Mint SIM is a sub MVNO of Ultra Mobile. The companies business model is aimed at getting subscribers to pay in advance for several months of service. Subscribers can choose to pay in advance for either 3 months, 6 months or 12 months.
A BestMVNO.com site reader tipped me off to Mint SIM's latest promotion which is for new subscribers who are willing to pay in advance for 3 months of service. Those that do, will find themselves with a pretty sweet deal.
All of Mint SIM's plans include unlimited talk, text and data with varying amounts of high speed data. With that in mind, here is a list of the promotional offerings from Mint SIM.
Pay 3 Months In Advance Promotional Offerings
- Small Plan - 2 GB 4G LTE data per month, $11.67/month or $35 total. Regular price is $23/month or $69 total.
- Medium Plan - 5 GB 4G LTE data per month, $16.67/month or $50 total. Regular price is $33/month or $50 total.
- Large Plan - 10 GB 4G LTE data per month, $20/month or $60 total. Regular price is $39.67/month or $119 total.
There are no activation fees with Mint SIM and taxes are minimal except in the state of California where users will have to pay an MTS tax which could reach as high as double digits. Wi-Fi calling and texting are included with all plans as long as your phone supports the service and you have a specific SIM card from Mint that also supports the feature.
Analysis
This promotion is almost a no lose situation for those looking for a new provider that offers service on the T-Mobile network. In some cases the upfront costs for 3 months of service are almost identical to what you would pay for one month of service from another carrier. For instance, Walmart Family Mobile is charging $50 for unlimited talk, text and data with the first 10 GB at high speeds, and that's just for 1 month of service. With Mint SIM you could pay just $10 more and get 3 months of service.
The only real risk I could potentially see here, is that since Mint SIM is a sub MVNO of Ultra Mobile, I'm not sure what network prioritization will be like. MVNO's themselves are always prioritized below postpaid subscribers on the parent network, although for a majority this does not present any real world issues in terms of network performance and speed. As a sub MVNO, where would Mint SIM fall on the prioritization totem pole? Any Mint SIM users out there to comment on this? I should have a full review of Mint SIM coming in the next several months, at which time I should be able to answer this question with first hand experience.
Ringplus refugee here. Jumped to MintSIM after the port to Ting.
Because Sprint coverage is next to nothing where I am I was considering ATT Go Phone (again) and then found MintSIM.
Got in on a promo for the year which averages out to about 18 bucks with 2 gigs of data monthly and it works great. No dropped calls and if I need extra highspeed data I can add 3 gigs for….20Bucks!! Who does that?!?!? Lol.
So all in all, so far, a good move I think.
🙂
Mintsim CA user here for only 3 days so far (signed up for 1 yr Unlimited Talk/Text 5GB data..Around $22/mo MTS/taxes included) T-Mobile dominates my area of Los Angeles (loyal T-Mobile network user here since carrier inception in early 2000s..To Straight talk and back to T-Mobile). Porting over from my last Walmart T-Mobile $30 100min/5GB UL data plan to the Mintsim website is smooth as butter and a total no brainer. No difference in performance between the two. Can’t be any happier. Mintsim won me over.
Thanks for sharing. Check back in after a couple weeks and let us know if you still feel the same.
I was ringplus survivor and looking for cheap plans, orderd Mint Sim for 2 months , which I agree they messed up and signed me for 3 months after following up on chat which is more effective than calling them they gave me 3 12 months for $166 Taxes. And I am using it since last 1 month here are my 2 cents:
Pros: Cheap, convenient to switch, nice coverage in my area, pretty g8 speed as compared to ringplus, wifi calling, cheap international calling
Cons: Yearly plan which can get you in trouble if you get another cheap carrier, slow or non-existing customer service
Thanks for sharing!
I am using Mint Sim for the last 1.5 months now and here are my 2 cents:
Pros: Cheap, convenient to switch, decent coverage
Cons: Network not as good as other MVNOs (Verizon and AT&T), speed can be extremely slow in certain areas and
With talk that Tmobile & Sprint may merge, who knows how long this MintSim will even be in business? THEN, what happens to your money? *poof*?
Nothing would happen except your service would continue on as is.
Even in the unlikely event that a merger happened, it would take several years for it to have an impact on the consumer. Furthermore, T-Mobile and Sprint use two different underlying techs that operate on different frequencies. Those frequencies aren’t just going to be wiped out, just like your service won’t from this provider or others like it.
Why do you think a combined Sprint/Tmobile would keep MintSim operating? As we just saw from RingPlus, these MVNOs can shut down anytime without much notice to the public on what is going on behind the scenes.
Because no provider in their right mind is going to tell tens of millions of subscribers that they need to find a new provider, get a new phone and risk losing those customers forever to the competition (AT&T and Verizon). T-Mobile’s network and its 70 million(ish) prepaid, postpaid, and MVNO subscribers are not going to cease to exist in a merger and be told to go elsewhere.
What happened with RingPlus is completely irrelevant to merger talks and this. RingPlus had some financial issues and couldn’t pay its bills, as well as some other problems with Sprint and thus had to shutdown. You are right in that it’s not entirely uncommon for an MVNO to shut down out of the blue, but in a merger, it just wouldn’t make any sense for that to happen. There are too many variables involved.
MVNO subscribers count for tens of millions of subscribers for the parent network. TracFone alone has nearly 25 million customers. By comparison, RingPlus had just shy of 100k. You think a carrier is going to collectively wipe out an entire market and thus revenue segment in one swoop?