Introduction
Today I thought I’d tell you about Mint Mobile, prepaid wireless company with affordable monthly plans. One plan that caught my eye immediately was their $25 monthly plan that includes unlimited talk and text with 12 GB of high speed 4G LTE data. That’s a great price, but keep reading because to get that price you’ll need to understand how Mint Mobile works.
Note that this is not a full review, but just a look at what Mint has to offer. I ordered a Mint Mobile BYOP kit and will have a full review in the future.
Network Coverage
Mint Mobile uses the T-Mobile network. If use your phone in an area where T-Mobile has coverage than Mint Mobile might be a good choice for you. I live in the Boston metro area, and the improvements in T-Mobile over the last five years have been amazing.
How Mint Mobile Works
Mint Mobile offers affordable prepaid wireless plans with really good monthly prices. But want makes Mint Mobile different is that rather than prepaying for one month of service up front you pay for either 3, 6, or 12 months in advance. And the more months you prepay for, the more Mint Mobile is able to discount the monthly plan prices. At the end of this article, I’ll share my thoughts on prepaying for multiple months in advance. I’ll point out here that Mint Mobile has a seven day money back guarantee, so if you sign up and don’t like the service you can get a refund within seven days.
Mint Mobile Plans
Mint Mobile offers three different monthly plans with the options to prepay for either three, six, or twelve months in advance. When you sign up you’ll have a total of nine choices.
All of Mint Mobile’s plans include unlimited talk and text and a fixed amount of 4G LTE data. Mint Mobile offers plans with 3GB, 8GB, or 12 GB of 4G LTE Data.
If you prepay for 12 months, you’ll get the lowest monthly prices: $15 for 3GB, $20 for $8 GB, and $25 for 12GB of data. Those are very good prices, but you’ll need to pay for 12 months of service up front so the 3GB plan is $180, the $8GB plan in $240, and the 12GB plan is $300.
Pay for twelve months in advance to get the oldest monthly plan price. The prices are:
- 3 GB plan $15 per month. You pay $180 up front. Yearly cost $180.
- 8 GB plan $20 per month. You pay $240 up front. Yearly cost $240
- 12 GB plan $25 per month. You pay $300 up front. Yearly cost $300
You can also pay for six months up front instead. The prices are:
- 3 GB plan $20 per month. You pay $120 up front. Yearly cost $240.
- 8 GB plan $25 per month. You pay $150 up front. Yearly cost $300
- 12 GB plan $35 per month. You pay $210 up front. Yearly cost $420
You can also pay for three months up front instead. The prices are:
- 3 GB plan $25 per month. You pay $75 up front. Yearly cost $300.
- 8 GB plan $35 per month. You pay $105 up front. Yearly cost $420
- 12 GB plan $45 per month. You pay $135 up front. Yearly cost $540.
Special Intro Offer on three month plans
Mint Mobile currently has a special offer. If you sign up for three months, you’ll get the same monthly plan prices as the twelve month option for the first three months. So if you sign up for this option, you’ll get the lowest monthly prices that Mint Mobile offers for the first three months. After that, the prices goback to the regular three month prices.
This is a great deal and it reduces your risk tottery out Mint Mobile. First, your initial cost is $45, $60, or $75 for your first three months depending on the plan you choose. You’ll have a seven day money back guarrantee if you decide, Mint is not for you. After seven days, you can use the service for the remainder of three months. If after, three months you decide to stay with Mint, you can continue on the three month option or switch to the six or twelve month options to keep the lowest monthly price. All of this helps you reduce the risk and expense of trying out mint mobile and prepaying in advance for more than one moth of service.
Data
All of Mint Mobile’s plans include a fixed amount of monthly data. Mint’s most expensive plan includes 12GB of data. If you need more than 12GB of data or unlimited data then Mint Mobile is not the right choice for you. After you use up your high speed data, you’ll have unlimited reduced speed data. Note that reduced speed data is very slow, but at least you’ll always have data. If you use up your data during the month, you can buy more data from Mint in 1GB or 3GB increments. Mint does not share the price that add-on data on their website.
From what I read, Mint Mobile does not have a maximum download speed on their high speed 4G LTE data.
Calls and Texts
Mint Mobile includes unlimited nationwide talk and text with all its plans.
Mexico and Canada
Mint Mobile also includes unlimited talk and text to both Mexico and Canada. That is, you’ll be able to call and text to both Mexico and Canada from the United States.
Mobile Hotspot
Mint Mobile includes mobile hotspot with all their plans. Mobile Hotspot lets you connect your laptop, tablet, or other Wi-Fi devices to the Internet using your phone’s cellular data connection. As all of Mint Mobile’s plans include a fixed amount of high speed data, you will be able to use up to your monthly limit with Mobile Hotspot.
Visual Voicemail
Not only does Mint Mobile offer voicemail, but they include Visual Voicemail for iPhone and selected Android devices. You may need to make sure you update your phone’s carrier settings to use Visual Voicemail with the iPhone, but if you have any problem or want to know if its supported on your Android phone, the Mint Mobile Customer Service team can help you out.
Summary
If the T-Mobile network has coverage in your area and you use 12GB of data per month or less, Mint Mobile is worth considering. You’ll need to be able to pay the up from price for 3, 6, or 12 month options however. Clearly the monthly plan prices are when you pay for the year in advance.
One thing I’ve always liked about prepaid wireless was that there are no long term contracts. You pay month to month and if you don’t like the service or your needs change, you can leave and the most you have to lose the fee you paid for your monthly plan. While this sounds great in theory, how many times have you actually changed phone companies in the last 3,6, or 12 months?
With the seven day money back guarantee and the low priced three month intro offer, Mint has removed almost all the risk from trying their service. Nice work, Mint.
The other things to consider will be what happens if your needs change? In this case, will you suddenly find you now need more that 12GB of data per month or will you find that you need to use your phone in an area where T-Mobile doesn’t have coverage. For example, you move, change jobs, start traveling more, etc.
Finally, its always possible that the quality of the service on Mint changes for some reason and your invested for up to 12 months. I think this is unlikely, but worth mentioning.
What do you think? Leave a reply below and share.
Check out my latest video about Mint Mobile.
Watch my video here