Mint Mobile vs. Ting and Republic Wireless
A reader recently sent me this email:
I was wondering if you still use Ting wireless. My oldest son is 15, and we are considering getting him a phone at some point. We currently have a great deal with AT&T, and when I called them today, I found out I could not add a line as our plan isn’t offered anymore. So they told me I’d have to make him have his own plan…the cheapest they have is $45 a month plus taxes. I don’t need much for my son as we homeschool and he has a tablet. My thought for a phone is for safety when he starts driving next year.
He might be getting an iPhone, so I’m thinking Republic is out based on an old post of yours.
Any input or update you can provide on Ting or whatever cheap service you might have found that’s good would be appreciated!
-Laura
Interestingly enough, we just switched over to Mint Mobile in the last month.
Lisey switched some months ago because she was using too much data for Ting to be affordable. And now the rest of us have followed her over to Mint Mobile.
Here's a little rundown of the three options we've tried.
Ting: good if you use very little data
If you want a very inexpensive phone plan and you can manage to use very little data, Ting is still a very cheap option.
If you choose the Flex Plan, for $10/month, you get unlimited talk and text, and then you pay $5/gig for data.
If you use very little data, this is really cheap. But if you are not careful with usage, you could get stuck with a big bill for data.
If you really just need to get access to talk and text for a kid, though, $10/month is a very good deal.
Plus, you can share data with others on your plan, so if you wanted to have two kids on the Ting plan, you'd pay $10/month for each of them, and then they could share the data.
Also, Ting has amazing customer service; every time I have called them, a real (and helpful) person answers the phone. I have never had to go through an automated menu!
Ting runs on both the Verizon and T-mobile networks. (Scroll all the way down to see the Flex plan.)
Mint Mobile: better if you want data freedom
With Mint Mobile, you can pay $15/month and get unlimited talk and text plus 4 gigs of high-speed data.
And this is not shared data; each line gets its own 4 gigs.
This feels like a deliciously high amount of data to me because after having been with Ting for so many years, I'm super in the habit of being careful about my data usage!
And now after I do something like downloading a song using my data, I joke to Mr. FG that I have become a profligate data user.
Mint Mobile also offers plans with more data or unlimited data, but I gotta say, 4 gigs seems very sufficient to me!
Mint Mobile runs on the T-Mobile network if that helps you decide.
Republic Wireless: not for iPhone users
Republic Wireless still only supports Androids, but even if you have an Android, I'd still go with Mint Mobile.
Republic's plan is $20/month for unlimited talk and text but you only get 1 gig of data.
I'd much rather pay $15 with Mint and get 4 gigs of data!
Republic Wireless uses the T-Mobile network as well, so you might as well go with Mint Mobile. Same network, less expensive, more data.
That's an easy decision.
My opinion: go with Mint Mobile
Of these three options (which are the ones our family has experience with), I think Mint Mobile makes the most sense unless you are planning to keep data usage down to almost nothing, in which case I'd go with Ting.
Also, if you need to be on the Verizon network, then that's a vote in favor of Ting.
I'm currently on a RedPocket annual Phone Plan ($30/year) https://www.redpocket.com/plans/ebay but will probably switch to Tello after this year as that lets you create a custom plan and change it every month, and I need data some months, but none for others.
I use a yearly at&t pre pay plan. Found in on their website, had it for a year now. I prepaid $300 and bought a iPhone from them for $199. I just added another $300. It’s unlimited talk and text with 8gig data which rolls over 1 month. One reason I picked this plan last year was to use it as a hot spot for my dad’s virtual dr visit. That was plenty of data for that but not really enough for a lot of use.
I did have H20, which uses AT&T’s network, which works better in my area. I changed because I couldn’t use a hot spot with prepaid. My dh has a flip phone(H20)he barely uses and I add $10 every three months. It rolls over if you add money every 90 days. He now has a couple hundred dollars on his account which he probably will never use up. The prepaid charges .5 a minute text and talk. .10 megabyte data. I also bought a flip phone for my father, which he doesn’t use anymore. I switched out his sim and have been using it in an old phone. This is a phone I use for audio books downloading. The problem with at&t is they use up data fast.
I’ve been on Mint (switched from Verizon) since last fall and it’s been great. My partner and I both brought our own iphones (that we’d purchased elsewhere, refurbished old models) and putting in the SIM cards sent by Mint was very easy!
I would love to hear from anyone who had switched to Mint and travels extensively around the US. For my job, in the next year or so, I’ll be on the road, mostly major cities but also some rural areas, for about half of each month. I know Mint uses major carriers’ networks - but I’ve heard that roaming is an issue? Also, does Mint have an easy international plan? I’m with Verizon right now and all I have to do is call them and tell them where I’m traveling to, and they bump me to an international plan for the duration of my trip. I’m not traveling now, but I foresee my job asking me to a lot more in 2022. Thanks!
@Katie from Buffalo, we have been using Mint for a couple months now. It really is so dependent on location. I work about 7 minutes from home and coverage stinks there but is awesome at home. When we visit college kid we basically have no service. College kid begrudgingly went back to tracfone and our senior will as well when he heads off next year. I would recommend plugging in the zip codes you travel to often on their coverage map and see what pops.
@Katie from Buffalo,
We have had Mint for about 4 years. It is great service when you are close to a large city. We get no service when we are in more rural areas. This has not bothered us until this month when we were camping and needed to call a pharmacy for an urgent concern. But, it worked out in the end. What did we do when cell phones weren't around? Right? Lol.
If you are in an Xfinity area their plans are $15. a month for 1 GB data. They also have unlimited areound $45.
@Mar,
We use Xfinity right now, too. We used Republic Wireless for a number of years and were happy with them, but Xfinity is cheaper for us now. Our bill is $30/month for 2 lines and we share a gig of data. I think the catch with this plan is that you have to have their internet in order to get their phone deal. We do, so it's fine for us.
@Mar,
We use xfinity too. Runs on the Verizon network which is a must for my area. What I like about xfinity is we’re on the shared data plan, so it’s $15 per month for one gig, $30 for 3, or $60 for 10. No charge for multiple lines except taxes. We don’t use much data generally so we get by easily with the $15 plan most of the year and just have to bump it up if we go on vacation and use a lot of data (which you can do at any point in the billing period). Huge but welcome change from our $100+ a month bill with Verizon.
@M, Oh yes! That's right - I remember that the bigger savings came when both my husband and I were able to switch to Xfinity. My husband tried it on his own for 6 months first, but the savings really kick in when you start adding additional lines.
For someone with older kids and heavier data usage: we have 5 people including 2 college kids and 1 hs kid. We use TMobile. We have unlimited call/text/data because the college kids and train-commuting hubby were always kissing the 3GB limit. We pay $120 for this which and included netflix account, so this seems fair to me for the number of phones and data usage we have.
I'm on the cheapest plan ever ... my daughter pays for it :). But, I've encouraged her to check out the cheaper plans vs. her Verizon family plan. Our problem is that Verizon by far has the best coverage in our neck of the (literal) woods, and amongst us, we all use a decent, although not excessive amount of data. I've got no suggestions except to look at what is your best coverage and how the kids will realistically use the phone, and ask around about others' plans.
I'm curious about the fees for Mint. We use Ting on the grandfathered-in older plan that isn't available to new users. For two lines with minimal usage plus fees we pay about $26 a month total.
Is Mint $15 a line + fees and maybe taxes? If so, what's the approximate end cost? Thanks!! 🙂
I don't believe that there are any fees other than regulatory stuff that's determined by where you live, and those fees would be the same for every carrier in your area.
If you manage to use so little data, then Ting is probably the best option to stick with!
We did Ting for years and loved it. We did not use any data and our total bill was $30 a month for two people. Their service recently changed and we live very northern Minnesota and no longer had service where we lived so we switched to Visible. For $25 a month per phone we get unlimited everything. The only catch to get that price you need 4 people on your plan, although each person is on a separate plan. It is sort of confusing but I'm really happy with the service.
Living in a very rural part of the midwest, Mint was not an option - I tried. My husband doesn't use his phone much but seemed to use more than Ting's 1 GB data (didn't understand how). After investigating he switched to US Mobile and gets unlimited talk/text and 5 GB data for about $19 per month. Coverage seems good and we have been happy with their customer service. They couldn't port his old number so assigned a new one that was horrible with spam calls & texts. Was able to contact them and get a new one that has had no spam on it.
We use Cricket. My children stream music over their phones all day, every day, so I love their unlimited data plans. My daughter, for example, has used 24.3 GB of data this billing plan, while I've used 0.2 GB. (I use my laptop the way most people use their phones.)
We also use Cricket which is a subsidiary of AT&T. We have a 4 person plan with unlimited talk, text, and Data for $100/month with autopsy. We use both android and iphones.
Ok, so, I know it was a typo, but the "autopsy" part made me laugh. Like you have a recurring subscription to an autopsy service.
We also have the same plan with Cricket. Very happy with the plan that includes two data using teens.
@Amy, We also are on cricket. 3 lines unlimited $90/mos!
I'm a RW user, but that's partially due to legacy. I've been using them for ten years and haven't changed (yet). I loved when they gave a half-price educator discount to homeschool parents and I got my plan for under $10/mo at that time. But now I'm back to the $20 (+$5 taxes) like everyone else (although with a 10% discount since I've been with them from the early days). You get a discount if you do a yearly plan ($200 instead of 240), but you don't get a refund if you cancel mid-year. With the other inexpensive plans that are popping up, I wanted to keep my options open this year. One of my RW friends just switched to RedPocket for his coverage.
Note: With RW, you phone can be set on T-Mobile (as you mentioned, Kristen) OR on Sprint. It will go with T-Mobile by default, but you can specify that you want to be on the Sprint network when you do the initial setup. (You pick one network at initial set up -- it doesn't jump back and forth between the two networks.)
Oh, and my $20 plan at RW is unlimited text/talk and .5GB of data. I can purchase extra data for the month I'm in anytime I want for $5/GB -- which is a nice perk for the months we are heavily traveling.
Thinking of some of the limited RedPocket plans,--I'm probably one of the few people left in the world who want unlimited talk time. I'd likely bump into a 1000 min/mo limit between chats with my mom, work calls, and calls to supporters.
I switched our family to Visible last year and wonder why I didn’t do it sooner. Visible is not as inexpensive as the plans you mentioned but we pay $30/month per person for unlimited talk, text, AND data. My husband lives on his phone for work and we have a teenaged son whose phone might as well be part of his hand. The relief I feel each month knowing that it doesn’t matter how much data anyone uses is worth the extra dollars. Even at $30 a person we are only paying roughly 1/3 what we paid Verizon and that Verizon plan did not include unlimited data.
We just switched to Visible and have been very pleased with it. A little bit more expensive, but with unlimited everything, better reception at our home, and taxes included, we're loving it!
Note: We previously had a plan that included up to four lines for a flat fee. We only needed three for our family, so I was able to provide free phone service for a financially insecure friend on the other side of the country. She used it until she passed away, which is why we stayed with Metro for so long. If you have a similar plan, you might be able to bless someone you care about with a "magic" phone.
I love that you helped out a friend with the extra slot on your plan!
@Lora, Whose lines does Visible use? I'm looking for a plan with unlimited data. Do they not throttle you at a certain point?
I tried Mint with my Motorola phone, which their phone compatibility chart said should work, and it did not. Could not connect and the phone ran hot and ran the battery down in no time. Mint customer service tried, but had no solutions.
We went with Google Fi service, which has worked out great and saves us $90 a month compared to being on Verizon, which had become horrifyingly expensive for only two people, one of whom (me) using almost no data. Our son has been a longtime Republic Wireless user and likes it, using it successfully for map access even when he worked delivering pizzas.
As Kristen mentioned, it basically all comes down to - how do you plan to use data? The hard part for most of us is knowing how much data is used by our normal activities. For an overall reference - we have 2 of us on the Ting Flex plan (inc. 1 in college). We operate mostly on home/college wifi, but when out and about, we feel free to use it as we wish. For us, that generally means we check email, send texts with pics, some web surfing, pull up coupons, occasional directions - that type of thing. We easily keep within the 1G of data (in fact I checked just now and with more than half the month gone, we've used .01G between us). The bill for the 2 of us has been @$30 a month.
That being said, we don't use our phones to stream music/movies, which isn't hard for us since we just naturally find it more convenient to do that at home, generally on a tablet/laptop. We don't really use a lot of extra apps, some of which can pull a lot of data in the background.
So - you can think about how the phone will be used. Mint sounds great and we may end up looking into it in the future. But for now (through MS/HS and into college), Ting works great for us!
(Oh, one other thing that's been handy for us with Ting - other plans may be this way too, you could check - but for sure with Ting, we are able to be on 2 different telecom networks, which is great because the college campus was only strong with a different one than I'd been using. Ting made it very easy to switch; they have good customer service.)
We currently have Visible and love them. I think we pay $25/month with unlimited everything. They run on the Verizon network so really no issues with out of area stuff. The more people you put on your “party line” the less you pay. We have our teenage boys on our “party line”. For our 14 year old homeschooled daughter we will get her Gabb $20-25/month. It will just allow her to talk and text, no smart phone stuff.
Has anyone with Mint used it overseas or in Canada? I love the look of that price, but when I need my phone the most is when I'm traveling. I ended up quitting Ting years ago because I had no coverage in NYC (how!?), and we often spend a month in Europe e/o year.
I ca never decide if overpaying for Verizon each month for the piece of mind that my phone will work outside the US is worth the tradeoff.
I had Republic Wireless in the past. It worked well, I liked it. I switched to Mint bc my husband gave me his old iPhone from his job when they upgraded him. I like Mint a lot more. The service is just better and I have fewer weird glitches. I get unlimited calling, text, and data for $25/month. I got the data unlimited plan because I take my kids on lots of day trips and I absolutely need the Robot Lady to tell me where to go!
I use Google Fi and have unlimited everything for around $80.00 per month (I know that sounds horribly high for one line, but I ported from Sprint who was charging me more than twice that every month--$40.00 or so for the phone I financed, and $130.00-$140.00 for data, talk, text).
What infuriated me is that I left the Sprint store thinking it was going to be around $140.00 including the phone, and they basically did a bait-and-switch. For the 18 months I had their service, the bill was NEVER lower than $160.00--$165.00.