If you’re looking for ways to save money on your phone service, Mint Mobile offers access to T-Mobile’s network for as little as $15 per month.
In this Mint Mobile review, I’ll take a close look at Mint Mobile’s plans and pricing, how to get started, and what to expect from Mint Mobile’s service.
I tried Mint Mobile myself for 30 days. I’ve also compared more than 70 different available phone plans to see how Mint Mobile holds up.
Things You Should Know Before You Sign Up for Mint Mobile
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) like Mint Mobile lets you connect to T-Mobile’s cell network. All of the plans come with access to T-Mobile’s 5G network, which has the fastest speeds of the three major cell carriers right now.
Not only does Mint Mobile have a great network, but their prepaid plans are also very cheap. Plans start at just $15 a month, but you have to pay for at least three months at a time. You can get any Mint Mobile plan for $15 for a short time, even the unlimited one.
This is why GadgetsAudit.com has given Mint Mobile a lot of awards, including the Best Value for a Cheap Phone Plan award.
For 30 days, I used Mint Mobile’s $15 plan to check out its coverage, call and text quality, customer service, and other things.
Mint Mobile Sign-Up Guide: 6 Key Considerations Revealed
1. Plans and Pricing
Mint Mobile has four different prepaid plans. The prices change based on how long the plan lasts. You can’t buy a Mint Mobile plan for just one month, which is too bad. You’ll have to pay for three, six, or twelve months ahead of time instead.
You can choose from the following Mint Mobile plans, each with its own price and amount of high-speed internet. Plans from Mint Mobile that last for three months are cheaper for new users, and I’ve included those prices as well.
As of this writing (October 2023), Mint Mobile had any plan for $15, even the unlimited one. This deal is for new users, and for the first three months, the price is lowered. You’ll have to pay the full price for the plan after three months.
Mint Mobile 3-Month Plans
| Monthly High-Speed Data | Monthly Price With New Customer Offer | Total Due With New Customer Offer | Regular Monthly Price |
Total Due With Regular Price
|
| 5GB | $15 | $45 | $25 | $75 |
| 15GB | $20 | $60 | $35 | $105 |
| 20GB | $25 | $75 | $45 | $135 |
| 40GB | $30 | $90 | $40 | $120 |
Mint Mobile 6-Month Plans
|
Monthly High-Speed Data
|
Monthly Price | Total Due |
| 5GB | $20 | $120 |
| 15GB | $25 | $150 |
| 20GB | $35 | $210 |
| 40GB | $35 | $210 |
Mint Mobile 12-Month Plans
|
Monthly High-Speed Data
|
Monthly Price | Total Due |
| 5GB | $15 | $180 |
| 15GB | $20 | $240 |
| 20GB | $25 | $300 |
| 40GB | $30 | $360 |
All of Mint Mobile’s plans let you talk and send as much as you want and calls to Mexico and Canada were free. Once you reach your monthly data cap, you’ll still be able to use your mobile data as much as you want, but at a slower speed.
All of these plans come with free Wi-Fi talking and texting, as well as access to 5G and 4G/LTE networks.
Mint Mobile does not offer savings for having more than one line. You can still pay full price for up to four lines at a time. If you sign up for a three-month plan as a new customer, you can save money on all four lines. This will likely make the plan cheaper than most that give discounts for multiple lines. Before you make your choice, make sure you read through our full list of suggestions for the best family plans or the best deals on two-line plans.
2. Call and Text Performance
Within 30 days, I tested Mint Mobile’s service by sending and getting text messages and calls.
I tried Mint Mobile’s service for a month and had consistently reliable, clear service. No calls or texts were dropped or didn’t get delivered. There is, however, different care in different areas.
Mint Mobile lets you connect to T-Mobile’s network and has service all over the country. Look at the Mint Mobile network’s availability map to find out if it works in your area.
Mint Mobile lets you check if they serve your area by entering your address, state, or ZIP code on their website. You can also see what kinds of services are available, such as 5G and 4G/LTE.
3. Activation Process
It’s quick and easy to sign up for a Mint Mobile plan. I personally tried the $15 plan and wrote down how to choose it and make it work. The plan came with 4GB of fast data at the time. The plan now comes with 5GB.
I went to Mint Mobile’s website and picked the $15 plan to get started. I clicked “View Details” and saw a full list of what the plan covers and how much it costs:
I wasn’t asked to make sure my phone was compatible, but I saw a link to the Bring Your Own Phone (BYOP) program in the terms of the plan. One quick way to see if your phone works with it is to enter the name and model of your phone. For the best results, enter your IMEI number.
Calling *#06# will give you your phone’s IMEI number. Before you buy a SIM card from Mint Mobile, make sure your phone is open as well.
Fortunately, my phone was compatible
Once I’d checked my phone’s compatibility, I felt confident ordering a SIM card. After entering my ZIP code, I saw that 3-5 day shipping was free. If your phone is eligible for an eSIM, delivery is free for that as well. Next-day shipping cost $15.
It was free to ship and get a SIM card, but there was still a $5.63 recovery fee and $1.76 in taxes and other fees. The three-month plan now costs $52.39 altogether.
You can choose to auto-renew, but you don’t have to in order to get the stated price. After entering my payment and shipping information, all I had to do was click “Place Order.”
After two work days, the SIM card was sent right to my door.
The package came with a detailed receipt, a Mint SIM card kit with a SIM card remover, and full directions on how to activate your SIM. It also had a “Refer a Friend” kit with extra SIM card kits and information on how to get a discount for telling your friends about the service.
To turn on my SIM, I put it into my phone and read a QR code that came with the SIM kit to get the Mint Mobile app. After getting the app, I clicked “Activate your SIM.”
The 11-digit number was on the back of my Mint SIM card, which I was told to find. Then I could check again to see if my phone would work and decide if I wanted a new number or to keep the one I had before. You’ll need your old carrier’s account number, passcode, and payment address to keep your telephone number.
I decided to get a new number, so I put in my ZIP code to get a new local number and used my name and email address to make an account for the Mint Mobile app.
Setting up the service took the app about a minute. Once it did, I could follow the steps to make sure my settings let Mint Mobile’s service and data work. After that, my phone linked to T-Mobile’s network on its own, and I was able to make a test call.
4. Data Speeds
You can use T-Mobile’s 4G/LTE and 5G networks with Mint Mobile. From what I’ve seen and what T-Mobile says about their service, it looks like this MVNO will give you reliable access to data.
You can check to see if Mint Mobile will cover your area before you switch by entering your address on its online service map. Since Mint Mobile works on the T-Mobile network, you can also check out their coverage map to get a better idea of how good the service is where you are.
Not only does Mint Mobile have good service, but it also likely has great download speeds. The fastest download speeds I’ve seen with any MVNO I’ve tried are with Mint Mobile. It didn’t surprise me because T-Mobile’s 5G network is much better than AT&T and Verizon’s right now.
I used speedtest.net by Ookla to check the data speeds when I tried Mint Mobile for myself:
The speed to download was about 75 Mbps most of the time. My slowest download speed was 66 Mbps and my best was 105 Mbps.
For comparison, Netflix says that you need a download speed of at least 15 Mbps to stream 4K. According to Amazon, you need at least 1 Mbps to download SD video and 5 Mbps to download HD video on Prime.
These numbers show that Mint Mobile’s high-speed data is fast enough to watch HD video and do most other things online.
Hotspot data is also part of Mint Mobile plans. This lets you share your mobile data with other devices. I used the same website to test the speeds every day for a month while my laptop was connected to my Mint Mobile hotspot:
When I used a hotspot, I could usually download at about 35 Mbps. My slowest download speed was 25 Mbps and my best was 40 Mbps.
The plan I looked at gave me 4GB of high-speed data every month, but now it’s 5 GB. The Mint Mobile app made it easy to see how much data I was using. But Mint Mobile’s unlimited data plan gives you up to 40GB of fast data every month. If you go over your high-speed data cap, your speeds will slow down until the next month.
5. Methodology
Before I started looking into phone deals, I wrote down the most important things I wanted to find out. I could then properly compare phone plans and get a full picture of what to expect from the service.
When I tried out each phone plan, these were the main things I looked at:
Before I started looking into phone deals, I wrote down the most important things I wanted to find out. I could then properly compare phone plans and get a full picture of what to expect from the service.
When I tried out each phone plan, these were the main things I looked at:
- How Long It Takes.
I put each phone plan through 30 days of tests to see how reliable the network was and to get comments on service from family and friends.
- Signing Up.
I signed up for each phone plan myself to keep track of how to get started, check to see if my phone works with the plan or if I could bring my own, how long it takes to get the SIM card, and how to activate it.
- Being reliable.
As a baseline, I used my own AT&T line to see how often the tested phone plan had service, and I kept track of any missed calls or text messages.
- Customer service.
I called and texted at least 15 people and got at least 15 calls during the month. I used speedtest.net to check the phone’s internet speed and hotspot speed as well.
- Help with customers.
As I tried out each phone service, I called customer service through all of the various channels to find out which one worked best, how long it took to get through, and how helpful the experience was.
6. Customer Service
Customer service is important for a phone provider. It’s too bad that customer service seems to be a problem at almost every big company right now. Customer service at phone companies can be a pain, whether you have to wait a long time or talk to people who aren’t helpful.
I called Mint Mobile and talked to them online to find out how long I’d have to wait for service and what kind of service I’d get.
Visit the website or mobile app for Mint Mobile to chat with a representative, or call 1 (800) 683-7392 any day of the week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET to get in touch.
I was told that wait times were longer than usual when I called Mint Mobile’s customer service. But I only had to wait about two minutes to talk to someone in customer service on the phone. Even with the automated notes, I had to wait a little more than three minutes before I could talk to a real person.
It only took me a minute and a half to get through to a customer service rep when I used the online chat tool. Even though there was a longer wait, the representative on the phone was able to help me faster and more thoroughly once we were linked.
Even so, every customer service rep I talked to (both before I bought the plan and during the month I tried Mint Mobile) was knowledgeable, friendly, and willing to help.
Conclusion:
After all was said and done, I had a great time testing Mint Mobile for this study. The internet speeds were the fastest I’ve seen from an MVNO so far, and the service and coverage were great the whole time. I didn’t have any dropped calls or text messages that weren’t delivered, and getting in touch with customer service was quick, easy, and generally nice.
We at GadgetsAudit.com think that the Mint Mobile 5GB plan is the best deal for a cheap phone plan, and I agree with that after using the service myself. For as little as $15 a month, you can use T-Mobile’s great 5G network and get unlimited data (5GB of high-speed data) and mobile hotspot features.
I do wish you could buy a month-to-month plan or keep the same new customer rate for the three-month plans when it’s time to renew, though.
Here are some things you should think about before moving to Mint Mobile:
Do you live in an area with a strong T-Mobile network? On the web, you can find coverage maps for both Mint Mobile and T-Mobile to see if they work where you live.
Can you get by with not much data? Mint Mobile’s unlimited data plan gives you anywhere from 5GB to 40GB of high-speed internet every month. No matter which plan you choose, you can use as much 2G data as you want. But none of them really offer endless high-speed data.
Does Mint Mobile work with the phone you have now? You can find out online if your phone works with it.
If you said “yes” to all of these questions, Mint Mobile is probably a good choice for you. Not to worry, you won’t have to sign anything when you sign up, and you can stop whenever you want.
Check out our guide to the best cell phone plans and deals right now for more choices. If you’re ready to switch your phone plan and have already chosen one, Team GadgetsAudit made this guide that will walk you through the process step by step.
