A new and improved International Roaming service is taking off soon. International Roaming credit is gliding off into the horizon and being replaced with a new Minternational Pass program that gives you waaay more flexibility when traveling abroad. Don’t worry, if you currently have any international credit on your account, we’ll be moving it over to your Mint Wallet, where you can put it towards renewing your plan or purchasing a new pass. This update is super exciting and we’ll let you know when it lands in your phone.
Happy jetsetting,
THE MINTERNATIONAL PASS WILL HAVE YOU COVERED WHEN YOU DECIDE TO GO GLOBAL
I hate this type of announcement because it contains nothing useful. “We’re changing things, details later…”
The implication from the text is that there will be a short-term data/voice/both block that you buy when you will be traveling outside the US. There are too many ways to interpret “flexibility” to hazard a guess.
Just announce the details and knock off this teaser trash, will you?
The Mint Mobile web site does not have anything yet, and as of a minute ago, search engines are coming up blank on “Minternational Pass”
Generally, international roaming is a lousy value. It’s far more cost effective to secure short-term service locally (in country) or, if data alone is sufficient and one’s phone is eSIM capable, using something like Airalo (or one of its competitors).
If one has a dual SIM via eSIM capable phone, one may temporarily add local cellular service without disturbing their current U.S. service and may be able to access their U.S. service using VoWiFi (carrier WiFi calling). With some phones, iPhones in particular but also many Pixels, VoWiFi will also work over local (in country) data service.
I appreciate you are aware of this as evidenced by the solution you offer in the referenced A Solution for Canadian Roaming Worthy of MacGyver. That solution, however, pertains to a narrow circumstance. I believe OnePlus may be the only brand offering dual physical SIMs in the U.S.
Exactly so. I looked up the link provided by @cbwahlstrom and concluded that while the data rates are considerably better than Mints UpRoam program, and probably include voice calling, there are still issues. The 1 day pass seems pointless but I imagine some people might have a use for it. For a bit more than the cost that, I can get a data-only plan from a couple of eSIM providers that lasts a week with double the data.
I will need to see how Mint implements it and if there are such issues as if I don’t have a pass, what does voice cost? If it will work at all.
I have several apps that provide me with phone numbers for various purposes. If Mints implementation of this idea disallows roaming voice/sets the price too high for not using a pass, I can buy an eSIM profile and forward my Mint line to one of the apps before leaving for Canada. For the longer of my usual trips, I run the risk of losing some SMS messages if the three-day storage limit still applies, unless I can get them via WiFi.
I was just venting steam at things changing so quickly after I had cobbled up a solution. As I indicated above, I have options if the costs of the Mint version of the plan is anything like T-Mobiles version.
Given the similarity of names, it is probable that Mint is going to do this similarly to T-Mobile. Knowing this allows me to plan ahead and not have to worry about some completely new tactic that would be an expensive mess. Once they announce details officially, I can probably get information from the support bot. Failing that, a chat session will be in order.
I received the same email, but my email had a graphic with additional information about the new “minternational pass”
BTW, my Mint plan includes wifi calling, which I assume would work overseas on wifi similar to how the old Republic Wireless plans worked. Having said that, I have not traveled outside the USA since I switched from RW to Mint so I haven’t had a chance to test it out overseas.
Is there any fine print that defines “high-speed” data? The T-Mobile link shared by @cbwahlstrom suggests anything over 256 kbps (pretty slow) may be limited to certain Central European countries.
For full service (talk, text and data) when traveling internationally, I’d be inclined to take a look at esim.net albeit one would need an eSIM capable phone.
Ah. I get it now. I know far too much about security to use an HTML mail client by default. I have to specify HTML rendering if I want to see the formatting, and remote images require a separate action.
Thank you. This tells me what I need to know. I will have to make my travel plans on the assumption that my Mint line will go inert when I cross the border. eSIM profiles and call forwarding FTW.
Following up on this for those who may be interested.
I’ve run some tests. So far, I’ve found that I can’t forward to my Canadian number at all, I just get an error code.
All attempts to forward to my various VoIP apps produce irritating results. I can set up the forward, but it doesn’t actually work correctly. Depending on the service I forward to, I will get an error that I can’t call my number or the VoIP service shunts to voice mail instead of ringing.
I ran some tests that show I can get SMS via WiFi, which I’ve had problems with in the past, so I’ll probably just let the Mint line be inert on Canadian cellular and pick up SMS message and voice mail when on WiFi. Or maybe the visual voice mail app will operate through the eSIM. I’ll find out.
Developments on this issue: Today I got an e-mail from Mint about “Introducing Minternational Pass”.
The App also brought up the Minternational Pass. I am required to transfer my leftover UpRoam balance to my Mint Wallet, where it will sit until next year and time to renew my plan. I have to tap a button on the app to do the transfer, even though I don’t have a real choice. The app will not let me past the announcement screen until I tap the button. They are also trying to sell me on a new phone. I had to tap the banner and then back out of the phone list to get to the main screen and be able to see it all. The banner was floating over the main screen and could only be dismissed by tapping it.
Seriously, a one-day pass for a bit less than double what I would spend on a 7-day data-only eSIM with the same amount of data? No way. I’ll just deal with only having my Mint line working on WiFi while in Canada.
If anyone manages to get a Mint line forwarding to a VoIP line and actually work, please drop me a note. Thanks.
