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Member
Picture of 71 TRUCK
posted
My wife and I are thinking of switching to Mint Mobile from our current cell service.
Their prices are half what our current service charges so we are interested.
Does anyone here use them and what do you think?

Thanks




The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

As ratified by the States and authenticated by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State



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Posts: 2658 | Location: Central Florida, south of the mouse | Registered: March 08, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The One True IcePick
Picture of eyrich
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I'm not on Mint but have a suggestion before you switch to any MVNO. Find out what towers they use and which of the big 3 have the best coverage where you need to use the phones.

Basically every MVNO rides on one (sometimes more) of the towers of ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile.

Mint is on T-mobile.




 
Posts: 880 | Location: IL | Registered: September 08, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
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Understand that with any of these budget services that subcontract with one of the large carriers (ATT/Verizon/TMobile), that subcontractor's traffic is going to be deprioritized during busy times. This means there will be periods when your internet speed slows to a crawl, or when you calls don't connect.

It may or may not be an issue where you're at, depending on that provider's service coverage, and the steadiness of the amount of cell tower traffic. But I know several people who deal with that around here on a regular basis.

The NWA Metroplex isn't huge (~500k total population), but we regularly have large events that bring in 100k-400k additional people. As a result, the cell towers that are designed to deal with 500k people can struggle when they suddenly have to deal with 700k or 900k people.

The folks on services like Mint are the ones who bear the brunt of the frustration, because when the networks start to get overwhelmed, the cell networks prioritizes users of the actual parent service over the various subcontracted budget services, and the folks on Mint or similar budget services go to "the back of the line".
 
Posts: 33464 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
No More
Mr. Nice Guy
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Yes. We have been totally happy. They use the T Mobile network.
 
Posts: 9858 | Location: On the mountain off the grid | Registered: February 25, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Mint was just sold or is being sold to T-Mobile as of 3/15. You might want to see how it plays out if they will keep the same plans/pricing or merge you with a T-Mobile plan.


 
Posts: 5490 | Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA | Registered: February 27, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
As Extraordinary
as Everyone Else
Picture of smlsig
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by gpbst3:
Mint was just sold or is being sold to T-Mobile as of 3/15. You might want to see how it plays out if they will keep the same plans/pricing or merge you with a T-Mobile plan.


^^^ This.

I have been a customer for about 4 years and for the most part am satisfied. Just a word of caution it doesn’t work outside the US or when you’re near the border for that matter.
If you don’t travel outside the US it has been pretty good and with 5G they have one of the best networks in the US.


------------------
Eddie

Our Founding Fathers were men who understood that the right thing is not necessarily the written thing. -kkina
 
Posts: 6537 | Location: In transit | Registered: February 19, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Green grass and
high tides
Picture of old rugged cross
posted Hide Post
I am curious about Patriot mobile. Anyone use them?



"Practice like you want to play in the game"
 
Posts: 19961 | Registered: September 21, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Peripheral Visionary
Picture of tigereye313
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by gpbst3:
Mint was just sold or is being sold to T-Mobile as of 3/15. You might want to see how it plays out if they will keep the same plans/pricing or merge you with a T-Mobile plan.



Allegedly they are keeping the same pricing, but will have full access to the network.




 
Posts: 11429 | Location: Texas | Registered: January 29, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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posted Hide Post
I’ve use Mint before several years ago. It is a good value for the money. The only downside I see is that you have to buy like a year of service in advance to get their best rate.

I use T-mobile Prepaid. I’m on one of thier Connect plans which gives me Unlimited Talk and Text plus 3.5 GB oF data for $15/mo. The downside to the T-mobile Connect plan is that the data has a hard cap. So if you hit the data limit that’s it until next month or you top up. I also believe it stops you phone and text as well because that run n T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network. I believe that Mint has a soft cap where they drop you down to a 2G speed if you use up your data for the month.

Visible by Verizon is another option. They are running a special this month.

There a new MVNO called MobileX. They operate a different model where you choose the amount of data you want at the beginning of the month. Anything that you don’t use is then credited back to you at the end of the month.
 
Posts: 6737 | Location: Virginia | Registered: January 22, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
No More
Mr. Nice Guy
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by smlsig:
quote:
Originally posted by gpbst3:
Mint was just sold or is being sold to T-Mobile as of 3/15. You might want to see how it plays out if they will keep the same plans/pricing or merge you with a T-Mobile plan.


^^^ This.

I have been a customer for about 4 years and for the most part am satisfied. Just a word of caution it doesn’t work outside the US or when you’re near the border for that matter.
If you don’t travel outside the US it has been pretty good and with 5G they have one of the best networks in the US.


I believe it is supposed to work internationally. I researched it when we switched because of family in the UK and our travels. ???
 
Posts: 9858 | Location: On the mountain off the grid | Registered: February 25, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Understand that with any of these budget services that subcontract with one of the large carriers (ATT/Verizon/TMobile), that subcontractor's traffic is going to be deprioritized during busy times. This means there will be periods when your internet speed slows to a crawl, or when you calls don't connect.

It may or may not be an issue where you're at, depending on that provider's service coverage, and the steadiness of the amount of cell tower traffic. But I know several people who deal with that around here on a regular basis.

The NWA Metroplex isn't huge (~500k total population), but we regularly have large events that bring in 100k-400k additional people. As a result, the cell towers that are designed to deal with 500k people can struggle when they suddenly have to deal with 700k or 900k people.

The folks on services like Mint are the ones who bear the brunt of the frustration, because when the networks start to get overwhelmed, the cell networks prioritizes users of the actual parent service over the various subcontracted budget services, and the folks on Mint or similar budget services go to "the back of the line".


Rogue is 100% correct on this. There is a reason why these MVNO’s and flanker prepaid brands cost less than postpaid.

But if you don’t need and want premium cellular service they can be a good way to save money.

I spend most of my time at work, at home or driving in between. When a am at work or at home I am connect to a WiFi network and can use WiFi calling and texting. My need for cellular service beyond work an home is minimal so Connect by T-mobile is fine for me.

Target runs sales on prepaid refill cards several times a years. And if you have a target red card you get an extra 5% off.
 
Posts: 6737 | Location: Virginia | Registered: January 22, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of 71 TRUCK
posted Hide Post
Thanks everyone.

My wife and I live in central Florida. We have seen an explosion of growth and over the last year we have been having issues with some of our service.

The other day we were unable to make any phone calls from our house for a few hours.
Last month we had no internet service away from the house for several days.

I think what RogueJSK said makes sense due to the growth in our area.
If this keeps happening we may have to go back to one of the big name cell services again for a while.




The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

As ratified by the States and authenticated by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State



NRA Life Member
 
Posts: 2658 | Location: Central Florida, south of the mouse | Registered: March 08, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Alienator
Picture of SIG4EVA
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This guy. We switched from Verizon 2 years ago and have some a ton of money. No issues with service.


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Psalm 118:24 "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it"
 
Posts: 7204 | Location: NC | Registered: March 16, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Prepared for the Worst, Providing the Best
Picture of 92fstech
posted Hide Post
I was on Republic, which was great until Dish Network bought them and screwed everything up.

We switched to Mint and it was the worst phone experience of my life. It wouldn't get calls, wouldn't get texts, and didn't even work over wifi. Customer service was a waste of time. I tried buying a new phone, and selected one off their approved list and it still didn't work. So I called customer service and they ultimately ended up telling me the phone wasn't compatible with their service, even though it was. I basically had to stop using my phone for the two months we had them.

We switched to Google Fi and it's been night and day different. Everything works (on data and wifi) and it's just as cheap, provided I watch my data usage.
 
Posts: 9563 | Location: In the Cornfields | Registered: May 25, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
As Extraordinary
as Everyone Else
Picture of smlsig
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
quote:
Originally posted by smlsig:
quote:
Originally posted by gpbst3:
Mint was just sold or is being sold to T-Mobile as of 3/15. You might want to see how it plays out if they will keep the same plans/pricing or merge you with a T-Mobile plan.


^^^ This.

I have been a customer for about 4 years and for the most part am satisfied. Just a word of caution it doesn’t work outside the US or when you’re near the border for that matter.
If you don’t travel outside the US it has been pretty good and with 5G they have one of the best networks in the US.


I believe it is supposed to work internationally. I researched it when we switched because of family in the UK and our travels. ???


All I can say is that it didn’t work for me. They say you have unlimited talk and text TO Mexico and Canada but not calling FROM there to the US.
I went on their website to buy a block of time to use in South America but was unable to get any signal to do so. My wife, with a Berizon plan with international calling was able to do so.


------------------
Eddie

Our Founding Fathers were men who understood that the right thing is not necessarily the written thing. -kkina
 
Posts: 6537 | Location: In transit | Registered: February 19, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
אַרְיֵה
Picture of V-Tail
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:

The other day we were unable to make any phone calls from our house for a few hours.
Last month we had no internet service away from the house for several days.

I think what RogueJSK said makes sense due to the growth in our area.
If this keeps happening we may have to go back to one of the big name cell services again for a while.
I am not far from you (you're on the south side of Orlando, I'm on the north side).

Are you on the Verizon network? Recently (this past week), Verizon was having a problem with their cell towers in our area. It affected all users of the Verizon network, whether they were direct Verizon customers, or customers of re-sellers.

City of Apopka requires fire alarm monitoring in all hangars at Our Little Airport. The alarm system in my hangar, and many others at the airport, connects to the monitoring company via Verizon cell. Many of us got messages from the monitoring company last week informing us that the communication handshakes were failing. The problem appears to have been solved now.



הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים
 
Posts: 31708 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
No More
Mr. Nice Guy
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by smlsig:

All I can say is that it didn’t work for me. They say you have unlimited talk and text TO Mexico and Canada but not calling FROM there to the US.
I went on their website to buy a block of time to use in South America but was unable to get any signal to do so. My wife, with a Berizon plan with international calling was able to do so.


I will find out in a couple of weeks on vacation to Mexico. And then this summer in Europe.

Worst case is I'll buy a sim card for temporary use in Europe.

I have no problems whatsoever making calls to or receiving calls from the UK.
 
Posts: 9858 | Location: On the mountain off the grid | Registered: February 25, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Blackmore
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by gpbst3:
Mint was just sold or is being sold to T-Mobile as of 3/15. You might want to see how it plays out if they will keep the same plans/pricing or merge you with a T-Mobile plan.


Maybe Ryan Reynolds needs the money to buy better players for Wrexham so they can get promoted.


Harshest Dream, Reality
 
Posts: 3692 | Location: W. Central NH | Registered: October 05, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nullus Anxietas
Picture of ensigmatic
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
I believe it is supposed to work internationally.
Yes, but, you have to pay extra for it. And Mint doesn't support roaming in the U.S. at all.

While T-Mobile's coverage has improved drastically in the last five-six years, it's still not up to Verizon's and AT&T's coverage--regardless of what T-Mobile may claim.

E.g.: We used to go straight to AT&T roaming whenever we got to either the western half of Michigan or anywhere north of about the bottom of the Thumb. Now we stay solidly on TMO the vast majority of the time. But, there are still times when our phones roam onto AT&T.

When we go to Europe we don't need to do anything. We get free roaming on TMO's European networks. We do pay for expanded data, however. (Don't know what that costs now. It used to be $20-$30/phone for more data than we'd ever use for one month--or something like that.) We get free roaming in Canada (we've used that), Mexico, Puerto Rico (I think?), the U.S. Virgin Islands (I think?), and some other places.



"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
 
Posts: 26032 | Location: S.E. Michigan | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
No More
Mr. Nice Guy
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by ensigmatic:
quote:
Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
I believe it is supposed to work internationally.

Yes, but, you have to pay extra for it.


I expect I did pay for it. With the pay in advance system I never look at a cell phone bill anymore.
 
Posts: 9858 | Location: On the mountain off the grid | Registered: February 25, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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