I nonetheless use Mint Cell for cell service, now paying $240 a 12 months ($20 a month) for 15 GB of information every month. (There’s normally a promo for brand new clients, I feel 3 months free in the event you purchase 3 months.) I upgraded from the decrease 5GB tier as a way to let my youngsters use my cellular phone as a WiFi hotspot to do homework within the minivan whereas the others are in actions. Now owned by T-Cell, it nonetheless supplies strong worth and I’ve had it now for over 4 years (my previous evaluate).
Persevering with my concentrate on safety, listed below are two necessary methods at Mint Cell to finest shield your self from scams that attempt to steal your cellphone quantity as a way to entry necessary monetary accounts. These are each opt-in, however I feel the additional effort is value it.
Activate 2FA through Authenticator App
To be able to higher safe your Mint Cell account total, you must allow two-factor authentication (2FA) utilizing a third-party TOTP Authenticator app. Examples embrace Google Authenticator, Authy, or 1Password. You may activate this both through the Mint app or at Mintmobile.com. Listed below are the official directions from Mint: How do I arrange and handle two-factor authentication?
To entry your Mint Cell account with 2FA enabled, you’ll want to supply a safety code from a third-party authentication app to verify that you just’re the one logging into your account, not some weirdo making an attempt to mess along with your SIM.
Make sure to perceive easy methods to use your Authenticator app in the event you lose your cellphone. You’ll both need to have it cloud-based so you may get the 6-digit code through different strategies, or have particular backup codes printed out if staying offline.
Activate Quantity Lock
The Quantity Lock characteristic prevents the power to request a “port out” of your quantity to a different cellphone or service. This consists of your self in the event you needed to change carriers, so that you’ll have to log into your account and disable it first if you wish to try this. Be aware that so long as you possibly can log into your Mint Cell account, you possibly can de-activate this characteristic. This makes the above 2FA much more necessary.
When Quantity Lock is turned on in your account, you received’t be capable to activate a brand new SIM, order a substitute SIM or change telephones. You’ll have to disable Quantity Lock everytime you want to take any of those actions, however we advocate ready till simply earlier than to take action.
Listed below are the official directions from Mint: What’s Quantity Lock?
Quantity Lock is a safety characteristic that protects your SIM (bodily SIM or eSIM) from unauthorized modifications. Your SIM is the chip that connects your cellphone to the Mint Cell community, permitting you to make calls, ship texts and use cellular information. It shops your account info and your cellphone quantity. Enabling Quantity Lock helps stop shady characters from hijacking your SIM, your cellphone quantity and finally your account.
