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My T-Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Tello Review
I’m comparing the cell phone service providers T-Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Tello in this post.
And I explain why my family switched from one to the other, most recently settling on Tello for the best deal. All three use T-Mobile’s network so our coverage is unchanged!
If you want to save on your cell phone bill too, read on.
TL;DR
Our family wanted unlimited talk and text. Data was not as important to us. So, for us, it all came down to how much data we needed included in the plan.
Unlimited data plus random weekly coupons? Go with T-Mobile.
More than 1 GB of data? Go with Mint.
1GB of data or less? Go with Tello.
That’s where the best prices are at and that’s what we’re going to do. (Though I recommend always doing your own pricing research as prices and deals are constantly changing.)
And we’ll be spending less than $29 a month for 3 phone lines through Tello! Referral code: P3SBH0Q2
(We’re currently spending more than that on only 2 lines through Mint Mobile, about $34.)
If after reading about this, you decide to make the switch to Tello, my referral code will get you $10 in Tello bucks to use on future service. Just enter the code when you create your account. Note: When you create an account, you are not obligated to buy. You can continue to browse before making any orders.
Referral code: P3SBH0Q2
And at Tello, you get their best price even when you pay monthly and can cancel any time (unlike Mint Mobile where you only get the cheapest price if you pay the whole year in advance).
And you can get an even better one-time 15% discount with this promo code at checkout: 15OFFAFF (I’m not sure when this will stop working…)
PLUS they’re currently running a deal where a few of their plans are 50% off for the first month.
For example, you can get unlimited talk and text plus 1 GB of 5g data for $5 for the first month (and $10 after that). With free eSIM cards, it’s a no-brainer to give it a try. This deal runs through March 20, 2023. You can see the flash sale pricing in the screenshot below:
Go right there to sign up by clicking my referral link: https://tello.com/account/register?_referral=P3SBH0Q2
Here’s my story of how we went from T-Mobile to Mint Mobile to Tello for our cell phone service provider.
I just got a third phone line for $5 and some change via Tello.
I’m always looking for ways to save on our bills and this has been the best deal yet.
But it was a bit of a journey to get here. We started as T-Mobile customers, switched to Mint Mobile, and are now in the process of moving over to Tello. Always good service where we live, just better prices for our needs!
We were T-Mobile customers for YEARS.
T-Mobile Review
I used to think I was getting a great deal, spending $80/month on 2 phone lines from T-Mobile. That came out to $40 per line. Yes, they had their T-Mobile Tuesdays app where we’d get random coupons every week, but those savings often actually made us spend more than we would have without them.
You know how it goes. Oh, I have a coupon for Wendy’s and I only have to pay $3 for such and such–what a deal! Or, look at that, I can get a free donut at Dunkin! But then you get a coffee to go with it… Not to mention the gas to drive to the Red box for the free movie and then driving to various other fast food restaurants–gotta use all the free coupons!
We were paying T-Mobile $40 per month per line for unlimited talk/text/data and random coupons.
Sure, it felt like getting little treats each week. But those little extras can add up, and they weren’t even things I would’ve planned to buy if I hadn’t been influenced by the T-Mobile Tuesday coupons. So were they even treats if they wouldn’t have been my treat of choice? Makes ya think.
So, I thought about Mint Mobile.
Mint Mobile Review
You may have seen those sarcastic and quirky Ryan Reynolds commercials ? advertising Mint Mobile as the uncarrier with plans for $15 a month (plus taxes and fees). The plans have unlimited talk and text, and 4 GB of 5g data (before it gets throttled down to 2g). And they use T-Mobile’s network so they have the same coverage that we were used to.
The biggest difference was data. Our T-Mobile was unlimited everything (talk, text, AND data), but my family really doesn’t use very much data. Our phones are almost always on wifi somewhere. I started tracking how much we actually used and it was always less than a 1GB of data each month. Mint Mobile’s 4GB data plan would be more than enough to cover our usual usage.
Switching would bring our costs down to about $34/month for both lines (including taxes and fees, which I calculated to be a little under $2/line/month additional for us).
That’s $80-$34= $46 savings per month!
The catch with Mint Mobile was that we had to sign up for an entire year in advance. Well, I decided the savings were worth making the switch. It was going to save us about $576 over the course of the year afterall. From that perspective, the switch was still a no brainer for us. So, I got us switched to Mint Mobile.
We were paying Mint Mobile an average of $17 per month per line for unlimited talk/text and 4GB data.
I switched us over and I never looked back. For about 10 months, anyway. That yearly renewal on the horizon had me wanting to do my research again on any deals out there.
We only needed two lines at this point in time.
Then this month, I looked forward again. At Tello.
Tello Review
Now, why would I even care about looking for an even cheaper plan than $15 from Mint Mobile?
I needed a third line.
The whole idea of looking for the ultimate cheap plan was spurred by the realization that my blog needed a phone number. You wouldn’t think that would be the case (or maybe you would?), but there have been several instances recently where I needed one–and I didn’t want to use my personal cell phone number. Call me paranoid, but I only pick up if you’re a contact in my phone!
For my blog, I needed a phone number with no frills. I didn’t need any data at all and minimal monthly minutes. So I looked for plans like that. Enter: Tello. Not only did they have plans as cheap as $5/month, but I discovered that they offered plans that would be cheaper than our current Mint Mobile plan and still handle our small 1GB data needs.
So I’m currently testing it out as my Frugal Thumb “small business” phone number with very satisfactory results. That brings me back to what I was saying earlier in this post:
I just got a third phone line for $5 and some change via Tello. It has unlimited text, no data, and 100 monthly minutes. It’s soo affordable! Which is important as my blog is not a money-maker… yet. 🙂
And you better believe I’ll be switching our other two lines when our yearly contract at Mint Mobile runs out in May. For those 2 lines, we’ll only pay $10 and some change each for unlimited talk, text, and 1 GB of data. Basically, we’ll be paying less for 3 lines on Tello than we did for 2 on Mint Mobile.
Tello will save my family a lot of money on our phone bill because we don’t need a lot of data. Going from T-Mobile to Mint to Tello, now we’ll be keeping about $57 in savings per month. That’s from $80 down to about $29 for our monthly phone bill. And from 2 lines to 3.
If after reading about this, you decide to make the switch to Tello, save yourself even more with my referral code.
My referral code will get you $10 in Tello bucks to use on future Tello bills. Just enter the code when you create your account.
Referral code: P3SBH0Q2
When I signed up, I also used this promo code at checkout for an additional 15% off my first bill: 15OFFAFF (I’m not sure when this will stop working…)
PLUS they’re currently running a deal where a few of their plans are 50% off for the first month. For example, you can get unlimited talk and text plus 1 GB of 5g data for $5 for the first month (and $10 after that). This deal runs through March 20, 2023.
With free eSIM cards, it’s a great time to try Tello. Check it out now! Tello.com
I hope I’ve armed you with enough information to make an educated decision on which cell phone service provider will fit your needs best and which will save you the most money on your monthly cell phone bills.
This T-Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Tello review was my experience with these 3 cell phone providers. Please share your own experiences in the comments below!
