Mint Mobile: Good or Bad?
For anyone who has tried switching over, what's your experience with them been like? Were there any hidden upsides or downsides you weren't expecting? What about coverage? It's really hard to ignore them when they keep spamming ads to YouTube, my favorite podcasts, etc.
Pretty sure they just got bought out by T-Mobile, a company that has had multiple massive data breaches in the past year or so. It's just cheap T-mobile 5g. I liked it when I had it, but wouldn't go back.
Came here to post this, Mint just got purchased by T-Mobile.
For a moment there I thought Linux mint had released on mobile. Something Ubuntu failed to do 😅
I got real excited for a second. Why must they tease us so
I was with Mint in Tennessee for several years with no issues. I moved to the boonies where T-Mobile has no service, which is the only reason I'm not still with Mint.
Ive been using them for a few years. Some stuff to note: you have to pay in at least 3 month blocks. You cannot pay for a month at a time. The prices on the website are just for your first term. After that it is a little more expensive, but not too much. Coverage wise it's t-mobile's network, so its good in major cities, but spotty in rural areas.
Ive been mostly pleased with them. When the wife and I go on trips, sometimes my phone gets no service, but she's on AT&T, so her phone usually works fine, and she'll turn on hotspot so i can get my messages.
I've been with Mint for years and I absolutely love it. $200/yr (taxes) and I have 5gb/month and great coverage.
Orlando, FL
I switched fairly recently. I was on Ting before, and they appear to be quietly sunsetting that service after Dish Network bought them a few years back. Hoping the same doesn't happen to Mint. It's been great so far. Incredible value!
I'm on a large T mobile family plan and was able to stack on insider as well as free line bonus. Ends up being around same price as Mint's unlimited tier, but with much better international roaming and in-flight wifi for half of the domestic us airlines. That's another option if you're interested in that.
I switched over a few months ago. It works great! Not having to worry about the bill is very nice.
I have been very happy with Mint in the USA but as I note in a reply thread below, it is useless for international travel. Use an ESIM app instead. On my latest trip to Europe it worked for about 5 minutes upon landing and then I got kicked off the network and it never worked again. Simultaneously, my login in the Mint app was invalidated... and I cannot login now via any channel. I use a password manager so it is not user error. I'm back home now but the login issue persists and I have a ticket open for it. I can get only get into my account if I follow this path:
Once I do that I drop into my account, authenticated. If I log out again, the new credentials never work.
I have to wonder if I tripped some sort of fraud control in Europe.
I use it all over the western half of the USA. I'd say maybe 10-15 percent of locations where I have signal the actual speeds are abysmal. I think due to the mvno data being deprioritized but I can't say for sure. I still keep them because it's cheap but it can get annoying
it's been fine for me, got the whole family on $15/mo plans. they recently upgraded those plans to 5GB which is great for $15
Has anyone tried using it with Canadian providers?
I’ve tried travelling to Canada with it and failed to have working data. Your mileage may vary, but I was disappointed.
I can tell you a down side is that your best bet at good customer service is through social media channels. My account was in a "stuck" condition that I only found out about when a co-worker tried calling me. If you called once it would give an error and not even go to voicemail. If you called my number a second time it would probably go through. I couldn't even get on the app for chat or call 611. It would just tell me my call couldn't be completed and I should call 611. The only solution was to get mintmobileAlex involved on the Mint subreddit. Now if you don't use Facebook and migrate from Reddit to Lemmy, or some other federated group, where does that leave you?
I've used it for a few years and I like it, I pay once per year and it's the same T-Mobile service. There's no roaming though so I always get a local esim when I travel abroad. Kind of iffed T-Mobile just bought them though. They say oh we're actually keeping prices the same and giving you more data (as mint has traditionally done every other year) but I have a feeling this will be the last data increase we'll ever see. And also some people complain about deprioritization but as a former T-Mobile customer I can tell you it's the same places like busy malls or stadiums where direct T-Mobile customers aren't having a good time either.
Yeah, even on magenta Max the fundamental limit seems to always be network capacity and no amount of priority gets you enough. I'm sure some edge cases it helped but eh. Now that I don't need unlimited data and rely on having it realized I should switch to at least try it out, took like 30 min because say what you will about TMobile they are fairly pro consumer when it comes to migration tools. I literally did it all through the app seamlessly and they automatically canceled everything an buttoned it up when I had no devices, numbers or outstanding balances. I didn't have to call anyone or answer a survey or any bullshit, just a small box on the transfer page asking me to reconsider.
My moment with T-Mobile was when I got a Pixel and needed the new smaller SIM size and they wanted to charge me. I was like okay well if you won't give me the SIM then I can't pay you for service, and that was that.
Yeah that sucks, they shipped me a new SIM in the box with my 6 pro. All stupid because they could have easily issued an eSIM (like mint did for me)
I tried it for a week and at least in my city it was pretty much unusable. Service is prioritized below T-Mobile proper, so it can be super slow if your area has a lot of T-Mobile users.
Maybe you need to change your access point to mint's? I drove from Oregon to Michigan and and the only bad spot was in areas that just flat out didn't have any service. It was spotty at first but I found that I needed to change the AP in my network settings.
All the MVNO are deprioritized, Verizon's policies are the worst of the big 3. T-Mobile's policy allows for much more traffic so it's not nearly as noticable. AT&T MVNOs have almost no difference between themselves and proper AT&T monthly service.
I'm still trying to figure out how to get my phone to let me add an APN my P6P doesn't do anything when I hit save even after taking out my Tmo SIM and rebooting. Maybe still a daemon on there locking that and ill have to reset the phone.
EDIT: Fixed it by just setting the name to deeznutz I guess it doesn't like having an APN listed with the same name as the carrier, I assume that first name box is just for personal organization and ID and doesn't affect anything.
This was my experience as well. I could barely maintain a lasting connection using mobile data. Especially bad during commutes when everyone on the road with me was connecting to towers with priority over mine. The price was amazing though and the online service/support was great.
All good. The main negative has been international travel, but generally I prefer to switch to a local SIM card when travelling anyhoots.
Same. Been using Mint Mobile for years with few complaints (especially for the price!), but it was entirely unusable when I went to Canada for a few days.
Same. It's been great in the USA but it was entirely unusable for a full week in Europe. I had a ticket open the whole time and they could never get it to work. I demanded a refund.
Been with Mint for 6 years. I prepay my unlimited plan 360/yr (+tax) and it’s been great. Just make sure you get good coverage before you get into their network.
They don't exist in Australia, but they sponsor TWiT (this week in tech) so that gives them some good rep in my view.
It's been great for me and my family. But we live in a major metro with good TMobile coverage, ymmv. Definitely a great price for 4 lines, I can control all the plans and pre-paid billing for each line from the app, and the hotspot works great. If the coverage is good in your area, the price can't be beat.
I use US Mobile, who resell T-Mobile and Verizon services. My family use very little data, so we only prepay for 1GB/mo. Four lines are $40 a month total.
I'm also on US Mobile, they've been great so far. Easy to get support and they're prices are the best I've found.
Thirding US Mobile. I pay so little each month and the one issue I had, they fixed it, refunded me, and have me a 6 month discount. Top notch experience so far.
Third rec here for US Mobile. I actually switched from Mint after a couple of years with them (and Google Fi before that). Three of my family members are on the Verizon network through US Mobile, and one is on the T-Mobile network. Nice to have the split when we're traveling because one of the two networks always has coverage.
I’ve had nothing but a positive experience with them! Customer support has been great the one time I needed it, and traveling around the country I’ve never had an issue with my signal.
I really hope T-Mobile doesn’t screw things up!
@TheCalzoneMan @technology my husband and I have both been on mint and I think it works really well and their prices are pretty good
I used them for year plus. I didn't get the best coverage in rural areas so I switched to at&t prepaid. I went for the yearly mint mobile plan so it cost the least/month.
Same experience as others, it was the cheapest option for me at the time for data after several other carriers folded. I live in an urban area and have had no issues. Currently dreading what bullshit T-Mobile will inevitably pull
I've been with Mint for a few years now, and I've personally had a great experience in terms of service and price. YMMV when it comes to more rural areas though in terms of coverage.
That said, they've also been acquired by T-Mobile, so their coverage may increase while HOPEFULLY remaining at similar price points.
The coverage shouldn’t change at all. They’ve always been on T-Mobile’s towers.