Anyone use and have opinions on the cheaper mobile services out there like Visible or Mint? Are the data speed caps really that noticeable? Is it more so in big cities vs smaller towns?

saw em off said:

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Anyone use and have opinions on the cheaper mobile services out there like Visible or Mint? Are the data speed caps really that noticeable? Is it more so in big cities vs smaller towns?

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US Mobile is great. (referral link if you do give them a try)
https://www.usmobile.com/referrals?referrer=253917F7

They offer services on all 3 big carriers towers, verizon, tmobile and att.

I have the yearly unlimited starter plan and pay 276 yearly. Unlimited talk, text and data. Data has 35gb priority data and 10gb Hotspot each month.

Second line for my mothers phone is on their pool plan costing just $10/month for unlimited talk/text and 2gb data with $2 per gig auto top up for the very few times she does go over.

Same service on TMobIe i used to pay $120 a month for. Im saving like 65% over the year.

Unless you stream constantly outside of your wifi connection, you've likely got much cheaper options even on the major carriers.

I'm paying $300/year for AT&T and not getting anywhere near my data limit each month.

Seems like this type of question comes up frequently.

I've had Mint for 4 years now after having been on Verizon since I was a teenager living at home. With Verizon, I had one of their higher tiered unlimited plans, and I believe my wife and I were paying around $300/month.

I looked through a year of Verizon statements to get an average of what our data usage was, and found a Mint plan that would accommodate our usage. We now pay $480/year (for 2 lines), and we just buy unlocked iPhones thru Apple whenever we need a new phone.

It's pretty frustrating to think about all the money I wasted on a major carrier. Some of that was my fault for purchasing a larger plan that my family didn't need. Some of it was on the carrier for their ridiculous costs.

I recently switched from Cricket ($90 per month for two lines) to US Celluar (supposedly $67, but they don't include $11+ a month of fees and taxes in their pricing). US Cellular has a generally sketchy feel to it, and I wish I'd stayed at Cricket. I'm saving less than half of what I thought I would.

I can't imagine spending $300 per month though. That makes Cricket sound like a bargain.

I carry 5 lines with unlimited everything through AT&T and my bill is just over $250 monthly, I figure $50 per line isn't too bad.

Mobile hotspot is capped at 2 gigs I think, but we don't use that very often.

Mint runs a promo to try any of their plans for $15/month for 3 months regardless of data package.

Since being with Mint, I purchase a plan on an annual basis, and it equates out to $20/month per line for my wife and I ($480/yr). We have a plan where we each get 15 gigs of high speed data per month. It used to only be 10 gigs, but they increased it a couple years ago without increasing the price. I originally chose the 10 gig plan based off our average monthly data usage. We never went over that, and we have definitely never gone over 15 gigs.

One of the downsides to the budget carriers is the lack of physical stores and some of their sim replacement policies. There are also significant roaming limitations in some areas.

For example, when I went on vacation in Alaska I had no Mint service because T-Mobile doesn't have towers there. T-Mobile contracts with the local carrier for cross service but it does not apply to Mint. Some of the other budget services are the same way.

There's also a level of convenience in being able to walk into a Verizon, at&t, or T-Mobile store for service when needed. Mint wanted to do a lot of things through the mail, including mailing me a new SIM card when my phone got broken. I couldn't walk into a Target store and buy a new sim because those were only for new customers. Made no sense to me and I canceled the same day.