topic AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer in Credit Cards

AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

IsambardPrince — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 05:44:04 GMT

I noticed when I was flipping through my offers that Mint Mobile has a good one for $45 back if you spend at least $90 on a wireless plan.

I'm already paid up through June of 2025. I guess before this offer expires (at the end of next month) I could pay up through June of 2026 and all that means is my phone will continue working for a long time before I owe them any money again. (My bankruptcy accounts will fall off my credit report the same month my next phone payment would be due.....)

I really think that more people should be looking at Mint. It's really cheap to pay by the year and this is not the first time an offer has shown up on AmEx cards for them, which makes it even cheaper than it already is.

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

RealEstateGuy89 — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 13:56:21 GMT

@IsambardPrince wrote:
I noticed when I was flipping through my offers that Mint Mobile has a good one for $45 back if you spend at least $90 on a wireless plan.

I'm already paid up through June of 2025. I guess before this offer expires (at the end of next month) I could pay up through June of 2026 and all that means is my phone will continue working for a long time before I owe them any money again. (My bankruptcy accounts will fall off my credit report the same month my next phone payment would be due.....)

I really think that more people should be looking at Mint. It's really cheap to pay by the year and this is not the first time an offer has shown up on AmEx cards for them, which makes it even cheaper than it already is.

I currently pay for my Mint mobile bill by the year as well. I didn't know about the discount on AMEX but I have been with them for over 2+ years and love it!

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

FicoMike0 — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 15:27:44 GMT

Which carrier do they use?

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

pizzadude — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 15:38:55 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
Which carrier do they use?

Mint is a MVNO running on T-Mobile's network

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 17:17:54 GMT

@pizzadude wrote:
@FicoMike0 wrote:
Which carrier do they use?
Mint is a MVNO running on T-Mobile's network

Mint is now also owned by T-Mobile. One potential disadvantge is that Mint users are still depriorized, so if the T-Mobile network where you are is congested, your data speed will be slower than if you were a similar T-mobile customer (this is in addition to any slow down caused by large data usage, which happens on some T-mobile plans too). But this doesn't seem to happen that often so might not be a key concern.

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

IsambardPrince — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 21:44:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@pizzadude wrote:
@FicoMike0 wrote:
Which carrier do they use?
Mint is a MVNO running on T-Mobile's network
Mint is now also owned by T-Mobile. One potential disadvantge is that Mint users are still depriorized, so if the T-Mobile network where you are is congested, your data speed will be slower than if you were a similar T-mobile customer (this is in addition to any slow down caused by large data usage, which happens on some T-mobile plans too). But this doesn't seem to happen that often so might not be a key concern.

We haven't noticed much since we changed over except that the bill is lower.

Sprint put me on a Senior plan before the handover and I was paying $50 for two lines and T-Mobile was going to take that away because they started cracking down on legacy Sprint customers who had Senior plans as a retention via customer service override.

I got a message that my bill would go up to $90 for our two lines and that plan still wouldn't include phones.

By the time you include phone upgrades you may as well just replace your phones except that it's worse.

Most phones last at least five years and with those plans you basically pay to upgrade every two years whether you do or not and if you don't, T-Mobile just keeps your money.

Mint has actually been $40 a month for us on Mint and we can just buy reasonable phones instead of T-Mobile charging for data we'll never use and the Buy Someone Else An iPhone Pro Max OMG!!!!1111 Titanium You're Holding It Wrong Plan for $175 a month.

Ever seen Mystery Men where they're splitting the check and someone says the steak eater is screwing the salad guy? Then William Macy says "You should order something more expensive!"

About sums up T-Mobile and Apple.

Make half a car payment each month. All you get is a phone.

My cousins in Indiana that are always broke despite six figure incomes each have that kind of a plan from Verizon and it's definitely a contributing factor.

One of them was on vacation and had the nerve to message my mother who is on Social Security retirement asking her to pay her $600 Verizon bill.

T-Mobile was a real party pooper for us Sprint folks. I'm convinced MVNOs are the only way to go.

The big carriers don't offer down to Earth people very much and it's a very poor financial habit to get in. Those people in the stores are the worst.

The fact that AmEx figures Mint will appeal to their customers reminds me, rich people develop cheap habits and poor people start collecting expensive ones.

The MVNO space is taken up by people looking to save money not end the year $600-1400 lighter for a phone bill that could have been 2-3 months of groceries and a tank of gas and all they got for it was the ability to doomscroll TikTok a little faster.

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

IsambardPrince — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 22:40:28 GMT

Okay, so I took the plunge and immediately got an email from AmEx saying that I used the offer.

I had 11 months on my current Mint Mobile term when this offer hit my account from AmEx. It would have expired on August 31st had I not used it.

I now have 23 months left on my phone plan. It costs $240 a year to get 15 GB of 5G data ($20 a month) on Mint.

So while it is only $240, and the offer didn't drop at the ideal time, that still is an effective return of ~9.4% over 23 months on the statement credit alone (not counting the 1% back on the BCP.

While it is only $240, it beats the very best fixed income investments even in this market. Had the offer dropped last month that would be an even better deal.

If it shows up again, I'll hit them again and prepay for another year for the spouse.

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

IsambardPrince — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 23:13:42 GMT

Another one just appeared that says 5% off insurance up to $20. Expires at the end of December.

I have a car insurance bill coming in October that should be about $600 for full coverage on the cars.

That nabs $25.80 from AmEx between the offer and the 1% (on $580, because they exclude the statement credit from cashback for double dipping reasons) vs. $18 if I went with PayPal Cashback Mastercard.

So definitely will pay next term with AmEx. An extra $7.80 in cash back is $7.80 in my pocket not theirs.

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

Gregory1776 — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 01:00:58 GMT

Thanks for mentioning mint,

im with Verizon. Rarely have service issues, well since 5G service randomly drops, and rarely ever communicate directly with Verizon. Maybe once every 2 years.

how is the service with them? I can't deal with nonsense like not having service. I rely on my phone for work, however I'd love to cut my phone bill to under $100 a month.

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

Gregory1776 — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 01:02:23 GMT

Where do you live? I do not like cities and frequently spend more time in rural areas (2-3 hour drive from major cities NYC or Philly)

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

Gregory1776 — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 01:05:58 GMT

My bill has been 120-130 for years. **bleep** she doing to be paying $600 a month lmfao

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

IsambardPrince — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 01:18:34 GMT

@Gregory1776 wrote:
Thanks for mentioning mint,

im with Verizon. Rarely have service issues, well since 5G service randomly drops, and rarely ever communicate directly with Verizon. Maybe once every 2 years.

how is the service with them? I can't deal with nonsense like not having service. I rely on my phone for work, however I'd love to cut my phone bill to under $100 a month.

T-Mobile's network worked fine everywhere in the Chicago region, downstate Illinois, all throughout Indiana except for some pockets of State Road 9 (where no carrier works), and works fine in most of Wisconsin and Michigan. Worked fine in San Antonio, Houston, Corpus Christi, and Las Vegas.

On the Vegas trip, I was laughing because we had coverage for the most part going through the Mojave Desert and over to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. I was honestly amazed that the phone worked at the Grand Canyon.

So far we're not having any troubles out of Mint. If it is deprioritized, I haven't noticed, and what would really make me scream is having to pay T-Mobile over twice as much to subsidize their outdated business model, and perhaps twice again THAT to additionally subsidize people with iPhones being traded in every 2 years.

So the AmEx offer is just icing on the cake.

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

IsambardPrince — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 01:19:15 GMT

@Gregory1776 wrote:
Where do you live? I do not like cities and frequently spend more time in rural areas (2-3 hour drive from major cities NYC or Philly)

The last time I was out that way was 1996, so probably not the best to ask about how a cell phone network is out there.

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

IsambardPrince — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 01:28:08 GMT

@Gregory1776 wrote:
My bill has been 120-130 for years. **bleep** she doing to be paying $600 a month lmfao

They're all bad with money on mom's side.

My guess is got so far behind they were threatening to cut her off after going in and financing a tablet and an iPhone for everyone in the house, including a 7 year old adopted son that came storming out of the bathroom stating that he made a "big boy poop" and was failing the first grade (until they informed him that he would repeat it, then his grades improved, but not before arguing "that's not how it works....first grade second grade third grade...") and additionally designated himself "the smartest person in the car" that day. The car in question inhabited by two registered nurses, an LPN, and a person with a background in Computer Science and Psychology.

You know, "normal American finances and the self-esteem movement 4th Generation".

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

pizzadude — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 13:42:36 GMT

@Gregory1776 wrote:
Thanks for mentioning mint,

im with Verizon. Rarely have service issues, well since 5G service randomly drops, and rarely ever communicate directly with Verizon. Maybe once every 2 years.

how is the service with them? I can't deal with nonsense like not having service. I rely on my phone for work, however I'd love to cut my phone bill to under $100 a month.

You'd be a good candidate to switch your service to Visible as they're a MVNO running on Verizon the service is nearly identical and the cost would for sure be under $50 / mo.

Discussion / details in this smorgas thread.

Re: AmEx Blue Cash Preferred Mint Mobile Offer

IsambardPrince — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 20:34:50 GMT

@pizzadude wrote:
@Gregory1776 wrote:
Thanks for mentioning mint,

im with Verizon. Rarely have service issues, well since 5G service randomly drops, and rarely ever communicate directly with Verizon. Maybe once every 2 years.

how is the service with them? I can't deal with nonsense like not having service. I rely on my phone for work, however I'd love to cut my phone bill to under $100 a month.
You'd be a good candidate to switch your service to Visible as they're a MVNO running on Verizon the service is nearly identical and the cost would for sure be under $50 / mo.

Discussion / details in this smorgas thread.

My theory on this is that MVNOs are largely cheaper because few people actually need unlimited data, which the big carriers usually backstop anyway. Your phone will slow down on the big ones after 20 or 30 gigs and you'll be deprioritized anyway, although it won't slow you down to 128 kbps where your phone barely works for the rest of the month like the MVNOs will.

In our case, even 15 GB a month was "guessing high" on Mint, but it goes 5 GB for $15 a month, 15 GB plan for $20, 20 GB for $25, and then "unlimited" for $30, which is actually 40 gigs.

So I looked at our usage on T-Mobile and found that we were rarely even coming close to 15 but sometimes exceeded 5.

So for many people, "Unlimited" data isn't necessary and you're not getting it anyway from the major carriers. This has been the subject of many misleading advertising complaints and lawsuits, so they say unlimited, and then backstop it in the fine print that "not really". Your data goes on, but they deprioritize it.

Then most of the big boys even go on to admit you may be deprioritized even if you're not over your data if their network is congested, which means that instead of building enough capacity to deal with peaks, they just throttle everyone anyway, even their own users who are not over their high speed limit.

They have a massive footprint of retail stores that most people never go into. They specialize in claiming you get fake discounts, when really they just added several hundred dollars to the real price of an unlocked phone, and then subtract from that so the phone is always "on sale", then to make people not choke at the idea of what a high end smartphone really costs, they say it's "free" and you "save 100%" with bill credits, and now we're back to "Your plan is $150-175 a month and you get a 'free' phone." It's not really free, they just bury the cost of the phone (and the guy who sold it to you, and the rent on the store it was in....) into the cost of the data plan.

If you don't want "free" phones, they charge you $90 a month for two lines, but then you're paying $90 when Mint is $40, and you don't even get phones. Each month, they cut a bill and if you don't pay it, they can hurt your credit report and thus FICO score, when the worst that would happen with prepaid MVNOs is your phone doesn't work except if you need to call 911.

While T-Mobile can hurt your FICO score, they'll never help it.

Lastly, some more T-Mobile facts.

T-Mobile is always looking for ways to cut their own costs. They don't want people earning credit card rewards, so a while back they changed it to where you have to give them your checking account routing number. They have data breaches all the time because their security is awful and they apparently never plan to fix that. If you don't set up autopay with a checking account, you lose your $5 a month autopay discount on each line. If you do, you may end up with hackers in your checking account. You can still get in there and manually pay the bill with a credit card this way, but you have to get in there and do it every month before it autopays.

In contrast, if you pay Mint and save money, you can absolutely use your credit card and get points and this promotional AmEx offer too. If they have a breach and someone steals your AmEx, you report the card stolen and dispute the charges and AmEx will fight for you and make you whole again.

T-Mobile does sell phones where you can get them shipped, but they will absolutely not use the post office. You have to use UPS and a physical street address. If you live in a bad neighborhood, and get two brand new phones stolen, they don't care and if you try to chargeback, they'll fight it and you may end up eating two smartphones. This is mostly a problem because they tend to heavily promote Apple and Samsung, and I don't want Apple or Samsung. Not only do they promote these two, but they often don't have the affordable iPhone model, the SE, in their store. I don't want to pay for a phone that's only marginally better for my spouse at 2-3 times the cost. But I also can't necessarily just walk into the retail stores and find the latest Pixel and iPhone SE, even though they build the cost of the stores into the plan.

There's really not much at the big boys unless you're just so loaded you don't care (which few of us are), not minding your finances (as many don't) and are susceptible to their marketing (many people are), and other that they're a liability.

The FICO aspect where they'll never help you but they may put a collection on your credit report if you get on their bad boy list is especially ridiculous. For people who have already had a bankruptcy or something in the past and are trying not to make things worse because they cannot possibly risk more credit damage, T-Mobile is a bigger liability.