Back to Mint Mobile ⭐

I’m losing track of the number of times I’ve done this, but I’ve switched from Google Fi to Mint Mobile. Again.

To be clear, I really like Google Fi. I’m a fan, and I didn’t leave the service lightly. Instead, this was basic pragmatism: We finally got our acts together and got Mexico phone numbers with data plans, and so it no longer made sense to keep paying for all the international extras that Google Fi provides. And while I did some basic research just to make sure there wasn’t some newer or less expensive mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that made more sense, I was happy to go back to Mint given my previous experiences.

Also of note, switching carriers couldn’t have been more seamless. Google Fi and Mint both handled their respective ends of this transfer quickly and without drama. As important, it was always clear what was happening and where I was in the process, and when it was done, everything just worked, with no additional manual configuration required.

? Why switch?

Back in November, I wrote about how we finally got Mexico phone numbers, via AT&T Mexico. This was perhaps overdue, though we’ve mostly done OK using our U.S.-based phone numbers here. But in a country in which everybody literally does everything via WhatsApp and certain services won’t let us use an international number, having local (to Mexico) numbers makes sense.

Our AT&T Mexico accounts cost about $20 per month and each provides 20 GB of 5G data and unlimited calls and texts, and it all works in the U.S. too. So that’s a pretty good deal, and it meant I could spend a lot less on whatever U.S.-based carrier I went with.

I had been using Google Fi since January 2024. At that time, I had switched from T-Mobile, in part to save some money. I was originally on the Simply Unlimited plan at a cost of $50 per month before taxes and fees, but when Google upgraded its Fi plans this past April, I opted to upgrade to the rebranded Unlimited Premium plan, which offered 100 GB of 5G/high speed data, 50 GB of high-speed hotspot, data-only eSIMs for five more devices, and unlimited international data basically everywhere. This is $65 per month before taxes, or just over $71 really.

But that’s not the only monthly cost tied to my cellular accounts.

Google Fi is excellent for all kinds of reasons, but there’s a random issue that’s very specific to where we are in Mexico that became a problem this past year. Google Fi uses the Movistar wireless carrier there, and that’s the worst choice for connectivity. My phone was offline so much in our neighborhood that I started buying eSIMs for each trip. This wasn’t super expensive, per se, maybe $20 to $50 per trip depending on the duration. But it was an additional cost on top of my Google Fi bill.

I put up with that at first, but sometime in 2025, Airalo, the eSIM provider I had settled on, switched from using the Telcel network in our area, which is the best choice, to using Movistar. Ugh. Now I was paying extra for another eSIM that didn’t work well for me either.

So the AT&T Mexico eSIM didn’t just eliminate the need for an expensive Google Fi account, it also eliminated the need for data eSIM purchases too.

? What I chose when I went back to Mint

Aside from its lack of international data functionality, and then in more recent years its lackluster international capabilities, Mint Mobile was always fantastic for me. And if you live in the U.S., stay in that country all the time, and have good coverage with T-Mobile (Mint’s parent company), Mint is a solid option.

There are probably many reasons for that. But the biggest, perhaps, is the price. Excluding sales, which seem to be a pretty regular occurrence, you can pay as little as $15 per month for 5G cellular data and unlimited text and talk.

There are two caveats of note.

One of the nice things about Google Fi is that there’s no commitment. As with services like Netflix, you can join or leave the service at any time, and you just pay monthly as you go. Mint is different: You pay for Mint up-front in 3, 6, or 12 month chunks. Generally speaking, you will pay less per month if you choose a longer time period.

And then there’s those sales. Mint routinely offers big discounts, and the net effect is that you can get a lot more data each month for the same price as one of the lower-capacity plans. It doesn’t make sense to pay full price, given how frequently these sales seem to pop up.

I don’t use that much data when we’re in Pennsylvania, but I use more in Mexico because we’re out in the world more, doing things. So my data needs vary. Looking at the last six months of Fi usage, I see I used 2.4, 6.9, 28, 4.5, and 3.5 GB of data. That 28 GB month is obviously an outlier—we went to Berlin, Hawaii, and Mexico that month and I relied on cellular much more than usual—and would have been avoidable, but I had unlimited data, so who cares? Normally, my data needs are usually less than 5 GB per month.

And that’s convenient, since the cheapest Mint Mobile plan provides 5 GB of data for $15 per month if you pay for 12 months up-front (at $180). But thanks to a sale that is still ongoing, you can get a Mint Mobile Unlimited data plan for that same price. And so that is what I did.

➕ The math

After taxes and fees, I paid Mint Mobile a bit under $208, so the real monthly cost is a bit less than $17.35 per month. The AT&T Mexico account is about $20 per month, so the total cost is under $40 per month. Previously, I was paying over $70 per month for Google Fi plus whatever amount for data eSIMs; I’m guessing about $10 per month over the year, so we can call it about $80 per month. My total cost for cellular connectivity is less than half what it was previously.

That’s great, obviously. But the key to this, like so many things, is that it works well too. I have enough experience with Mint to not worry about that, but switching carriers isn’t always the greatest experience. And so I put it off for three weeks or so, mostly just because we were so busy.

➡️ The transition

I started reading up on this process a few days ago and the instructions basically amount to:

• Keep your current cellular account (Google Fi, in my case) active
• Download the Mint Mobile app
• In the Mint Mobile app, choose to activate your account and to keep your current phone number
• In the Google Fi app, go into plan management and choose “Leave Google Fi” to get an account number and a PIN
• Enter the account number and PIN in the Mint Mobile app
• Install and activate the Mint Mobile eSIM in your phone
• Create a password for your Mint Mobile account
• Hope for the best

That last bit is only humorous because it went great. But this process could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 48 hours, apparently. In my case, it was possibly 10 minutes, at most. And Mint and Google Fi were both really great about keeping me informed as it happened, which I feel is key to making this experience a positive one. That wasn’t always the case.

This sounds obvious, but I love when things just work. This was one of those experiences. They feel fleeting and rare these days, so it was appreciated. Over a series of text messages, emails, and on-phone notifications, I was told that the process had started and then, a few minutes later, completed. One text message suggested that I may need to configure something manually for multimedia over text messages, but the site it linked to said this wouldn’t be necessary on recent iPhones.

So I did the usual and disabled Wi-Fi and then exchanged text messages, including some images, and then a phone call with my wife. It … just worked. I didn’t have to do anything else. Ideally, that will be the case going forward as well. Honestly, I’m not that worried about it.