For the last few years, I’ve been noticing more and more people switching from major carriers to MVNOs – smaller carriers that buy airtime from the big names wholesale and offer “no frills” service at a much cheaper price.
This year, as Verizon’s prices climbed, I started to look at them more seriously, but I definitely had some trepidation. I’m not a heavy phone user (I have fiber internet at home, and I use my phone’s hotspot once or twice a month), but I rely on my phone for my job, and the idea of saving money only to end up with spotty service didn’t appeal to me.
But I can never say no to an opportunity to be a cheapskate, and three months in, I can say that switching to Mint Mobile has been one of the easier money-saving decisions I’ve made.
Why I Switched
I was on a Verizon Wireless business account paying around $75 a month. I go through about 8GB of data a month, and about 2GB of that is on hotspot. That’s not a lot, and I was paying for capacity I never used.
I went with Mint’s 12-month “unlimited” plan for $360, which works out to $30 a month. Compared to what I was paying Verizon, that’s about $540 a year back in my pocket.
The Switching Process
Leaving Verizon was seamless. My phone was already carrier unlocked, so I just unlocked the line for transfer using the online Verizon portal, requested my transfer PIN, and had everything I needed within a few minutes.
I hit a minor snag while porting my number to Mint. Following Mint’s instructions, I tried to scan the eSIM QR code, and my phone was giving me an error message that suggested my phone was carrier locked and that I needed to call Verizon. I was able to fix it by going into my phone’s SIM settings, disabling the Verizon eSIM, and adding the new Mint eSIM manually. That worked perfectly, and I was up and running right away.
Coverage in Pittsburgh
Mint runs on T-Mobile’s network, and in the Pittsburgh area I’ve had no trouble getting signal anywhere in the city or the surrounding area. That includes some fairly rural stretches east and north of Pittsburgh (Armstrong county, the north end of Butler county), where I half expected to lose service. I also took my kids on a road trip to Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland and didn’t notice any loss of signal on the very rural journey from Pittsburgh to Allenwood. 5G coverage has been extremely reliable and, if anything, feels a little faster than Verizon.
Using Mint Internationally
I took a work trip to Frankfurt and used Mint’s “Minternational Pass.” A 10-day pass cost $20 and included 500 minutes, 500 texts, and 10GB of international data. It worked great (my phone roamed seamlessly to Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent company), and it was much easier than juggling a local SIM or worrying about roaming charges.
What About Deprioritization?
This was my biggest concern going in. MVNOs get lower priority on the host network than the carrier’s own customers, so when a tower gets congested, your data is the first to slow down or disappear.
In three months, it’s been an issue once: I was driving past Heinz Field just as a game was starting, and my data dropped out completely. It didn’t come back until I was a few blocks away.
That’s about the worst-case scenario you could design for an MVNO: tens of thousands of people in one spot, all on their phones at once. Outside of that, I haven’t noticed any difference from my Verizon days, even in crowded airports and other places full of people on their phones.
If you regularly spend time at packed events and need data there, keep this in mind – an MVNO like Mint is likely to experience slow or completely dropped data. For everyday use, it hasn’t been a factor.
Customer Service
I can’t speak to Mint’s customer service, because I haven’t needed it. Everything has been intuitive enough to handle myself. The online self-service interface is minimalist, but it’s much easier to use than Verizon’s. Things I’d dread doing on Verizon’s site take a couple of taps on Mint’s.
The Verdict
If you’re a moderate data user who’s been paying big-carrier prices out of habit or fear, an MVNO is worth a serious look. The switch took a little troubleshooting, coverage has been excellent where I live and work, and the savings are real. The one tradeoff, deprioritization in very crowded places, has been a minor inconvenience rather than a dealbreaker.
Full disclosure: The link below is a referral link. If you sign up through it, you get a $15 credit and I get a $45 credit.