Still Refreshing – Checking In on My Mostly-Free Wireless Plan Years Later

Amex Business Platinum Wireless Credit

I enjoy the process of finding the “free” (or “mostly free”) as much as anything else in our points and travel hobby.  Often, the levels of obscurity and minutiae involved make it even more intriguing.  Indeed, the entertainment which comes along with it can easily meet or exceed the actual savings I achieve from it, in certain instances.  I first wrote about my plan for almost-free wireless service exactly three years ago, to the day.  As I expected, it worked.  Years later, I figure now’s a great time to consider the play again, including some additional info I learned along the way.  But first, I’ll summarize how I’ve hardly paid anything for wireless service for years.  It starts with the Amex Business Platinum wireless credit.

How I Pay Almost Nothing for Wireless Service

Like many of you, I’ve historically held more Amex Business Platinum card accounts than I care to admit.  The Business Platinum card comes with a variety of benefits of diverse value, often involving a bit more effort to maximize.  Some opt out, preferring to issue the quite-unoriginal “coupon book” line.  Instead, I’ll take some easy wins.  One area I do so is with the Amex Business Platinum wireless credit, doled out in $10 monthly increments.

With multiple Business Platinums, I’ve found it key to identify a method to aggregate all of these separate credits.  I did so via Mint Mobile’s wallet function, albeit with a minor fee.  For every $10 I load to the wallet, I pay a $0.50 recovery fee.  I’m essentially getting wireless service for 95% off Mint’s already-very-reasonable rates.

It’s worked out beautifully the past years, and knock on wood, that will continue.  I’ll get into what I’ve learned in the meantime.

What I’ve Learned Along the Way

Wallet Limit?

For the majority of the last few years, I’ve experienced an apparent wallet limit.  I haven’t been able to hold a wallet balance beyond $300 at any given time, until recently.  I’ve been able to load above that level in the last month, but I can’t say how long this has been actually possible, as I’ve generally chosen other alternatives (more on that in a bit).  Mint doesn’t state a wallet maximum in the terms, either.

Is there no longer a wallet maximum?  If there is, what’s the specific cap?  Could Mint reinstitute the previous one?  I’ve generally chosen an alternative unrelated to these answers.

My Customized Family Plan

Mint offers a family option for simplicity, naturally called Mint Family.  Mint highlights these benefits, similar to years ago:

• View each members’ monthly data usage
• Manage each members’ plan and make payments
• Obtain notifications about each members’ account

I didn’t find these benefits appealing years ago, and I still don’t.  Mint Family requires signing up for plan auto renewal, something I’m not exactly keen on.  Plus, there appears to be no referral bonus for adding members via Mint Family.

Instead, I chose to refer each individual family member, where they each have their own separate account and login.  Each referral has earned $45 applicable to my next plan renewal (up to 4 referrals annually), and the person referred earns a similarly-applicable $15.  More importantly, they each have their own wallet to load.  This means more capacity to use the Amex Business Platinum wireless credit.  We’re maximizing and managing our own flavor of a family plan – it just involves multiple logins.

A Solid Improvement, and a Sneaky Negative

Not too long ago, Mint improved their benchmark plan with 4GB of monthly data, increasing it to 5GB monthly without any price increase.  We each have the 12-month option, costing us $180 for each phone’s service annually.  Obtaining 25% more data without a price increase is truly commendable.

But they’ve also hiked a la carte data additions.  Granted, I’m not sure this was changed in conjunction with the above improvement, but I noticed it in the same general timeframe.  Long story short, adding a bit more data for a given month previously cost $5 per GB.  Now, doing so costs $10 for 1GB or $20 for 3GB.

Annual service and monthly a la carte tweaks can still be paid with wallet funds, so I’m thankful for that.  And as someone who’s historically been fine with 1GB of data monthly, I’m spoiled enough with 5GB and rarely, if ever, need more.  But I can’t ignore the hike on extra data.

Amex Business Platinum Wireless Credit – Conclusion

Overall, we continue to be happy with our Mint Mobile plans and service.  Our plan costs have maintained at $15 monthly/$180 annually, and we fully cover that with wallet funds thanks to the Amex Business Platinum Wireless credit.  That related 5% fee is hardly anything in the grand scheme of things.  Our service has been generally solid; I can’t think of a time where I couldn’t reasonably obtain a signal.  We’ll keep riding the wave until we have to catch a different one.  Who knows, the Amex Business Platinum angle may die before the Mint deal, but I don’t expect either of those to happen any time soon.  Meanwhile, I’ll keep enjoying holiday cards from my close friend Ryan.

Of course, with myriad wireless services, individuals have a variety of options to discount their bills.  A bit of research and experimentation can lead to more than a bit of savings.  How do you prefer using your Amex Business Platinum wireless credit(s)?

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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