northern Florida. T-Mobile isn’t particularly quick in my space, however I did have New Radio protection together with T-Mobile’s quick band n41 more often than not. T-Mobile has been investing closely in its community with a give attention to New Radio infrastructure, so when you’ve got been unimpressed by its community previously years, it might be value one other look. As such, total protection of Mint Mobile is bound to get even higher going ahead.
I examined my Mint Mobile SIM card in two telephones, beginning off with an unlocked ASUS Zenfone 8 earlier than transferring on to a Samsung Galaxy S20+. The ASUS didn’t help band n41 and spent most of its time bouncing between Fourth Generation and New Radio. Conversely, the Samsung did help the overwhelming majority of T-Mobile’s bands and due to this fact, supplied a extra constant expertise on the community. Band n41 related sans points, even indoors, giving the Galaxy a severe benefit in community speeds.
What’s extra vital right here is that each of the above-mentioned units are fairly previous now. Newer smartphones reminiscent of the newest Samsung Galaxy S24 collection, when mixed with the current enhancements within the community infrastructure, are sure to present you a significantly better total expertise. Luckily although, the Zenfone did work with greater than ample speeds for many duties. Sure, it was objectively slower in a velocity take a look at however in day-to-day use, I didn’t really feel hampered.
For absolutely anything you want along with your telephone plan, Mint Mobile permits you to do it from the app.
The truth of the matter is that T-Mobile’s extensively suitable community ensures that you would be able to carry nearly any of the perfect Android telephones over to Mint Mobile and have it work flawlessly. Some telephones, reminiscent of these designed for Verizon and AT&T, may need fewer supported related bands but when they’re unlocked, there’s a great probability you’ll nonetheless have the ability to get related, even whether it is simply with LTE speeds, which proceed to be greater than sufficient for many use circumstances. To be certain you will get New Radio connectivity on Mint Mobile, you’ll desire a smartphone that helps New Radio band n71, and for quicker speeds, band n41.
One factor Mint Mobile will get very proper is its app expertise. The Mint Mobile app can rapidly present you ways a lot information you’ve used whereas offering you easy choices to improve or downgrade your plan as vital. The app can also be the place you may make funds and allow automated renewal. It’s vital to resolve forward of schedule if you wish to improve to the 12-month plan earlier than your renewal’s due as a result of for those who’ve began with three months, your plan will likely be set to resume on the greater three-month charges.
You can even discover fast entry to customer support with a chat system constructed into the app. You can name the help quantity from right here to speak to a human for those who choose too. For absolutely anything you want along with your telephone plan, Mint Mobile permits you to do it from the app. Also, when put next it to the app expertise of larger carriers reminiscent of AT&T, Mint Mobile’s app is fast and responsive, with a easy structure that makes it straightforward to seek out what you’re searching for.
Mint Mobile calls the plan limitless however after 40GB, your information speeds are lowered rather a lot.
As talked about, I examined Mint Mobile’s limitless plan and by the plan description, you get 40GB of information at full speeds, together with 10GB of devoted hotspot information. This plan additionally comes with limitless speak and textual content together with voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi calling and texting. Data speeds have been constant as much as 40GB of utilization, and calls have been fairly clear as effectively. I had no hassle understanding the particular person on the opposite line and so they additionally heard me loud and clear.
When it got here to information utilization, usually 40GB of information could be greater than sufficient for me as I sometimes use between 15-25GB of information per 30 days. Mint Mobile calls this plan limitless as even after utilizing up 40GB, your information isn’t completely lower off. However, the speeds are lowered rather a lot. I intentionally blew via the 35GB restrict and located my obtain speeds lower to proper round 500Kbps. This was sufficient for sending and receiving messages together with image mail. This velocity was additionally ample to stream music with out many points. If I needed to dwell with this limitation, I may, however I wouldn’t need to.
Once you’ve used your information up, Mint Mobile offers you two choices for including extra high-speed information. You can get 5GB for $15 or 10GB for $20, in case of the limitless plan. If you are on one of many decrease plans, you will get 1GB for $10 and 3GB for $20. Given that many carriers like Google Fi cost as much as $10 for 1GB of information, I believe it is a fairly first rate deal and may turn out to be useful for those who want the additional information in a pinch.
Mint Mobile: What might be higher
Like any pay as you go provider, there are a couple of compromises that include the monetary advantages in case of Mint Mobile too. For one factor, information will likely be a decrease precedence than on a daily T-Mobile postpaid or enterprise account. That means in areas with quite a lot of community congestion, Mint Mobile’s customers may see slower speeds. During my testing in my comparatively small metropolis, speeds felt constant on New Radio although, there isn’t a ton of congestion to fret about. This level is much less of a con and extra of one thing to bear in mind for those who discover that your speeds on Mint Mobile aren’t maintaining along with your expectations.
Now that Mint Mobile is owned by T-Mobile, among the de-prioritization issues may go away ultimately, but it surely’s too quickly to say for sure.
If you watch quite a lot of gaming streams, you is likely to be disenchanted by the 480p video streaming restrict.
One factor that I don’t like is the video streaming restrict. Even with the limitless plan, Mint Mobile limits video streaming playback to 480p (SD). This means about 1.5Mbps of velocity when utilizing a video platform like YouTube. While 480p seems to be advantageous on a small smartphone display, it’s noticeably softer than a 720p video. It’s additionally noticeable that on YouTube, 60fps streams will solely be obtainable in 30fps at 480p. If you watch quite a lot of gaming streams as I do, it feels a lot too low.
I perceive that limiting video high quality can forestall extreme wastage by those that stream hours upon hours of video on cell information. However, I additionally perceive that Mint Mobile calls this plan limitless however not solely does the plan embody a 40GB cap on high-speed information, but additionally a 480p (SD) video streaming restriction. No matter how cheap the information restrict, calling a plan limitless earlier than limiting each my high-speed information and my video high quality doesn’t really feel proper. Perhaps that’s why Mint Mobile calls this plan Unlimited.
Mint Mobile: The competitors
Competition is fierce in relation to pay as you go carriers. Ultra Mobile is likely one of the first to come back to thoughts and was in truth, Mint Mobile’s mum or dad firm earlier than T-Mobile got here in and scooped up each Ultra and Mint. Ultra Mobile provides a various vary of information plans on the T-Mobile community, beginning at simply 250MB of information and going all the way in which as much as limitless (with a 35GB cap). Ultra Mobile additionally has multi-month financial savings for as much as 12 months. Depending on how a lot information you want, Ultra Mobile could find yourself being faster.
Visible is a pay as you go provider owned by Verizon and thus, makes use of its mum or dad firm’s LTE and New Radio networks for protection. Visible has two easy and simple plans, and whereas they’re deprioritized in comparison with the Verizon Wireless plans, you continue to get loads of speeds for many of your wants. Visible can also be low cost with its plans, with the fundamental plan obtainable at $25 per 30 days, that too with all taxes and costs included. Both plans additionally offer you limitless hotspot utilization, together with a number of different advantages.
Mint Mobile: Frequently requested questions
Does Mint Mobile help worldwide service?
Calls and texts to Mexico and Canada are free on all plans. If you need to name different international locations, you will want so as to add cash to your Mint Mobile account and pay per minute or textual content.
Mint Mobile’s worldwide roaming help is so simple as it will get, with flat charges of $0.05 per textual content, $0.25 per minute, and $0.20 per MB of information for many international locations. Service in Mexico and Canada is lowered to $0.02 per textual content, S0.06 per minute, and $0.06 per MB of information.
Which Mint Mobile plan do you have to purchase?
When it involves how a lot time span of service it is best to go for between three, six, or 12 months, beginning with a three-month plan makes probably the most sense. If you are new to Mint Mobile, you may have the primary three months of service for a similar month-to-month price as twelve months. Not solely that, however this can even make it easier to dial in how a lot information you will want earlier than committing long-term.
Starting with three months, you may renew for twelve months and lock within the introductory fee. This would be the greatest plan of action for those who discover that Mint Mobile works effectively for you. If it isn’t working for you, you may let it run out with out renewing.
Looking for a household plan? Well, Mint Mobile has Mint Family, a characteristic that enables one particular person to handle as much as 5 plans beneath one account. There aren’t multi-line financial savings like another carriers, however Mint Mobile offers Mint Family customers 12-month charges with three-month renewals. This implies that customers will not must pay for all the account’s full 12 months of service without delay.
Does Mint Mobile help New Radio?
Yes, it makes use of T-Mobile’s New Radio community, which implies that in case your telephone helps New Radio entry, it is best to see the New Radio sign on the top-right of your telephone. Here are Mint Mobile’s present supported wi-fi bands:
- Band 2 – 1900MHz
- Bands 4/66 – 1700/2100MHz
- Band 5 – 850MHz
- Band 12 – 700MHz
- Band 71 – 600MHz
- Band n71 – 600MHz (New Radio sub-6)
- Band n41 – 2.5GHz (New Radio sub-6)
- Band n258 – 24GHz (New Radio mmWave)
- Band n260 – 39GHz (New Radio mmWave)
- Band n261 – 28GHz (New Radio mmWave)
What telephones does Mint Mobile help?
Can you carry your individual machine?
Surprisingly for a smaller MVNO, Mint Mobile has a reasonably nice number of telephones you should purchase immediately from it. You have the choice of paying the total value of the telephone outright or month-to-month with 0% financing via Affirm.
Most of the perfect telephones for Mint Mobile are additionally among the greatest Android telephones you will get. Alternatively, if you have already got a telephone you need to use with Mint Mobile, you are able to do that too.
Mint Mobile works with any GSM-unlocked telephone, and for those who aren’t certain what which means, you should use a compatibility checker on Mint Mobile’s web site to verify your machine will work by getting into its IMEI quantity. The SIM card itself is free, so you will simply must buy one of many above plans to get going along with your service.
Don’t neglect that you would be able to carry your present telephone quantity to Mint Mobile as effectively.
Mint Mobile: Should you join?
You ought to join if…
- You have good T-Mobile protection in your space
- You can afford to pay for a number of months upfront
- You have an unlocked telephone that works on T-Mobile’s community
You should not join if…
- You want greater than 40GB of high-speed information per 30 days
- You need to pay for one month at a time
- You want precedence information
- You want so as to add a number of traces
Mint Mobile makes quite a lot of sense for lots of people, because of its wide selection of information plans that work for many. Whether you want one thing small like 5GB or greater than 20GB, Mint Mobile’s plans are priced competitively. If you may afford to pay for a 12 months of Mint Mobile’s service, your month-to-month costs will likely be the most effective within the enterprise.
Mint Mobile can also be a greater match for many individuals, because of the nice compatibility of the T-Mobile community. Just about any unlocked telephone works sans any points on this community, together with New Radio telephones, so for those who’ve been interested by making an attempt out T-Mobile’s community, Mint Mobile is a superb alternative.
Savings in bulk
Mint Mobile is among the many most compelling pay as you go wi-fi choices out there. The thought of paying for a number of months of service upfront is a singular idea that lets you get fairly unbelievable worth. We additionally love the superb telephone help, strong obtain speeds, and bundled cell hotspot utilization.
