5 Terrible Reasons Not to Switch to Mint Mobile (and two good ones)

Summary

In this video, the creator Hank Green explores why more people should consider switching to Mint Mobile from major carriers like Verizon. Despite Mint Mobile being significantly cheaper, many are deterred due to misconceptions about service quality and pricing structures. Hank addresses common reasons people stick with expensive carriers, debunking myths about phone costs and network quality. He highlights that Mint Mobile offers transparent pricing with no hidden fees and that bringing your own phone can lead to substantial savings. While acknowledging some valid concerns about upfront costs and international travel, Hank emphasizes that for many, switching could lead to major savings without sacrificing service quality.

Highlights

• Mint Mobile offers much cheaper plans compared to major carriers like Verizon 🤑.
• Many people stick with expensive plans due to misconceptions and hidden financing tricks 😱.
• Using services like Rocket Money can help you understand and cut down your mobile costs 📊.
• Mint Mobile provides straightforward, no-surprise billing which is appealing to budget-conscious consumers 🧾.
• Switching to a value carrier doesn’t mean compromising on service quality for most users 🔄.

Key Takeaways

• Switching to Mint Mobile can save you a significant amount of money each year 😲.
• Many people overpay for services they don’t really need with major carriers like Verizon 💸.
• Bringing your own phone to Mint Mobile can be more cost-effective than financing through a carrier 📱.
• Mint Mobile’s pricing transparency is a big win for budgeting and avoiding surprises 🙌.
• Understanding your true mobile needs can help avoid paying for unnecessary premium services 💡.

Overview

In this eye-opening video, Hank Green delves into the reasons why more people should switch to Mint Mobile. While major carriers like Verizon might dazzle with offers and the illusion of freebies, Mint Mobile stands out with straightforward, honest billing and transparent pricing. Hank debunks many myths about big carriers, reminding viewers that what often seems 'free' is just cleverly disguised financing.

Exploring common hesitations like concerns over service quality and the appeal of physical stores, Hank explains that these shouldn't hold you back from the substantial annual savings. He uses his platform to encourage viewers to be more critical of their spending on mobile services, especially when so-called premium services do not necessarily enhance the user experience proportionally to their cost.

He also acknowledges the few drawbacks of Mint Mobile, such as upfront costs and less robust international service, but argues these often don't outweigh the monetary benefits. With anecdotes and personal insights, Hank brings a personal touch to the discussion, making a compelling case for why Mint Mobile is a smarter choice for those looking to save money without compromising on their mobile needs.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Verizon Cost Analysis The introduction and chapter on Verizon Cost Analysis discusses the differences in pricing and perceptions between Mint Mobile and Verizon. The speaker discloses past and potential future advertisements with Mint Mobile and expresses curiosity about why consumers don't universally opt for Mint Mobile given its lower costs. Contradictory to a cited cost of $30 per month for Verizon's unlimited plan, the speaker shares a personal experience paying $60 to $80 per line, highlighting confusion due to Verizon's varied plans. The chapter implies a critical look at complicated mobile pricing structures, noting the absence of Verizon on a specific list where Mint Mobile is present.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Rocket Money Sponsorship In this chapter titled 'Rocket Money Sponsorship,' the speaker expresses skepticism towards a recommendation regarding a Verizon Unlimited Ultimate package. They suspect that the recommendation may be biased due to affiliate income. The speaker notes the offer of a free 5G phone and five streaming services for $20 a month as part of the package but finds the details confusing and potentially intentionally misleading. They express frustration over the lack of clarity, making them reluctant to trust the offer.
• 02:30 - 04:30: Verizon vs Mint Cost Breakdown The chapter discusses the benefits of using Rocket Money, a personal finance app that helps users manage subscriptions, lower bills, create budgets, and grow savings. Rocket Money can provide insights into how much money is being spent on various bills, including mobile phone bills, encouraging users to consider more cost-effective options. Additionally, the app is useful for those saving for significant life changes or anticipating economic uncertainties.
• 04:30 - 06:30: Phone Costs and Hidden Fees The chapter discusses the importance of understanding personal finances and highlights the benefits of using Rocket Money for managing expenditures.
• 06:30 - 09:30: Unlimited Plans Comparison The chapter compares different unlimited phone plans, detailing costs, international calling options, and additional fees. It also discusses using RocketMoney to manage subscriptions, differentiate work and personal expenses, and optimize overall spending.
• 09:30 - 11:30: Prioritization and Customer Experience This chapter discusses the complexities of managing multiple streaming services and the costs associated with them, using Verizon as an example. It also touches on time management challenges highlighted by needing to use spreadsheets for tracking, and uses Mint Mobile as a representation of value carriers, drawing comparisons to Verizon.
• 11:30 - 14:00: Reasons to Switch to Mint Mobile The chapter discusses the financial benefits of switching to Mint Mobile from other carriers. It highlights that while other 'nonvalue carriers' can be quite expensive, Mint Mobile offers a more affordable option. By comparing costs, it is noted that switching can save approximately $97 per month, which amounts to $1,100 per year. The chapter raises concerns about potential hidden fees or possible drawbacks with Mint, urging further investigation into these factors.
• 14:00 - 15:00: Conclusion and Call for Comments In this chapter, the discussion revolves around the cost implications of using Mint Mobile as opposed to other traditional mobile service providers. The speaker highlights how Mint Mobile can potentially save users $20 off a certain price despite lacking some streaming services. The savings are linked to the need for users to purchase their own phones approximately every two years rather than receiving them for free from carriers. The example given involves purchasing an iPhone 16 directly from Apple, which is priced at $1,000. This purchase cost is presented as a significant factor contributing to the annual expense difference when opting for Mint Mobile versus traditional carriers. The chapter seems to be wrapping up with a call to review these financial choices, encouraging comments and further discussion on the matter.

5 Terrible Reasons Not to Switch to Mint Mobile (and two good ones) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 this video is not sponsored by Mint Mobile but I have done advertisements with Mint Mobile in the past that's my disclosure i probably will do more of them in the future but what I'm curious about is why doesn't everybody sign up for Mint Mobile it's obviously much cheaper so what's Verizon cost like Verizon cost I guess unlimited Verizon $30 per line per month i don't believe that cuz that's not what I pay $60 to $80 per line this is my experience it's more like that i mean it's so confusing there's so many different things verizon isn't even on this list and Mint is on
• 00:30 - 01:00 it twice and it is the editor's choice but do I trust this no because I'm sure they're getting a kickback or an affiliate fee I should say i'm getting nothing from this so a Verizon Unlimited Ultimate you can get your latest 5G phone for free you can get five streaming services for $20 a month what is that why isn't that clickable Verizon which ones is it a good one is it Britbox tell me the truth this is too confusing i don't want this i feel like it's intentional like the goal is to make me confused so that I spend more
• 01:00 - 01:30 money than I want to which brings us to this video sponsor Rocket Money when you sign up for Rocket Money it will tell you how much money is going to a bunch of different bills including your mobile phone bill and the results might surprise you enough to look at some other option but that is not all they do rocket Money is a personal finance app that allows you to manage your subscriptions lower bills make a custom budget and grow your savings all in one place perhaps you're saving up for a life change or maybe you think the economy might get a little weird in the short to medium term because of you know
• 01:30 - 02:00 just stuff it is really good to have an understanding of what is going on with your money you can't make decisions without good data and Rocket Money gives you good data i know what life was like before Rocket Money when I had to try to figure out all that stuff on my own this is better they can help you save money by finding areas of your spending that you don't like even help you simply and easily cancel subscriptions that's so good and is a really easy way to save some money rocket Money's tools helped me personally save over $2,000 a year though I understand that I'm a non-typical consumer who uses a lot of
• 02:00 - 02:30 fairly expensive software products and they also helped me identify a bunch of subscriptions I use from work so I can move them over from my personal account to be paid for by my work account and that simplified my life a bunch to save more and spend less join the over 5 million members using RocketMoney today okay go to rocketmoney.com/hank green or click the link in the description to get started for free we have $90 a month for a line and that's unlimited we got 60 minutes international calling average plan taxes and fees $7 oh there these are extra so
• 02:30 - 03:00 there it's five streaming services for $20 extra uh see I find this all very confusing regardless my point was you're gonna get up to a hundred plus dollars a month with Verizon and sheets i have 10 minutes to record this video you know the moment that I have to open sheets uh means that there is no chance it's going to get done in this session but we'll see so Verizon and then Mint and we're just going to like have Mint be a standin for all of the value carriers and Verizon be a standin for all the
• 03:00 - 03:30 nonvalue carriers really the only reason I'm doing this so $117 and then we're going to find out the exact numbers but like let's just put $20 in here mostly because of this is monthly and then what we need to see is yearly and also the difference this times 12 that's you guys $97 a month difference that's $1,100 bucks a year but maybe mint's way worse or maybe there's a bunch of hidden fees in fact let's take
• 03:30 - 04:00 $20 off this price because this had like streaming services in it and we're not getting that so now we're just $1,000 and also with Mint you're going to be buying your own phone let's say once every two years instead of getting it for free so what's the like an iPhone cost what's like a nice iPhone so the official Apple site we're going to go go for an iPhone 16 and see what this actually costs i'm doing the work so you don't have to it's a,000 buckaroonies so that's the majority it seems like of the difference actually so then yearly and we're going to add plus let's divide
• 04:00 - 04:30 that by two because you get a new phone every two years roughly so now you're saving $424 but can you with Verizon actually get latest 5G phone which 5G phone do you get okay actually there's a bring a phone deal and that's what I want i want to bring the phone i don't want you to give me a free phone bring a phone okay this is better because we're comparing apples to apples now you do need a phone but again I think that they're just trying to confuse you but if you bring a phone with you for ultimate which is 60 gigabytes premium mobile hotspot data 5G
• 04:30 - 05:00 ultra wideband up to 50% off two watch tablet or hotspot home plans highspeed internet data talk text ultimate phone upgrade let's go with that and that way you're choosing what phone you buy so you don't have to buy the most expensive one with the Verizon deal you are incentivized to just get the most expensive phone and that's probably not what you want you know you probably don't want the most expensive phone if you're a value conscious consumer so we got $65 a month for no phone we're not financing a phone secretly inside of the cost here $65 a month cuz you already
• 05:00 - 05:30 have a phone yearly that's $780 versus $240 that's $540 savings but we're going to make sure that Mint Mobile actually costs what it costs so let's go to Mint Wireless and look at what the costs are i got an Apple iPhone 15 we got excellent coverage in my area okay now we know that it's Foxtastic but this doesn't matter if I don't know what it costs so let's go to mintmobile.com and figure out what it costs shop plans a few different deals here we've got a three-month deal a six-month deal and a 12-month deal and that's paying upfront
• 05:30 - 06:00 you don't pay monthly with Mint you pay an amount per month but you pay it all at once so if you want three months of 5 gigabytes a month then you're going to pay $45 upfront for those three months or $180 for the whole year and it's worth sayingund that's what Okay actually $25 a month because we want that unlimited 12 months and then it's going to be $30 a month so I'm just going to put $30 a month in here even though it's 12 and I want the unlimited
• 06:00 - 06:30 so I'm going to go with $30 a month what else do we know about this unlimited plan we got typical download speed typical upload speed we got latency charges for additional data uses none uh that seems to be the case with all of them we got some fees here which look like they're going to add up to about let's just say $3 so let's get to the $33 cuz it always says like taxes and fees may apply and that's the taxes and fees and there's no contract but you do pay for 12 full months and look I know that not everybody's going to have the cash in the bank to do this but this seems like by far the most
• 06:30 - 07:00 cost-effective way to get the unlimited plan pay $300 which is to be clear what five months of Verizon and without a phone but if they're paying for your phone it's different and also also I'll say the price keeps changing at Verizon and that doesn't happen when you pay 12 months in advance that's nice cuz I don't know what I'm paying for anymore at Verizon but I do know that it's a heck of a lot more than $65 and also I know that I bought my own phone so I don't know how that ended up happening just keeps getting more expensive for some reason but I imagine that there's
• 07:00 - 07:30 some other drawbacks here do all plans include mobile hotspot all plans include mobile hotspot feature no extra charge the data you use pulls from your monthly 5G amount all you need to do is a hotspot capable phone reminder hotspot is limited to 10 GB for unlimited plans okay there's a limitation hotspot is limited you can't change the duration of your current plan once it is started you can however set up a new duration to automatically renew at the end of your current plan okay aha customers who use over 35 GB per month may notice reduced
• 07:30 - 08:00 speeds for the rest of the monthly cycle in certain locations when our network is busy oh okay so what they're saying here is that they basically use the T-Mobile network but in times of significant demand you're going to get second tier priority to the data so that's the big reason why you're saving $384 a year that is a substantial amount of money but for me knowing that I have unlimited hotspot and also will get sort of first priority to data regardless of
• 08:00 - 08:30 how much stuff I've used that month is worth $384 but I'm rich and there are times in my life when access to high-speed internet on my phone wherever I am is extremely valuable like if I'm in an airplane and I've just sent an email that was like reply all but I shouldn't have replied all and I'm like getting my phone tethered to like get on the hot spot so that I can try and damage control just that for me is worth more than $384 one time a year of that
• 08:30 - 09:00 happening but the other thing I'll say is that this is cheaper than Verizon actually is i don't know why but it gets more expensive no matter what it keeps happening i keep like in the store I'll go in and they'll tell me how much it got it's going to cost and then over the course of a year or two suddenly it costs $40 more and I don't know why and I hate that and in with Mint Mobile you set how much you pay you pay it for 12 months and then you're done and I really like that that does not feel exploitative or manipulative at all it
• 09:00 - 09:30 doesn't have this weird financing of a phone involved where you feel like you're getting this free $1,000 thing but you're actually paying for it and you can't get a new one how long does it last actually so if I get the with phone plan credit applied over 36 months so it's 3 years so if you get this free phone you should not get the free phone let's just do a second one and this is going to be the with phone category and that's going to add uh this is going to be 97 instead of 64 and this is going to be plus $1,000 phone every 3 years so
• 09:30 - 10:00 $333 a year so you're you're going to lose money if you don't buy your own phone but of course you are because they're financing it for you you're paying extra to get the free thing it's a loan which is not how it's pitched at all pitched is a free phone but it's not it's a financed phone where you pay extra for the phone so you don't have to pay for the phone upfront but also they force you to buy the most expensive phone so I mean you don't have to but you pay the same amount like you could pay $97 a month and get a worse phone in which case you know this number would be smaller let's say it's 250 cuz it's a
• 10:00 - 10:30 $750 phone and then you're you're losing out even more does that make sense what I've discovered is that MintMo is probably immediately a better deal for you especially if you pay 12 months in advance for the unlimited plan there may be situations where you want to pay $400 extra dollars a year so that you can have priority and those are situations where you're like me you have like a desperate need to be online all of the time and not have any problems and there's a final category which is you need there to be an in-person sales
• 10:30 - 11:00 experience which you are watching this YouTube video and you don't you are techsavvy enough that you don't need a Verizon store to sell you something and in fact that's bad and you hate it right so you don't want to do that you don't want to have to go talk to a person at a store mint Mobile does not have a store you can go to and so if you need that then you should not use Mint Mobile but you probably don't just not need it you probably don't like it i know I don't sorry to my friends who I do have friends who work at Verizon stores but I don't like I don't want that i just want
• 11:00 - 11:30 it to happen on the internet without having to talk to a person and so I am comfortable saying Mim Mobile's a better deal you should switch to Mint Mobile and you should take some portion of your savings and give it to Partners and elf so I've been sitting on this video as it exists for a little while and I'm back with a summary the question is why doesn't everyone use Mint Mobile and here's what I think i think there's one good reason and about six bad reasons reason number one because you signed up with Verizon and you're stuck there like you just you feel like it's hard to switch but it's not actually that hard to switch a lot of people think they
• 11:30 - 12:00 can't keep their phone number when they switch but they can number two because there's a veneer of professionalism and like quality to a Verizon or an AT&T that Mint Mobile doesn't have because it's a value carrier so you're not paying for actual service you're paying for the feeling of working with a nonvalue carrier which is dumb because from what I can tell you're not getting much that's different and it's actually less annoying because there isn't all this weirdness tied up with number three you want the nicest phone and you want
• 12:00 - 12:30 to pretend like you're not paying for it and that's a bad idea like you shouldn't do it that way there's plenty of cheaper phones that are basically the same and if you get a new one it's still going to be better than your old one cuz the battery is going to be good like that's the reason you need a new phone right like it's not the new camera or like a faster ability what that no you just want a phone that you only have to charge once a day but it's nice to be told that the best phone is free and to just get the best phone because it's free even though you're paying not just the most you can possibly pay for a
• 12:30 - 13:00 phone but even more than that because it's financed and so you have to pay for that finance number five terrible reason to not use Met Mobile because you need a physical store to go to you don't and then we have our two reasons that are okay number one you don't have the upfront money to pay for the 3 months plus the cost of a new phone and if that's the situation that you're in you're going to be paying more money in the long run because you don't have enough money now and that is tail as old as time but you can finance a phone and
• 13:00 - 13:30 then also get Mint Mobile and it will probably be cheaper than doing it through Verizon like you'll be able to pick the phone that you want the less expensive phone and agree to the amount that you want to pay per month for your phone when you finance it rather than having it lumped into the cost of your monthly phone bill and being a free phone which I think is I just hate it it's manipulative but chances are you currently own your phone and you could just switch and you'll have all your text messages all your contacts everything in there you don't have to
• 13:30 - 14:00 worry about that you could just switch with your current phone and keep your current phone number because the government made a regulation that forced the carriers to do this so that they would not be in a monopoly situation thank you federal government it turns out you do do some good things but the number one reason to not use Metmo is a fine reason and that is that $400 a year isn't that much to you and there are plenty of people who are like that and or you always need the top level of service all of the time and you're willing to pay for that so some combination of those two things also I
• 14:00 - 14:30 forgot this one if you travel internationally a lot my mobile is less good because it's a value carrier and they don't have all the same deals and like swap swaps that Verizon has with all these other countries but I think that the majority of people who use Verizon and AT&T would be very well served by switching over to a value carrier the reasons why we don't do it are bad and and very well understood like very well psychologically understood by AT&T and Verizon and if you miss going to the Verizon store you know perhaps just go to the DMV uh to just sit around to like have that experience why are there so many Verizon
• 14:30 - 15:00 stores how are they able to pay all of that rent maybe there's a better option but also perhaps I am missing something if you use Mint Mobile in the comments tell me what you like and don't like about it because I don't use Mint Mobile so like maybe I'm missing stuff and if you have and switched back or if you've gone the other way please tell me your personal experiences let's be honest here in this not sponsored by Mint Mobile space to actually get to the bottom of whether or not we should all be using Mint Mobile because it seems like we should