Mint Mobile Review. Should you switch in 2020?

Last Updated on April 5, 2021 by Shivanandana Hegde

This is my honest review of ‘Mint Mobile’, which is one of the most talked about MVNOs (operators that sell discounted mobile and data plans) in the USA.

Mint SIM was launched in 2016 by Ultra Mobile. Ultra Mobile itself is an MVNO of T-Mobile. T-Mobile now has merged with Sprint mobile.! What an interesting tree of network right there.!

Ultra mobile’s plans are focused more on unlimited international calling plans whereas Mint mobile has pocket-friendly data plans.

If you plan on purchasing a plan, use this link(my referral link of course):- It’ll give you a free month of whichever plan you choose! – http://fbuy.me/oTX1_

What should you know before choosing mint mobile:

Mint Mobile runs on T-Mobile’s network. Hence, the coverage is practically as good as T-Mobile. (which is quite good by the way) ?
All data plans are discounted only if you choose long term recharge (1 year). They do have 3-months plan but it’s not very cost effective. Also, there are ~~NO – Unlimited data plans~~. There is also unlimited plan now.
Mint mobile is a completely ‘virtual’ company. Meaning, there are no physical stores. Support is only via phone call, email or social media like reddit.?

How did I end up choosing Mint Mobile? – essence of my review

It took me 3 months and 7 days precisely to pick mint as my mobile career for coming years.

My first month in US: As an expat, I was given the advise by other expats to buy AT&T sim card since it is “the largest” network across the country. I bought a prepaid sim quickly.

I went for their $35 monthly plan which had just 1 GB of data with unlimited national calls and SMS.

There is also a one time fee, some taxes involved at it’ll be around $50 when you first buy a At&T sim. 🙁

My second month: By the end of first month, I started doing research and reading reviews about alternatives. Sprint and Verizon were not an option since they are CDMA network and I wanted only GSM.

I wanted to try T-Mobile by now. Also, 1GB data was not enough for me and next plan was $45 which seemed unfair because I don’t need ‘unlimited’ data.

I ported to T-Mobile on a $40 monthly plan which gave me 10GB of high speed LTE data with unlimited national calls and SMS. It seemed like a good balance between cost and data plan.

The network was good, speed was excellent. I was happy for 2 months. However, by end of 2 months I realized that I don’t need 10GB of data at all. I have a Wi-Fi at home and I have access to Wi-Fi at my office. My data-intensive days are only those weekends when I’m out travelling.

The ‘epiphany’

Third month: I was surprised to see that I only used ~3GB of data for 2 consecutive months. I started wondering – ‘Is it really worth to pay $40 for 10GB that I don’t use or $35 for 1GB which isn’t enough for me personally?’

I started evaluating MVNO for my next port. Out of all the MVNO here at my place Mint mobile was in sweetest spot. Right amount of data, justifiable cost.

“Priority” Myth about MVNO

I heard from lot of people that MVNO get de-prioritized in terms of network speed and quality. This isn’t true. MVNO have paid the main tele-networks and hence get their fair share of data & frequency bandwidth. This is not true even if the place is crowded and when there is network congestion. You would get same priority as main network.

Note:- Mint mobile ~~doesn’t have ‘unlimited’ data~~. has unlimited data now for $30 pm. During COVID crisis, as all the mobile operators provided unlimited data, so did mint. I could recharge more than 20GB if I want for no extra cost.

Why did I choose mint mobile?

Network coverage is as good as T-Mobile – which was enough for the all places I go regularly.
There are plans to pick from 3GB per month ($15), 8GB pm ($20) and 12GB pm ($25). In my case, I need just about 3GB and can save about 62% per month on mobile expenses!!
There is a one-week ‘trial’ sim for just $5. I did test this before porting and was satisfied.
No restriction on wi-fi hotspot.
There is Wireless/Wi-Fi calling option.
The foxy design, website and next-gen thinking of this company made me go for it and I am happy I ported to mint.
Ryan Reynolds has mint mobile sim too. 😀
New: There is also an e-sim option available now. Kudos to mint for listening to us who need 2 sim slots. They were pretty quick to bring e-sim option.