I was loyal to T-Mobile for 10 years, but switching to Mint slashed my bill – by a lot

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.

Just a week ago, a T-Mobile outage affected thousands of customers nationwide, and depending on your choice of words when conversing with a service representative, you were compensated anywhere from $10 to $80 in bill credits. Fun, right?

Had I still been a part of the magenta family, I likely would’ve experienced the frustration of my in-laws, who were outside a concert venue that day, waiting to regain any bit of signal to validate their tickets in the 90-degree weather.

Also: Hit by T-Mobile’s outage? You can get up to $80 in credit – here’s how

Instead, I had already switched to Mint, a smaller but more humble conglomerate, after more than a decade as a T-Mobile customer. The decision was easy, and the lower price wasn’t the only reason. Here’s why you should probably change, too. 

The big carrier traps

When it comes to picking a mobile service provider, big carriers like T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T seem like the obvious choices. The extensive marketing budgets, from billboard ads to celebrity cameos in TV commercials, the BOGO phone offers, and the switch-now deals are hard to ignore. The thousands of neon-lit stores don’t make things easier.

Also: How I use Samsung’s secret Wi-Fi menu to seriously improve my connectivity

But those same deals and promotions are what lock you in, whether it’s a three-year contract that charges you fees if you decide to terminate things (this is in the fine print, but how many people are actually reading it?), the “bill credits” that can be viewed as free money or compensation but really only exist to retain your membership, or the inability to unlock your phone until months, if not years, after consistent usage.

Between these commitments, customers often incur hidden fees. Some examples I’ve seen on my past bills include:

• Device Connection Charge (DCC): A one-time fee (typically between $25 and $35) whenever you activate a new line or switch to a new device. This replaces older “activation” or “upgrade” fees. 
• Payment Support Fee: Charged when you make a purchase through the customer service line or at a retail store. It’s for this reason I’ve only ever made (and helped make) purchases online.
• Restocking Fee: Charged when you return a device within a 14-day window, incurring a $20 to $70 restocking fee. I was once charged $20 for returning a device that wouldn’t charge properly. After speaking with a customer service representative, I was refunded the money via bill credits. Sound familiar?
• Bill Reprint or Paper Statement Fees: A one-time $5 fee whenever you request an itemized bill from customer care, or a monthly $2 fee for recurring mailed paper statements. For this reason, I always set my statements to be sent electronically via email only.

The benefits weren’t worth it

I stuck with T-Mobile for more than a decade because of the convenience (and the thought that switching away would be inconvenient). Through all the random fees, payment plans, and occasional network outages, I also found it easy to swing by a local store whenever I needed help setting up a device or switching to another. 

Also: Wi-Fi 7 adoption in the US quadrupled in a year – is it time to upgrade?

My plan also included the weekly freebies via the T-Life (formerly T-Mobile Tuesdays) app, such as $5 movie tickets and free photo prints (which came in handy for printing wedding photos for family and friends). There was also the discounted Netflix subscription, which brought the monthly price of an ever-expensive service down to $5. 

But ultimately, the perks didn’t equate to the higher cost I was paying for my service, even if it was grandfathered in from years ago.

Tipping point

Those same benefits certainly didn’t outweigh the added costs of being forced onto the new Experience More plan when T-Mobile pushed the migration on me back in June. As confirmed by The Mobile Report, T-Mobile began forcing legacy customers onto newer, more expensive plans this summer, including folks like me who were on Simple Choice plans. Here’s a breakdown of how things would change.

While the increased hotspot bandwidth and faster cellular speeds looked beneficial on paper, I realized (and confirmed) that I spend most of my days connected to Wi-Fi anyway, so the perks of paying $60 more per month weren’t worth it. 

Also: I compared Google’s pricier Pixel 11 series to Samsung’s Galaxy lineup – here’s the better value now

On top of this, the enhanced trade-in values read to me as a play to encourage more installment plans. Given how frequently I switch phones, I’d rather not deal with the longer-term commitments.

Switching to Mint

The main reason I switched to Mint was that the service uses the same 5G and LTE networks as T-Mobile. After all, my issues with the latter had more to do with excessive payments and benefits. If I could pay significantly less (roughly $20 per month now, down from the potential $140) for basically the same amount of data usage, then why not?

The migration was surprisingly swift, with my wife’s number and mine transferring easily after a few minutes on the phone with a customer service representative. Converting to eSIM a few years ago made moments like this feel so futuristic — and worth it.

Also: You’re charging your phone all wrong: 6 common myths, debunked

Funny enough, the customer service interaction is also the biggest downside of switching from a big carrier to a smaller one. Unlike T-Mobile, Mint does not have physical stores across the country, so your best bet for payments, SIM issues, and other inquiries is to reach out to the company via phone or virtual chat agent. 

Being a smaller carrier also means its service is deprioritized in congested spaces like sports arenas and concert venues. You’ll still get service, but uploading that snippet onto your social media page may take a few seconds longer.

Also: Your phone doesn’t block SIM swapping attacks by default: Turn on these carrier settings now

Perhaps these limitations will be more of a pain point for me in the future, but for now, they’re ones that I’ll gladly shoulder if it means I’m getting the same, if not more reliable, cellular service for significantly less money.