Other Prepaid Cellular Services
Mint Mobile is a prepaid service that uses the T-Mobile network (T-Mobile acquired the company in 2024). Plans start at $15 for 5 GB, though they offer an Unlimited tier at $30 (and sometimes that’s on sale for less). Mint’s rates are low, but the company’s plans have quite a few restrictions on service and data, and Mint doesn’t offer smartwatch plans at all. International calling and data are expensive, too.
Cricket Wireless is a prepaid service owned by AT&T. It offers unlimited plans starting at $35 a month, though the entry-level plan does not include hot-spot data (it’s sold as an extra). Line discounts are decent up to five lines, so Cricket can be good for family plans. Cricket Wireless has many stores in the US, which is unusual for a prepaid phone service provider, and makes Cricket a solid pick if you prefer to speak with a customer representative face-to-face.
Metro is owned by T-Mobile. The company’s Unlimited 5G plans, available at $25 per month or $20 per month (when billed on a six-month cycle), are solid, as Metro provides 35 GB of high-speed data along with unlimited talk and text. However, these plans lack hot-spot support, and even the most basic international support is an add-on service. Metro has a five-year price lock promise, but Boost by T-Mobile has a “forever” price promise. Like other T-Mobile brands, Metro has many retail locations, which might be nice if you want face-to-face service.
Straight Talk is owned by Verizon and is often marketed in Walmart locations. It has unlimited talk, text, and data plans starting at $45 per month. These plans have 10 GB of hot-spot data and unlimited international calling to Mexico and Canada. However, US Mobile and Verizon-owned Visible offer plans with better value and more features, like bundled smartwatch support, at the same price.
TracFone is a Verizon-owned prepaid cellular service. Like Consumer Cellular, its marketing focuses heavily on older users. And much like Consumer Cellular, the plans aren’t the best value. On a more positive note, many TracFone plans include rollover data, which is unusual. This could be attractive if you mostly don’t require much data, but occasionally use much more than usual.
Ting Mobile is a prepaid cellular service that uses the Verizon network. It used to use T-Mobile, and it’s owned by Boost. Ting offers Unlimited plans, though many of the Unlimited plans have rather low high-speed data limits. Hot-spot data is included in all plans, but International is not included, so you’ll be charged extra for that. Smartwatches are not supported. I personally used this as my primary service five years ago, but switched as its plans became less competitive.
Consumer Cellular is a brand that markets itself towards older individuals with the promise of simple, inexpensive service. However, the company’s plans tend to be more expensive than competitors’, starting at $20 per month for just 1 GB of data. The company has ranked highly in Consumer Reports user surveys, at least. Consumer Cellular has retail locations and opened its 50th store in July 2025.
MobileX is a prepaid service on the Verizon network that has a range of pay-as-you-go and unlimited plans. The unlimited plans don’t strike me as compelling, given their limits on data and international use.
RedPocket Mobile is a prepaid mobile carrier with access to Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile (users choose the network at sign-up). It has a simple plan system with just three tiers, from 3 GB to 50 GB of premium data. Only the premium tier has a hot spot. All plans include some degree of International coverage in 80-ish countries, with 100 minutes/100 texts and a decent chunk of data (1 GB to 10 GB), so they’re a decent pick for people who travel internationally but don’t use enough data to justify the more expensive Google Fi Unlimited Premium plan. I was also frustrated by RedPocket Mobile’s app, which proved buggy and often threw errors claiming that my personal information was incorrect, but did not say what specifically was wrong.
Total Wireless is also owned by Verizon and offers unlimited plans starting at $40 per month. They’re reasonable plans, but once again, the alternatives from US Mobile and Verizon’s own Visible are more compelling overall.
UScellular was, until recently, the oldest independent MVNO in the US, but it was acquired by T-Mobile in 2024, and T-Mobile plans to integrate the company into T-Mobile. So, while you can still technically purchase a plan from the company, it makes more sense to go to T-Mobile.
Source: www.wired.com
