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How Good Is Mint Mobile: Network, Mobile Plans and More

Update on March 17, 2023:

On March 16th, T-Mobile announced an agreement to purchase Ka’ena, Mint Mobile’s parent company, in a $1,35 billion deal.

According to this deal, T-Mobile will become the owner of Mint Mobile, as well as own Ultra Mobile, another Ka’ena service that offers international calling.

Ryan Reynolds, the celebrity face of Mint Mobile, is reported to own around 20 to 25 percent of Mint Mobile, and, after the T-Mobile acquisition, will remain in a creative role as a Mint spokesman.

Missed all the hype? We explain below in our original 2022 piece what Mind Mobile is, how much it costs and what you should know about this cheaper mobile virtual network.

Original article:

Everyone’s been talking about it as the new, hip prepaid carrier owned by a certain Hollywood superstar. Add to that its charming green fox at the helm and it’s been virtually impossible not to want to try Mint Mobile. But switching to a new carrier might be more of a headache than you need right now and a clear list of the advantages Mint Mobile brings would go a long way. So here’s everything you need to know about Mint Mobile plans, network and finally, how good it is when compared to similar services in the U.S.

What is Mint Mobile?

“While every other tech titan is off chasing rockets, I’ll corner the budget-friendly wireless sector. Like most people, I only use rockets 10-12 times a year but I use my mobile service every day.”, said Ryan Reynolds about Mint Mobile.

Why should you care? Because the Deadpool actor we’ve all come to love is actually the owner of the company since 2019, after being a user first.

Besides Aviation Gin, he’s spearheading this independent company as a cheap alternative to already established prepaid phone carriers. You can spot his refreshing take on marketing in the way Mint Mobile’s website looks and “talks”.

In a nutshell, you’re looking at an independent service that entices customers with plans that become cheaper the longer you commit to them.

It needs T-Mobile’s infrastructure to work so if you can already catch good T-Mobile coverage in the area you live, you should be fine using it.

How Does Mint Mobile Work?

Getting Mint Mobile to work on your phone is no rocket science.

Just do these things:

  1. See if your phone is compatible with Mint Mobile – here’s a quick way to check it out.
  2. All good? Order a SIM card with the plan of your choice.
  3. Pop it in and activate it.
  4. Trouble activating the card? Follow the directions listed on the company’s FAQ page to make sure your smartphone works perfectly after swapping your former SIM card.

We’d be remiss not to tell you you have to pay the full fee of the plan of your choice in advance, not month after month.

All GSM phones should work with this carrier, if they’re unlocked. However, CDMA-only devices might have trouble connecting to all of the bands Mint and T-Mobile employ.

The good thing about trying out Mint Mobile is there are no hidden fees, no contracts to sign, no strings attached.

To stop using the service, you simply have to stop paying it. Sure, that might mean some dollars lost if you went with the longer plans.

But there’s a silver lining: you can choose a free 7-day trial to see if this is the right fit for you. While you’ll have to provide them with your card details to start the trial run, you won’t be charged unless you decide to stick with Mint Mobile after the week.

“While every other tech titan is off chasing rockets, I’ll corner the budget-friendly wireless sector. Like most people, I only use rockets 10-12 times a year but I use my mobile service every day”

Ryan Reynolds, Mint Mobile owner

Mint Mobile: Network and Mobile Plans

As you’ve noticed already, Mint Mobile works on T-Mobile. All their plans offer 5G, include mobile hotspot and with every one, calls and texts are unlimited, no matter the data plan. There are 3, 6, and 12-month plans available.

What are the prices?

The cheapest plan starts at $15/month and gives you 4GB of 5G data. That might be too little for you, especially if you’re one to stream video on a daily basis. If you go for it, expect to pay $75/3 months, $120/6 months or the most convenient plan, $180/12 months.

Want 10GB of data? It’s totally doable and costs only $5 more. Essentially, you can get more than double the data for $105/3 months, $150/6 months or $240/12 months.

For 15GB of data, you’ll have to pay upfront $135/3 months, $210/6 months or $300/12 months.

These are the fixed data plans but there’s also an unlimited option. This plan saves you the most money in the long run with some caveats. For example, you’ll have 35GB of data at 5G speeds. Once you use all of that, you’ll still get service but at much lower speeds.

Nevertheless, such a plan will cost you $135/3 months, $210/6 months or $360/12 months.

What happens when you approach your data limit? You can buy more for an emergency. An extra gigabyte of 5G will cost $10 while another 3GB will be $20. International roaming data is priced the same while calls to Mexico and Canada are free.

There’s also a new family plan option. This one lets you purchase additional months of service at discounted rates. More about it here.

We’ve talked the option of a free trial but not of a starter kit. Mint Mobile offers the latter too, at just $5. This gives you a week of 100MB data service and two SIM cards (the second one is a backup if you decide to port your number.) Want to keep going? The moment you choose a plan, Mint Mobile will refund you the cost of the Starter Kit.

How Good is Mint Mobile?

Now that you know the plans, prices and the ease of use of Mint Mobile, let’s see whether Mint Mobile is worth it.

First thing’s first: value for money. Compared to other postpaid plans at AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon, Mint Mobile gives their users unlimited data at about half the price. Also, they don’t charge you extra for 5G which most of their competitors do.

Hotspot is included in every plan and their $360 fee for the 1 year unlimited plan remains the cheapest option for you, when taking all others into account. How is it so cheap? Probably because Mint Mobile doesn’t have physical stores nationwide, doesn’t require network maintenance and doesn’t spend big budgets on marketing campaigns – so far.

Even if you exceed your data plan, you don’t lose service immediately, only your speeds are reduced significantly.

Mint even offers a service that helps you figure out how much data you really use and need as months pass by. That’s an easy to find out if you need to adjust to a lower cost plan.

It’s true that T-Mobile could slow down smaller network users data speeds when traffic is heavy to help out their own customer’s speeds. But that’s something that happens to all services like Mint Mobile. And yes, the upfront payments could mean a loss of investment if you want to switch services mid-plan.

Overall, there’s no reason not to at least try Mint Mobile. The costs are extremely attractive – with Visible Wireless as the only worthy competitor -, the no extra fee for 5G and included hotspot feature are great incentives and the fact that you don’t lose service when your data plan is up is a relief.

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Updated 5/03: added family plan feature.

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How Good Is Mint Mobile: Network, Mobile Plans and More
19 Comments

19 Comments

  1. Debra Carney

    March 23, 2022 at 10:52 pm

    I think they Suck! I signed up for 2 phones. Now after a month.. my phone says Emergency Calls only! Of course they charge for 3 Months! Good luck getting anyone to help You! Do not go with them!

  2. Almondo Joyner

    March 30, 2022 at 4:29 am

    Mint Mobile has been the worst Cellular Service that I personally have ever used. I wanted to save a little more after having Verizon for so long. I tried Straight Talk(not bad)Visible(a little cheaper but no Customer Service), then Mint(the cheapest and the worst). I can’t wait to get rid of them.

    • Mara Anton

      March 30, 2022 at 4:19 pm

      Thanks for sharing your experience with us! We want to help our readers make informed choices.

  3. Winston

    April 16, 2022 at 5:08 pm

    My wife and I have Mint Mobile and love it. We live in the Little Rock area of Arkansas. We’ve tried all the other carriers and some of their MVNOs, but no one is really able to match the consistent internet speeds of Mint Mobile. Cricket had good speeds, but they plummeted and became almost unusable during the afternoon when everyone was out and about. Mint’s speeds slow down, but are still very usable. There’s also the signal too. Their signal seems to better penetrate buildings vs the competitors.

  4. Martin R

    April 17, 2022 at 12:43 am

    Haven’t been using mint mobile for very long. I switched after getting ripped off by Verizon for over 10 years. I was paying $145 a month for an old grandfathered unlimited plan as well as an old 450 talk and text plan. Yep that’s right, I didn’t even have unlimited talk or text, and that’s on one line! Verizon wouldn’t even give me a discount more than three hundred bucks on a new phone because I didn’t have a current phone to trade in! You would think paying that much for that long (was paying $145 per month since around 2014 after fees and taxes I found out) would mean something! Don’t let that fool you the big guys don’t give a dam about your loyalty. Now the real question how good is mint mobile? I mean the whole reason I switched was because I was still rocking a LG v20 since 2016/2017 for the removable battery. But I started having issues that I assumed was just the phone and not necessarily the service so I figured a new phone would fix it. I ended up buying a new phone on Amazon because I could get a decent mid to top tier phone 4 less than five hundred bucks unlocked. I have very good Verizon coverage normally here but the T-Mobile coverage here is very good as well and in a couple weeks I have had zero problems with Mint mobile. I have to use my phone every day that I work because I’m a delivery driver so I’ve used it all over town. I got the $30 a month unlimited plan which is essentially exactly the same as what I had on Verizon considering the big V has been slowing down grandfathered Unlimited Plans since 2013/2014 and lying about it. But instead of paying over $1,700 per year I would only be paying $360 a year as long as the service keeps up. y yearly savings are astronomical. Being on the Deadpool plan is only a bonus. Only time will tell but so far this is brilliant I can even watch high-res videos on my phone Verizon was constantly limiting the video quality 2 like 480p or some shit.

  5. Brendan Doran

    May 13, 2022 at 3:02 am

    Well my experience with Mint Mobile is its fantastic.Ive been in New Jersey,South Carolina and now Arizona and I’ve had no issues.I got 6 months for the price of 3 and now I’m gonna get 12 month deal for $180…canf go wrong there.So in short its brilliant

  6. Nick

    May 14, 2022 at 12:46 pm

    Why don’t you tell them the their of service they get thru truth about t-mobile network and how it all works stop writing articles with out the knowledge of what it really is. It’s a teir 3 service so you are last in line for calling in populated areas. The fact that it is a 5 g service in such a small market and runs on such a Un improved network it will be worse then straight talk.

  7. Brad Pilloud

    May 25, 2022 at 1:35 am

    Ive had mint mobile for about three years now and i would have put a 5 star review on it up until the end of my last billing cycle. Their computer refused my automatic payment causing my service to be terminated, so now i have no cell phone which i need for business and to contact my daughter. I get mints all star customer service which im sure resembles something in between forest gump and the bench warmers and after their extremely extended investigation they determined it was an issue with my bank. Luckily I am not a window licker and attempted the same process with three different cards from three different banks so i went above that person. Got as high up the pay ladder as they told me i could and they were probably just passing me back and forth between each other and was told the same thing. Call your bank…that process took 5 days. Call your bank…i had to explain to mint mobile that i could not call my bank because my service was disconnected…more than twice and they didn’t even attempt to accommodate that in any way shape or form not to mention the 7 days of potential business lost by the time the issue was resolved and their offer to compensate me was 15 dollars off my 80 dollar bill. So i get my service restored and from that day to now im lucky if i can connect to a server long enough to get it to ring on the other side with a 100% dropped call rate. I got someone on the phone yesterday but call was dropped and god forbid someone call me back. You let me down Ryan, i had your back fully and you let me down

  8. Brad Pilloud

    May 25, 2022 at 1:38 am

    Ive have had mint mobile for about three years now and i would have put a 5 star review on it up until the end of my last billing cycle. Their computer refused my automatic payment causing my service to be terminated, so now i have no cell phone which i need for business and to contact my daughter. I get mints all star customer service which im sure resembles something in between forest gump and the bench warmers and after their extremely extended investigation they determined it was an issue with my bank. Luckily I am not a window licker and attempted the same process with three different cards from three different banks so i went above that person. Got as high up the pay ladder as they told me i could and they were probably just passing me back and forth between each other and was told the same thing. Call your bank…that process took 5 days. Call your bank…i had to explain to mint mobile that i could not call my bank because my service was disconnected…more than twice and they didn’t even attempt to accommodate that in any way shape or form not to mention the 7 days of potential business lost by the time the issue was resolved and their offer to compensate me was 15 dollars off my 80 dollar bill. So i get my service restored and from that day to now im lucky if i can connect to a server long enough to get it to ring on the other side with a 100% dropped call rate. I got someone on the phone yesterday but call was dropped and god forbid someone call me back. You let me down Ryan, i had your back fully and you let me down

  9. Richard

    September 3, 2022 at 3:27 pm

    You failed to do your homework and see the extra hidden “inflation” fee of $20 they charged me but didn’t show up until the last step before paying my annual fee

  10. Rodney

    September 4, 2022 at 10:27 pm

    NOTE: On the 35GB plan you only get 5GB of mobile hotspot data.

    I’ve been using Mint for 4 months on the 15GB plan and it works out fine. Last month I binge-watched 3 seasons of a series plus a 2-hour movie on Netflix using the mobile hotspot on my phone to connect to my laptop. I stream music and radio stations. My phone is a hybrid device with an amateur radio VHF/UHF dual mode FM/DMR radio built in. Only issue I have is my ham radio MMDVM hotpot disconnects from the mobile hotpot occasionally. For 2-way digital communications over 4G I’ve used Zello, EchoLink, DroidStar and RFinder DMRoIP. All that comes out to about 12+ GB per months without using home Wi-Fi.

    Coverage is good in my area and in some cases beats Verizon (Yes, my other phone is on Verizon so I can compare).

    No complaints. Mint works for me, your mileage may vary.

  11. Steven K

    October 13, 2022 at 2:26 am

    I would reconsider trying Mint Mobile. I have made numerous calls to them about why does my number come up as anonymous or private everything I make a call. All my friends think it’s a spam call.

    Customer service always tell me the same old answer. We will escalate this and have it fixed in 72 hours. We’ll just to let you know they have not fixed the issue. I know they use the T-Mobile network. I was a T-Mobile customer prior to switching. I am sorry I made the change. Think I will be going back to T-Mobile very soon.

    SK

  12. Christena

    October 13, 2022 at 2:49 am

    We spent 3 days online trying to get mint activated. Tmobile ported out our old pin number nicely. Oct. 4-7th,we had to spend additional 35.00 on trac phone so they could troubleshoot. Never happened, no activation, we purchased 90 day plan, one month ago, activate within 45 days. Never got online with mint to establish acct pin and such. It’s like pulling teeth to get refund. We crawled back to tmobile. They wanted us to ask someone to allow us to remove their sim so we could see if our dim card they sent works. We have samsung a13 5g, 3 months old. They, mint mobile. Still asks for more info to start refund process. Cheaper isn’t better.

  13. AS

    November 29, 2022 at 3:25 pm

    Poor network. I signed up for two lines. No service indoors. Can’t receive text messages until I am outside. I have used Cricket before and had no issues. I paid for 3 months so have to wait to get out. Customer service says my phone is connected to towers and have great signals but my iPhone always shows only one or two bars. You can get refund only if if you cancel in 7 days. If you don’t cancel than you are stuck for 3 months.

  14. Evan Brusilow

    November 29, 2022 at 6:40 pm

    We live in Florida Panhandle & I couldn’t be happier with Mint. I’ve had Verizon, AT&T, & Others over the past few decades. Mint mobile is easy to install … Offers live person tech support …5G svc included … Terrific pricing & more. Every area throughout the country has its issues with every carrier … And they all differ. In my opinion, for the $ required, Mint mobile is a fantastic deal. Highly Recommend!!

  15. Shel Keitel

    January 1, 2023 at 5:01 am

    Don’t get suckered in by the 7-day free trial. It will take you longer than that to get it working, if at all. Don’t count on a stellar crew of un-techie CSRs, either. I’ll stick with it if I can make it work before my next payment is due in five months.

  16. Shel Keitel

    January 1, 2023 at 5:10 am

    I’m happy for you, Brendan. But you are clearly in the minority. I think it may have something to do with the compatibility of your old phone or the quality of the one Mint sells to you. My new phone, less than two weeks old and sold by Mint, still thinks it belongs to my previous carrier.

  17. Blake R Lang

    January 17, 2023 at 2:10 am

    I pay for 10gb 3 month plan with a Google pixel 4a 5g and I get 5g almost everywhere here in town and 4g LTE elsewhere and I live in the asshole of America Dothan Al

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