Tracfone alternatives - Mint Mobile - Tello - others

[charles meyer]

Hi All,

I searched the archives but didn;'t find any posts re: Mint Mobile or Tello.

I thought that topsi might have been addressed on this list but I didn't see that in my gmail search either.

To the urgent had at matter....

My current 365 days 1500 minute Tracfone plan expires tomorrow.

 

I Live chatted with Tracphone on 1-21-2026 and they shared there was an “Upsell Trick” to get 1500 more minutes and another 365 days of service on  your current Samsung cell and shared the steps to do that on the Tracfone Web site.

 

I just tried that and it didn’t work.

 

I both phoned and live chatted with TracFone and they said that deal doesn’t exist.

 

I can either pay $125 now for anther 365 days of service but that does NOT include any minutes talk-text-data (e.g. 1500) so I wondered if you, too, just needed low talk-data on your phone service?

 

I see on Amazon + HSN + QVC + Tracfone sites you can get that deal (365 +1500) but you must get a new Moto or Blu or TCL phone.

 

I can’t stand that “Hello, Moto” voice all the time and the Moto + Blu have been the biggest problems in our library. They’re not intuitive and the tech help is worthless. I have a Samsung A14 and it mostly works fine.

 

This is a full time job to steer around all the choices, plans, etc.

 

It was so easy to just order a new Samsung every year on QVC or HSN with the 365 -1500.

 

Have you used Mint Mobile or Tell for $6-10 a month?

 

I’ve Googled and chatgpt’d this to the nth degree.

 

My needs are simple: Send occasional texts (not daily) make occasional phone calls (not daily) receive occasional calls (not daily). I don’t stream music or videos, don’t use Google Maps on my phone, don’t spend hours talking on the phone and everyone else seems to need unlimited talk/text.

 

Thank you for your thoughts / suggestions.

 

Charles.

[Marc Syvertsen]

Hi Charles, 

I’ve bounced around numerous low-cost prepaid phone services.  Mint offers some pretty good deals if you’re willing to pay a year up front, but the problem here was they use T-Mobile’s network which was terrible where we live and where my older kid went to college.  T-Mobile has been making a lot of noise lately about a better network since they merged with US Cellular, so it may be better. Also of course you never know how the MVNO’s service compares to the underlying network; sometimes they make it worse.  Otherwise Mint was fine to deal with.  So on that I’d say if you can find anyone on T-Mobile’s network and they have good coverage in your area, it’s a good option.  Or try the free week or free refund offer if they still have one to confirm the network.

I think everyone offers unlimited talk/text now, it’s like local phone cals used to be on a landline, just not worth metering.

I’ve never used Tello.  I’ve used some that are no longer around, with mixed results.

My folks used Tracfone for years but it was annoying and their plans are pretty dated, so I agree not a great place to stay.

Red Pocket offers pretty good pricing and you can choose AT&T, Verizon, or maybe another network.  But they have rare but random failures that can be frustrating, and porting your number out always requires one or two calls or live chats.

Visible from Verizon is good for low-priced unlimited with a good network.

I use US Mobile on a phone where I just want to keep the number alive, for about $7 a month for 500MB.  They are more reliable and easier to use than Red Pocket.  Though I had some coverage problems in busy areas with them and an iPhone 8, never was sure if it was them or the phone.  They also offer ATT and Verizon networks (or did last time I looked).

I’m using Spectrum on my main phone right now since they offered a free year when I changed to their internet service at home.  Probably will move to Visible after the free year, but I do use plenty of data on that phone.

They all change the deals they offer pretty frequently, so like insurance, you kind of have to move every few years to keep a low rate. 

I’ve found the info on Tom’s guide about MVNO’s useful: https://www.tomsguide.com/reference/mvnos-what-are-they-and-what-are-the-best-options.  Also, bestmnvo.com has been useful.  Can’t be sure either isn’t biased but at least can find what network they use.

Good luck!

Marc

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sector67 Public" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sector67+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/CAFTwCBZQANrTZ-wdwaoTr%3DUmu6jDXC8v_z4KhC_Erm5kDHtTbA%40mail.gmail.com.

[John G. Heim]

Yeah, a year ago, I was exactly where you are. There are a million options and the devil is in the details. You have to spend hours researching each one and then you'll probably miss something and end up paying way more than you expect.

FWIW, I ended up going with Mint Mobile, bought a new iPhone 16e from them and got $15/mo for 2 years. My wife researched it independently and did the exact same thing. We both needed new phones though ours each being 5 or 6 years old.

At one time, I was aiming on paying $75 per year for a a phone. Well, being blind, I am kind of stuck with Apple -- their support for a screen reader being way,  way better than anything else.  If a phone cost $375, it would have to last 5 years. I've found that to be impractical and I've had to bump  it up to $100 and then to $125 per year. So I paide $600 for my iPhone 6e and now it has to last 5 years.

Like you, I do not use my phone. The app that I use the most data with is a GPS app. I don't know how much data that app uses but it's in the megabytes, not gigabytes. Less than 100 minuts of voice and less (way less) than 100 text messages a month. But that doesn't matter. There's no plan for people like us.

My guess is that you are not going to be able to beat Tracfone. My wife had a Tracfone and she switched to Mint. But that was because she hated Tracfone customer service. Of course I was like, "Welcome to the 21st century. Been here long?"

I used to be a Ting customer. Being blind, I had to have an iPhone 16 or better. But They didn't support the 16. I paid $17 a month for years and years. That might be worth looking into for you.

[Caden Howell]

You may want to look at the plans at tello.com.  I decided that if I could pay less than $10/month, I would get a phone just so I could stop giving out my real phone number to web sites.  They have "no data" plans, so I went with the 100 minutes of calls, free texting for $5 a month.  You could also do unlimited minutes/free text for $8.  I have it set up now on my older Android phone with an app that forwards me the text messages.

Good luck!  Researching this is a pain.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/4b61d023-0061-4058-b510-a26a3f833b46%40math.wisc.edu.

[Mark Pickhard]

Another good low cost option not yet mentioned is www.h2owireless.com/12-month-plan.

They have $60/yr unlimited talk/text, $100/yr with 3GB data, and two more plans with more data. This MVNO uses the AT&T network.

With MVNOs, in addition to data deprioritization, they frequently have no roaming and don't allow using as a WiFi hot spot. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/CAEhF8797uBZM%3DQQ_Z9UdV%2BVzeKuvBwryu6QjhSkhUzNF2WxwbA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jeff Wala]

Mint and USMobile allow hotspotting with most of their plans. Both also offer an array of plans from unlimited to mimimal. Pricing is good, with super cheap Cyber Monday-winter sales on year-long packages being the way to go. As mentioned previously, negotiating each time you renew is necessary to keep prices low.

Customer service with USMobile has left me with no complaints, particularly after having had Tracfone for so long. Mint service has ranged from good to extraordinary, with online help when I switched over like nothing I've ever experienced remotely. Or remotely experienced.

If switching or signing up for one of these services, someone on this list might have a reference code to give so that both parties get a kickback. Ah, the fun of the modern economy...

Mark, I'd be interested if you had further info on how to quantify the deprioritization MVNOs experience...

~Jeff

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/CAKnRwcC98FBhdxkAhiN-QKQurvdAZUOKcf%2BfgtKEz-t7jR1fxA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jayer Fernandes]

Hope that this comes in handy

https://prepaidcompare.net/

Cheers

Jayer Fernandes

+1 608 358 3799

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/a4723928-b13e-4dc4-8653-189ad0b93555%40app.fastmail.com.

[Sarah Kolbe]

If switching to Mint, this referral code will give you $15 off.

I've been using Mint since 2022. As Jeff said, paying for the full year in advance makes for a cheaper overall rate. I've been paying 15/month for the past several years for a 5GB plan without a rate increase; looks like they're also offering their unlimited plan at that price for new customers for the first year. The network is excellent in Madison and I can use it as a hotspot for my laptop when needed. Reception is spottier when you're in the middle of nowhere.

Sarah

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/CAGx63B2pKiMaDXWVCHQXcEJgs7PAXUjnN8b7ao34doJtOa%2BkpQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Marc Syvertsen]

Jeff, regarding MVNO deprioritization experience: the situation was that I had an iPhone 8 in 2023 on a USMobile 5GB plan on the Verizon network that was about $15/month. It worked fine most of the time, around Madison and other cities.  But many times when I boarded an airplane (but still on the ground) it became unusable, and again at a crowded national park, and a couple other times in busy places.  The common thread was a place with a lot of people and phones.  Sometimes I could get it to work again for a few minutes by going into airplane mode and back out, or restarting the phone entirely, but it didn’t last.  A better test would have been to keep the same phone and change MVNO’s, but I got a good deal on a newer phone from Red Pocket and changed both, so I can’t be certain it wasn’t the phone.  But everything else worked fine so the deprioritization theory seems more likely.

On the one hand, I’d think I could live without phone data for a little while here and there, but on the other, I begin to count on it for things like how to navigate back out of the national park, or if I’m going to miss my next flight.  The Red Pocket plan on AT&T network never had that problem with an iPhone 15, and was about $20/month.

Marc

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sector67/CAHp7WFPvfAduKO0hFOMMZMvxtfssX%3Drmv6K0t_K5-Q6dv0vwXg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jeff Wala]

I'm unclear how phone make would have any way to impact prioritization, unless it was a matter of the phone lacking some of the bands used by the underlying provider. Certainly if one phone lacked 5G ability this could be an issue in busy areas. 

In the past when driving cab, we were unable to coordinate pickups or charge passengers' credit cards around Camp Randall on Saturdays around game time because of complete lack of network access. This was with straight AT&T service, so even priority service can be shut out completely at times. At the time we were using iPads, and it was before 5G was officially active, if that might affect anything.

BTW, if you are relying on your phone for GIS navigation in remote areas, it would be a real good idea to run something like OSMAnd so that it functions while offline.

~Jeff W