I keep getting targeted by ads for Mint Mobile on here, and I took the bait today to see what they offer. Their pricing is way better than Fi - $30/mo for unlimited data. What am I missing? Can someone tell me what the comparison between Fi and Mint looks like?
Data sims. You use Google Fi if you want data sims for more devices
Fi has postpaid TMobile speeds and is never deprioritized. They have an insanely good cyber security infrastructure (because google), international coverage is legitimately amazing and the ease of entering a new country is near flawless. Plus you get roaming and another carrier if you have a Fi compatible phone (like a pixel).
Basically you’re paying a premium for a stellar backend process and coverage.
Mint mobile is always deprioritized so your speeds will be slower, their cyber security is a joke (in fact they just had a data breach a couple weeks ago). Their support team is incompetent. The service works fine though and it’s cheap.
You get what you pay for.
Google Fi also includes smart watch connectivity on all of their plans for no additional cost.
I was a former Fi customer and have been on Mint for the past 4.5 years.
I never used customer service when I had Fi. I’ve had one instance of customer support with Mint (not related to any issue with my service) and had a good experience with it.
I’ve travelled internationally when I had each plan. With Fi, I was able to use my phone as-is (which was very convenient, no need for a new number or additional setup), however the connection and speed of service was quite poor and I mostly relied on WiFi. When traveling with Mint, I chose to use local service providers instead of the international data offered by Mint (which would have been quite a bit more expensive). My experience with the local service provider was excellent, but it is definitely more of a hassle when traveling when compared to Fi (and you don’t get to use your own number).
I had a great experience overall with Fi, but switched to Mint for the lower cost (and so that I wouldn’t constantly be looking at my data usage). My Mint experience has also been great and I personally haven’t seen any significant decrease in speeds.
In my opinion, I don’t think you can go wrong with either service. If you are typically always on WiFi, Fi is very reasonably priced. If you are the kind of person that will keep looking at your data usage everyday to keep costs as low as possible, Mint might be less of a mental load (you get an obscene amount of data for the price). Based on the other comments, if you have multiple devices you want connected to data, Fi is probably the better bet.
Best reason for Fi are data SIMs plus international coverage which Mint does not have. I have the $65/mo plan but I got two data SIMs…. It’s a bargain considering the others charge $10 or $20/line each… Fi doesn’t.
If you ask this question on a Fi Subreddit you are likely to get biased responses. I would suggest you ask this in the Mint subreddit as well if you want a more full picture.
Fi is great if : 1) you do a lot of intl travel 2) if you dont use much data 3) if you need an additional free sim for watch/tablet etc. But if you do you use a lot of data (eg more than a couple gigs) then the mint/visible etc are going to be much cheaper for you.
connect by T-Mobile isn’t deprioritized and can be much cheaper also
If you have a single line, yeah, mint is slightly cheaper but if you have more than 1 line, Fi gets cheaper quick. Fi Simply Unlimited plan is $50 for one line I think, $80 total for 2-4, and then $20/line for above 4. So, Fi is cheaper or at least about the same price (depending on the extra line costs for Mint) once you get more than 2 lines. And, as others have said, there are backend benefits to Fi as well such as the integrated VPN, higher priority data, and other features that a smaller MVNO likely can’t match. How cheap a service is doesn’t matter if it doesn’t serve your needs.
I’m in the process of moving my family of 4 from Mint to Fi. My wife and I have 15GB plans and my teenagers have 5GB. Fi Simply Unlimited will be virtually the same total price for me for unlimited data and no de-prioritization.
The Mint deprioritization is dramatic for us at certain places around our NorCal town and at the high school. We will have full bars, but data slows to a crawl. Podcasts and music buffer and videos are almost un watchable.
That being said, I’m mostly happy with Mint. Its cheap and coverage is good.
My wife, son and I ran 3 Google Pixels on Fi for 2 years and things worked ok but not great. Before that I was on Verizon and At&t. I’m in Austin TX, work in IT (using my phone for calls and data for business all day, I also support ~300 mobile users on a mix of all different carriers) I move around the city all day. We also regularly take long driving trips from Central Texas to all 3 coats.
We switched to Mint 3+ years ago and could not be more happy, while I won’t say service is 100% perfect, it’s as good or better than any of the other carriers. I have renewed for a 4th year and due to our experiences, at least a dozen friends and family have moved to Mint and not one has left them.
So yes, I HIGHLY recommend them.
As a side note, if you are on iPhone, it’s probably best to go for unlimited, but if you are in Android, you may not need it. My wife and I are on the 15GB plans, my (teenage) son is on the smaller package and we basically never get through our high speed data. Keep in mind that even when your high speed data runs out, you still have slower data and things like email and navigation will still work.
I recently switched over to Mint after being on Fi for 10+ years. Had a terrible customer service experience with Fi, apparently you can’t transfer just one number from a plan without cancelling your plan for everyone… so that was an easy “Okay cancel it all then”
That being said, I’m very happy with Mint so far. Cheaper, and I’m really digging having unlimited data these days.
$20 line is the winner
I also can confirm the ease of traveling through Europe. London to Paris to Amsterdam to Italy was a breeze.
I signed up a spare phone on MINT, just to try their Verizon coverage and bandwidth. Though I asked for Mint/Verizon, they put me on Mint/Tmobile instead. I called several times during 3 days, to no avail. I canceled the account on the third day but got charged for a month anyway. To hell with them. Fi does seem to have decent customer support.
Psssst…
Check out US Mobile…
Reviving this thread because… With T-Mobile buying Mint a few months ago, is it still being deprioritized vs. Google Fi? I see too many contradictory notes here about one person saying going from Fi → Mint and noticed no difference, but don’t want to shift my family over and feel committed for 3 months to junk. At least there are 7 days to try it out.
lol wait until the price increases once the acquisition is complete by T-Mobile of Mint. You think they want to kill their own platform by offering lower priced deal? Nah
https://www.t-mobile.com/news/business/t-mobile-to-acquire-mint-and-ultra-mobile
Fi has VPN access.
Also, deals on new phones and trade ins have been great.
All of this, plus, if you use an LTE smartwatch, Mint isn’t compatible. Fi would be the way to go if you want that feature!