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:
- See if your phone is compatible with Mint Mobile – here’s a quick way to check it out.
- All good? Order a SIM card with the plan of your choice.
- Pop it in and activate it.
- 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.
How to Find a Dropped Pin on iPhone or Google Maps
iPhone’s Apple Logo Is, Actually, a Button
Recycling Smartphones: Why Do It, And How
Updated 5/03: added family plan feature.
Follow TechTheLead on Google News to get the news first.
