But if you love the family plan model of cell service, Mint might not be the right choice. Don’t get us wrong—in some cases, putting the entire family on Mint will be cheaper than opting for a bulk plan with some other carrier. But having a separate plan and a separate phone bill for everyone in a household sounds like a pain, especially with minors. Meanwhile, smaller MVNO carriers like Mint Mobile and Boost are offering deals on the iPhone 11 and Samsung Galaxy A71 5G, respectively. Find these and other offers in our monthly roundup of the best cell phone deals. You can upload, download, and stream with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, and social media apps we’ve never even heard of. Go wild, go crazy, Mint doesn’t care. Just know that deprioritization is A Thing. Mint Mobile piggybacks off of the T-Mobile network. So even with your tasty unlimited data, you might see your speeds go from running to crawling because T-Mobile’s customers are the priority, not you. It’s one of the unfortunate drawbacks of Mint’s otherwise clever business model. Honestly, if you compare each of Mint Mobile’s four data plans with similar plans, Mint Mobile comes out on top. So let’s compare each Mint Mobile plan with the competition. But after those discounts wear off, Mint Mobile matches the price of the cheapest 4 GB data plans out there. Except Mint Mobile is still a better deal than Twigby Wireless and FreeUp Wireless because Mint operates on T-Mobile’s network. But remember, competitor prices will jump up after their discount is over. Mint won’t. Mint Mobile used to hold the title belt for cheapest unlimited plan, but in the past few months carriers like Tello have edged ahead. It’s only the difference of $1/month between Mint and Tello, but it’s a whole $5/month difference between Mint and Boost. We’d love to see Mint drop its price even more and take back the cheapest cell phone plan title. Granted, the monthly price for unlimited data is already pretty cheap. But it would be nice if we could get that price even lower with a family plan. If you want to get your whole family on a wireless plan, you might get a better deal with another provider. You shouldn’t have to worry about T-Mobile coverage because it covers about 94% of the country. Chances are you’ll have coverage, but there are a few pockets where signal can get spotty—particularly in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West region. Make sure to find your city is covered in purple on the coverage map below for committing to a Mint Mobile plan. In short, Mint Mobile uses T-Mobile’s network for its coverage and data speeds, but T-Mobile will prioritize its own customers over Mint Mobile’s. Picture this—you (a Mint Mobile user) and a friend (a T-Mobile user) are at a basketball game. In theory, both of you should have bars because you’re on the same network. Except when you pull up Instagram, nothing will load, while your T-Mobile friend has no issue uploading their story. Sadly, your data has been deprioritized. With any MVNO, you’ll find that your data speeds can drop on a dime (especially in big crowds). The Mint Mobile BYOP (Bring Your Own Phone) program means that you won’t spend tons of money on a Mint-compatible device, or buy a new phone case, or re-download all of your vacation photos from the cloud. You’ll just switch out your old SIM card for a Mint SIM card. Of course, there are negative reviews. Some users who went through Best Buy have tried Mint promotions and then not received the deals they signed up for. That’s not cool. But overall, Mint seems to be one of those rare companies that excel at giving people what they want. Your data speeds and coverage can vary, but your price will stay the same. If the latter matters to you more than the former, Mint Mobile makes a lot of sense for wireless users looking for a bargain.
Cell phone plans: All of Mint Mobile’s plans include unlimited data. The only difference is your data cap. The higher tier the plan the higher your data cap, which means you’ll enjoy faster speeds. Family cell phone plans: Mint Mobile doesn’t have family plans! While the service is affordable enough to justify not offering them, we don’t blame you if you think it’s easier to have your whole household on a single bill. Cell phones and devices: Mint Mobile works with all the latest and greatest cell phones. It also offers an excellent BYOP program so you don’t have to buy an all-new cell. Customer service: Mint not only has low prices and stellar advertising, but many of its customer interactions are positive.
And we joined forces with our buddies at WhistleOut to get detailed information about Mint Mobile’s plans and prices—and how they compare to other brands. Visit Mint’s website using your computer or mobile device. Then scroll down the page until you see Mint’s plan options. It should look like this. Once you click the Buy now button, you’ll be taken to the Shopping Cart page. Here you can select the quantity of lines you want to buy on any given plan (from one to four). You’ll also be required to enter your zip code so that Mint can calculate shipping costs and time. Enter billing, shipping, and payment information If you clicked on the PayPal Checkout button, then you’ll need to sign into your PayPal account on the browser window that pops up. Then follow the prompts to complete your payment. If you selected the Proceed to Checkout button, then you’ll be taken to a new page where you’ll need to enter your billing, shipping, and payment information. Be sure to double check that your order is correct and select the shipping method you’d like. There are usually two options: 2–3-day shipping or FedEx Next Day Air. Get your SIM card in the mail and activate service Your SIM card (and phone if you bought one) will arrive in the mail just a few days after you complete your order. Just insert the SIM card into your phone and then activate your service. To activate your plan, just enter the 11-digit code on the back of your SIM card using Mint’s activation website or the Mint Mobile app on your phone. And that’s a wrap! You’re finished. Now you can get back to watching TikTok videos and playing Pokémon Go (or whatever it is you do on your phone). All Mint Mobile plans come with hotspot capability. But the 4G LTE or 5G data that you use will be deducted from your normal data allotment, so be careful about how you use the hotspot. (It won’t be ideal for online gaming, for example.) Those with unlimited data plans from Mint Mobile will have a hotspot data cap of 5 GB. That should give you enough for some casual web browsing, standard-definition streaming, or for researching that final term paper you’ve been putting off. Apple Devices Android Devices If you haven’t already, then download the Mint Mobile app for Android or iOS. Once you open the app, you’ll log in using your existing account information that you created when you activated your Mint service. Using the Mint Mobile app Once you sign in, you should be taken to your account Dashboard. This screen will show you your current account balance and how much time you have until you need to renew. You can click on the My Plan tab at the bottom to get more details on your current plan. If your account is ready for renewal, then the app will notify you on the Dashboard. Follow the instructions to renew your plan (you’ll need your credit card information). If your account isn’t up for renewal, but you’ve just been burning through your data on TikTok or PUBG Mobile this month, you can also buy additional data before your account is ready for renewal. Just click on the Add Data button on the Dashboard. Putting money in your Mint Wallet If you don’t want to worry about putting more money on your account every time you renew or add data to your plan, then you can just put money in your Mint Wallet. Just select the Account tab and tap Load Wallet to add $5, $10, or $20 Pay on Mint’s website If you don’t want to pay using the Mint app, you can easily pay using your web browser. First, go to Mint’s website. (Note: Don’t just Google “pay Mint bill,” because you’ll likely get a bunch of results for “Mint Bills,” which is a totally different company.) In the upper right corner of the webpage, you’ll see a Sign In button. Sign into your account using the information you set up when you activated your account. You’ll be taken to a Mint Mobile account dashboard. You may have already set up Auto Renewal by clicking this box when you first signed up for Mint Mobile. Let’s put those GB numbers in context. For every hour of HD streaming you do on Netflix or YouTube, you spend about 1 GB of your data. Allow us to be a little vulnerable with you and share the data usage of one of our writers, Tyler. You probably don’t have the same NBA Twitter addiction that he does, but then again, maybe you do? Because an MVNO isn’t maintaining a network, it can sell its services at lower prices than other carriers. But sometimes, the MVNO’s users will be deprioritized in favor of the borrowed network’s customers. That can get frustrating for anyone using the MVNO. Mint uses the T-Mobile network, so sometimes, Mint customers are deprioritized for T-Mobile customers. There’s all this talk about GBs, but what the h*ck does it mean? Which Mint Mobile plan size is going to work best for you? Let’s put those GB numbers in context. For every hour of HD streaming you do on Netflix or YouTube, you spend about 1 GB of your data. Allow us to be a little vulnerable with you and share the data usage of one of our writers, Tyler. You probably don’t have the same NBA Twitter addiction that he does, but then again, maybe you do?
