Chances are very high that you own a smartphone if you’re reading this post. Chances are also high that your smartphone has a Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, or Sprint SIM card in it. Those four carriers may be the most popular, but are they the most economical? If saving money is a big concern for you, I have been testing an alternative to the big four called Mint SIM. Let’s take a look.
What is it?
Mint SIM is a no contract cellular company that uses the 4G LTE T-Mobile network to provide service.
With Mint SIM, you can pay 1, 3, 6, or even 12 months at a time for big savings.
Activation
To start using the Mint SIM you have to activate it by going to the Mint site.
Then you have to install the SIM in your existing phone if it is GSM-compatible, uses a SIM card, and isn’t locked. You can also buy a phone directly from Mint. For this review, I used a Nexus 6P.
The Mint SIM card looks like the same SIM card you have in your phone right now. Depending on your phone, the SIM can be customized down to as small as the nano-sized, micro-sized, or the standard sized SIM that you see above.
The final step requires that you go into your phone’s settings to add the APN (Access Point Name) info so that you can use the data part of the Mint SIM plan.
This is something you normally don’t need to do with the other carriers, but it’s not difficult and only takes a minute.
If you plan to port your existing phone number to Mint, you have that option as well. I didn’t do that, so I had a brand new number while using the SIM card in my phone.
Does it work?
If you live, work, or travel in an area with T-Mobile coverage then Mint SIM will work great because that’s the network that Mint uses.
The T-Mobile blanket in my area has a few holes in it compared to the “other guys” blankets, but it still worked just fine in the areas where I tested it with my Nexus 6p.
I didn’t have any issues making / receiving calls, accessing my voicemail, sending text messages, dancing the net with my usual browser, and even using the phone as a hotspot. Everything that I can do with other carriers, I could do with Mint.
Pricing Plans
Mint’s pricing plans are very affordable especially if you can get by with a 2GB plan which is less than $12 a month when you pay for 3 months at a time.
What happens when you go over your monthly 4G LTE data allotment? Mint doesn’t cut you off, the speed just goes down to 2G which should be fast enough to still do basic things like check emails and chat. It may even be fast enough to use Google Maps, but I haven’t tested it.
Note that Mint SIM does not offer any type of family or group plans, so each plan must be purchased individually.
I only ran into one small annoyance and that’s all the text messages that Mint sends when you first start using their service.
Final thoughts
If you’re on a budget, definitely check into Mint SIM. As long as your area has good T-Mobile coverage, they are a viable alternative to Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T.
Update 10/24/17
The free Mint SIM that was given to me to review expired months ago, but I recently had a need to test the T-Mobile coverage in my area. Instead of signing up with TMO to get one of their SIMs, I decided to sign up with Mint which is much easier and cheaper. I went online, filled out the info and within a couple of days I received a new SIM in the mail. Just like when I reviewed the first SIM, setup was simple and quick. I still recommend this cell service for ease and pricing.
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Mint SIM. Please visit their site for more info.
Product Information
| Price: | Depends on plan |
| Manufacturer: | Mint SIM |
| Pros: |
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Google Maps in your local area (which gets cached) will use almost no data, so it should be plenty fast. 😉
Thanks! Good to know.
Why does it cost more per month for the 6 and 12 month plans?
The 3-month deal is a limited time promotion right now making it the lowest price. If you go by the $35 one month price, the 3, 6, and 12-month rates get increasingly lower.
only real downside is extending service AFTER the initial promo period goes back up to at least 20$ a month and one cannot buy extended promos a 2nd time. So, if you want to try, get the cheapest promo to begin, but if you want to use longer term, buy the longest period you can upfront as it will go up to at least 20$ a month thereafter.
I joined Mint and got the 3-month promo last February, then got another promo offer later on my renewal so I took the 12-months for $159 on the 2GB plan.
Have you been happy with Mint so far?
Yes mám, Mint got great value and features. I had already tried the other prepaid providers and also the contract plans.
Thanks/
Senioral
Thanks for sharing.
I also am trying out the 3 month promo and decided to buy another year at $159 which ended up totaling to $190.80 for a year. The MTS charge was 12.4% for my area? so the reg fee was $1.75 and $30.05 for the mts fee? how exactly they figure all that out who knows. Point is it went from $159 to $190 for the year which still is fine for me.
Just remember that customer service for MintSim is generally pretty terrible. If you run into an actual issue the turnaround time on support is atrocious and most of the technical “expertise” are just canned responses. It’s a bit like talking to a wall.
I agree. The customer service was so terrible that I didn’t go through with using their service after four days with out a phone because they had trouble getting me set up and ask me to repeat the same information every single time they called back to get things ironed out. After the 5th time they asked for my information I finally said I am not interested anymore I want my refund. Filled out the refund paperwork and received an email saying it was being processed and never saw it. Contacted them about it. A week later they said they would check into the matter. Several weeks later I ask them again what was going on. They asked me for my information again. Do they not take notes? Do they not read the thread of emails attached? I quit on getting my refund because it is clear they are only interested in sending you through rabbit trails that lead in circles… instead I will get the message out to others so that they do not have to deal with the same headache that I have. Do not bother with these clowns. I only wasted about 50 dollars but they wasted a ton of my time and time is priceless.
They are much better now with customer service since then. I did the 6mo and going to do the 1yr plan next. service works really good for me in Hawaii and data is way faster than other pre paids I’ve tried.
I’m getting very poor signal in 91792 area, only get 1 bar most of the time and 2 bars occasionally make surfing internet at snail pace.
Does tethering work with Mint SIM? (hotspot feature?)
I have T-Mobile, which I must use through a 3rd-partner “partner” tower when using from my home. That works mostly OK with T-Mobile. Will Mint SIM work through a T-Mobile-partner tower (that is not owned and operated by T-Mobile)?
Data speed experienced in non-US countries?
I use Google Voice. If I just forward my Google Voice calls to the number Mint SIM assigns me, will that work with Google Voice?
Tethering isn’t disabled, but it’s strictly against their End User License Agreement. I’ve seen some reviews of people who have used it successfully, but I’m sure it’d be bad news if you were caught.
Mint SIM uses T-Mobile’s towers, but I would seriously doubt that they use the partner towers that T-Mobile subscribes to. I can’t guarantee this, just my educated guess.
Data speeds vary greatly. There’s been reports of a lot of ups and down, but 20 down and 10 up seems to be what you can get on a good day. Other times, not so much.
I’ve not yet set up Google voice with Mint SIM, but based on some forum posts I’ve read, I believe it should work well. EG https://www.reddit.com/r/mintsim/comments/5unkzf/integration_with_google_voice/
Good luck!
I tried the 3 month promo in June. I chose the 6 month 10 gig plan on my 950xl windows phone, as I’m not sure how long it’ll last. So far Mint’s been great, much faster than Verizon ever was at my home! I’ve had no issues, so far I’m loving it?
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One thing I love about Mint are the fantastic international call rates. I load my “Mint Wallet” with $5, and it’s only 1c a minute to call landlines in the UK (and 1.5c a minute to mobiles). I have used the international roaming service abroad where it is 25c a minute to make or receive calls and 12c to send a text. The call quality was great. They do not do International data roaming as of yet.
As of yet Mint does not have an IOS/Google Play app, but what I’ve done is just added the Mint website to my phone’s home screen, basically making it an app.
Only slight issue is little signal in rural areas of NYS, but overall I’m very happy with Mintsim.
Been using Mint Sim now for approx. 3 weeks with no issues. Using Motorola Droid Turbo for the past 3 years, went from Verizon, Straight Talk to now Mint Sim and I’m very pleased with the service. It does seem that the signal is stronger than that of Straight Talk wherever I go and I’ve confirmed that with the speed test app.
I wasn’t able to port my prev cell number as it was extremely difficult maybe because I was coming from another prepaid service.
Awesome savings on the 2GB/Month plan for 3 months with priority shipping $69.00. Loving It…..
Terrible customer service, extremely poor coverage area and higher prices than you can see on the website. Everything looks good only at the beginning. many other providers are at the same price level and you don’t have to pay upfront for 3 months.
Their coverage is the same as T-Mobile since that is the carrier that they are using. If you already have good TMO coverage in your area and a GSM compatible phone you should be just fine. As for their pricing, I think they are a good deal especially when you take advantage of their regular deals.
I live the SF Bay Area. I bought a 5GB/mo 6-month plan for $60 from the website during their 2017 year-end sale. So far, the experience has been pretty uneventful. I never owned other T-Mobile SIM in the past for comparison, but I found no problem with Mint’s reception, data speeds and call quality.
My OnePlus 5T is not among their list of officially supported VoLTE and VoWi-Fi devices, but both these features work fine on it. I also like the fact that I can make $0.01/min calls to India whenever I want. I loaded an extra $5 into my wallet a few months back but I don’t think I am ever gonna use up 500 mins of international calls.
Vikas, thank you for sharing your experience with Mint so far. Glad it’s worked out well for you.
i have left mintsim because they were unable to resolve an issue i had from the beginning of service. my phone would not ring to incoming calls on a seemingly random basis. voice messages to said calls would be delivered hours later or not at all. went on reddit and there are others who are experiencing the same issue. i moved over to red pocket, on att network. i think mintsim got a poor deal with t-mobile.