Helena

Jan 8, 2025

Almost 4 years with Mint - here are my notes

When I moved to the US from Canada, it was supposed to be temporary (~2 yrs) so knew I would want a US number while in US. I came across Mint and decided to support a fellow Canuck (not that he needs my money). The price is hard to beat given how we are ripped off in Canada with the big three monopoly. NOTES: +/- Website was not great then, but has improved since... some. - Website: most annoying is how information on use is displayed, but that seems to now be gone. + One thing they got rid of was separation of topping up for data vs roaming by merging into one wallet. That gives you the ability to use your money however you needed. + I like that each month, I get a heads up when I start a new month. I also get a reminder (text & email) when invoicing is coming up. This is incredibly appreciated as payment is for a full year if you want to get the best price. (For those that say they find out after they are billed, check your account settings. You can turn off 'auto-renewal'; this is nowhere buried in fine print but in full size print - read the page. I always review all website account settings for just such settings and to minimize spam.) - Customer Service: hours aren't great (not 24/7) and are Pacific time. Only bot is 24/7 and it isn't great, esp if don't use correct words. (Yes, it's still early for such technology.) ---! One thing that never worked? Data roaming in Canada. Baffling as calling Canada (yes, from US) is included in the plans (as well as Mexico). I called and never got it fixed; one time making sure a technical support ticket was logged so it could be investigated. On this trip to Canada, I was thrilled to learn of Mint's "free Canada roaming" - perfect!! I don't need a local number/sim!! WRONG! Data roaming still didn't work. Worse, customer support - sorry, Mint (not sorry) - sucked. First call: "disconnected" while I was waiting for them to confirm local carrier. Second call: she refused to answer same question without all my account information, which wasn't needed to answer my question. Third call: she said she'd checked who it was (without my account info), and then pretended to put me on hold. After 8 minutes, I put myself on mute. 10 seconds later, she pretended to rejoin the call, saying "Hello? Hello?" and ignoring anything I said. She hung up. Not impressed. --> Canada roaming solution: After doing some more extensive research, I landed on this page about setting up an APN manually. In the past, this has not worked. This one did so sharing: androidauthority's site (dot com/p-3497632/). I can't believe that after 4 yrs of roaming not working, this is the only way to get it working - but at least it's working. I may be keeping an eye out for other options as I will be staying a few more years in the US.