A few months ago my wife and I switched from Google FI to Mint Mobile. Originally, I had been an AT&T customer, paying ~$100 for just my phone line. When my wife and I were combining all of our finances and bills during our engagement, I took the opportunity to re-evaluate our phone bill. At that point, we switched to Google FI.
in general, it’s a good practice to evaluate your monthly bills at least every couple of years, if not every year. This allows you to make sure that you have the best deal for your current life circumstances. It’s also good to pay attention to any subscriptions that can be canceled. Keep in mind that you can always sign back up for Netflix or anything else if you decide to use it again. They will welcome you and your money back with open arms.
The Switch
Google FI was a great network to have for the price considering that we were using only a very small amount of data every month. Additionally, it was a great service to have for our international adventures. However, over the course of 2021, I’ve been noticing our data usage increasing by quite a bit. This is probably because of the terrible wi-fi Kayla has at work, which then requires her to use more data. This caused our average Google FI bill to hit $90 regularly. Now, that’s not astronomical, but it’s more than double what we pay now with Mint Mobile. Here is the comparison that I made between these two companies as we decided whether or not to make the change.
Seeing that where we are in life won’t require extended international travel for a bit, we decided to make the switch. I figured that even if we hated it, we were only signing up to 3-months of service anyway.
The Service
Setting up the service was pretty simple. We received the new sim card in the mail with step by step instructions on how to make the switch. It took a couple of hours to properly activate on my phone and about 15 minutes on Kayla’s phone. So, just be prepared that you may not have a phone for a little bit while the service transfer takes place.
For both of us, the initial bill for sending our new sim cards and 3 months of service was $134. This works out to just shy of $45/month for two phones with 10GB of data EACH. This was much more than we had ever used in a single month together, let alone separately. We felt flat out spoiled by it. The lesson here is to keep your expectations low and it is easy to surpass them!
Now that we’ve had Mint Mobile for the last 3 months, here’s the skinny. There has been no difference in service. At all. I honestly wouldn’t have noticed that the change was even made if I hadn’t done it myself. Plus with our bloated capacity for data usage, Kayla and I were trying to use as much data as we could and neither of us has cracked 5GB/month yet. This shows me that if there is an issue with our wi-fi or anything in the future, we have room to spare on our plans.
Of course, if that’s just not enough data for you, it’s possible to purchase data above and beyond your plan’s coverage. You can always do that on the website or in their app. If you end up doing this more than once though, I’d recommend just getting the unlimited plan, since it’s only $30/month per line and 1 extra GB is $10 (or 3GB for $20).
Wrap It Up!
In general, the service with Google FI was very good and we used it quite a bit on our international adventures. However, the service has been great over our 3-month trial with Mint Mobile and we just couldn’t beat the price. We will be happily resigning with Mint Mobile for the full year. If you’re looking to reduce your monthly bills, I highly recommend giving Mint Mobile a try! While we spent $134 to try Mint Mobile, they have a deal until 1/7/2022 where you can get your first 3 months completely free by using the referral link in this post, which will also help support my work. So, really, what do you have to lose?
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