A Cheap Unlimited Phone Plan for $25/Month… And 4 Months Free
This ain’t a sponsored post, I just really like these guys. Because I like saving money and being connected to the outside world, I need a cheap unlimited phone plan. When I went looking for one in 2017 my best bet was with Boost Mobile; at the time, they offered the best plan for unlimited talk, text, and data at $50 a month. It worked so well I didn’t set up Internet service for two years after getting it; anything I needed, I could get off my phone. No complaints whatsoever with my Boost service; they got the job done and done well.
But now that there’s a better option, why stick with them? You know I’m all about lowering my expenses when it makes the most sense. So when I heard of another company offering the same unlimited plan for less, I had to check it out.
The Mechanics Behind this Cheap Unlimited Phone Plan
And that’s how I found Visible, which offers phone service on Verizon’s network. If you’re able to get service from any of Verizon’s towers, you’ll get Visible very easily as it works as an MVNO.
That funky acronym stands for Mobile Virtual Network Operator; most of the big dogs in phone service now have one because they make for a win-win-win situation for everyone involved. Here’s how: Verizon makes sure everyone with their service has coverage, right? To best do that they make sure their network capacity is more than demand. Ensuring that leaves them with capacity that’s not being put to use and wasted every month. Never one to miss a cash opportunity, Verizon then sells that excess capacity to Visible, who in turn sells it to folks like me for a much cheaper rate.
I switched over in late September because cheap rates for the same service is a win for me. Visible and Verizon win because they’re both making money when they otherwise wouldn’t have. Woohoo, one of the rare instances where nobody’s losing out!
… Right?
I am happy to confirm that yep, that’s right! After two full months of service I couldn’t be happier with my decision. The unlimited everything even saved my bacon this month when the WiFi went on the fritz over several workdays. What would have otherwise been an uncomfortable situation was easily solved – I just started cruising on my mobile hotspot and continued to get my projects done. We’re all about efficiency in the Guac household, and Visible makes that happen.
So How Cheap is It?
At its most expensive? $40. At its least? $25. Both, by the by, will almost definitely put $100 or more back in your pocket to boot!
First things first: Visible primarily offers a cheap unlimited phone plan that gives you everything for $40 a month. That’s already $10 less than Boost for the same thing; it’s also a 20% savings, which means saving and extra $120 per year. Not only do I get unlimited talk, unlimited text, AND unlimited data, but I’ve also got unlimited hotspot to boot.
Some folks out there might hesitate to go through the hassle of switching over. I get it; why take a risk on them if you consider the savings (like going to $40 from $50) to be a trivial amount?
Well, because it gets better than $40. Visible also offers a funky option called Party Pay that lowers your monthly bill further. Basically, if you join a “party” on Visible, then you get a discount on your phone bill. The more people in your party, the lower that bill goes, with a limit of four people per party. It’s done with the idea you’ll bring more folks aboard to switch to Visible, with all of you coming together and saving money together.
The breakdown of the Party Pay cost savings goes like this:
- 2 party people = paying $35 each
- 3 party people = paying $30 each
- 4 party people = paying $25 each
It was that 4 person offer that did it for me. Saving HALF of my phone bill means saving $300 per year; that pays for two months’ worth of groceries, three months’ worth of utilities, or four days of vacation.
Yep, sign me up.
The Process of Switching Over
There is a process to this for switching phone plans. First, you have to make sure your phone isn’t “network locked”. That’s a bullshit practice phone carriers do where your smartphone can only be used by a certain service network. If you first bought your phone via a cell service, you should check to see if you’ve got a locked phone or not. It’s pretty easy to check: you can just check out Settings on your iPhone or Android to see.
That is, however, if you want to keep using the same cell phone. Since we’re all about lowering our expenses here, of course this was the option I went with.
Then I ported my number over from Boost to Visible. I had to use Boost’s chat service feature to do that, where a representative tried to keep me on by offering a one-month-only discount. Keep in mind your service providers will likely do the same thing, so watch out for this song and dance you’ll have to do. Once I reiterated the breakup was final the porting went through and I set up my Visible account.
A day or two after that my SIM card arrived in the mail. I had some difficulty switching the cards solely because of user error (pro tip: you need to JAM the paperclip end into the iPhone pinhole to get it to open! I was being too gentle!) With the SIM card in my phone, my number was successfully transferred and we were ready to roll.
Once that was done, it’s time to join the party.
PARTY PAY! PARTY PAY!
Alright, virtual party time. Now that I had an account with Visible I could go and get on Party Pay. The best part about this was how the beautiful Internet came to my rescue. There’s a whole subreddit dedicated for Visible users to find parties to join. I sorted by “new” for a better chance to find parties not yet full. If you want to make your own party, posting here will fill it quickly. If you want to find a party, here’s where you want to go.
I took that screenshot around 9:15pm this Monday night, just to give you an idea of how active it is. Clicking on any link in these new posts will lead you to Visible’s site, where you can request to be added to an open slot so all of you can enjoy the savings.
I found the best luck asking to join someone with only two people in theirs. Not five minutes later I got an email saying I’ve been accepted to the group and we were also already full. Nice! No one in the group has access to your personal info, FYI, except your first name, area code, and the last four digits of your cell. There’s absolutely no worries about privacy here.
The only time you’ll get a message about your Party Pay peeps is if someone leaves your party; Visible lets you know immediately so you won’t be shocked with a higher bill. Someone (Dong) happened to leave my party a month or so after I joined, which I only knew about because Visible sent an email with “Dong is Gone” as the subject line. Got that message at 12:57pm, and less than 30 minutes later we had someone else filling his old spot.
Seriously, this rules.
Want to End Up With a Few Months of FREE Service?
So I’m happily chugging along on my new-and-improved cheap unlimited phone plan. $25 a month and saving $300 a year is one sweet deal.
But Visible really wants more folks coming on board so they dumped more sugar in the fuel tank. My savings for the first year with them will actually be $400 thanks to a current promotion they’re running.
If you start using Visible service on your own phone (like most thrifty masters out there) they’ll give you $100 after two months of service. I initially thought “two months” meant “sixty days;” it actually means “once two calendar months have passed”. On November 1st they sent me an email thanking me for signing up with a $100 prepaid Mastercard for me to claim. Trust me, that went almost immediately towards holiday gifts galore, leaving me a very happy Darcy.
Again, the link to the $100 promo is here. If you want more money they’re also offering a $200 promo if you buy a phone through them. Neat stuff either way, especially with that $100 shaking out to four months’ worth of cell coverage. By switching over you’ll not only secure an awesome cheap unlimited phone plan, you’ll ALSO score four months free. Oh, yeah, we’re also all about the free stuff in the House of Guac.
The Drawbacks
Now to recap: $25 for unlimited talk, text, data, and hotspot. $100 gift card. Utter madness. What’s the catch?
THERE IS NO CATCH! At least, no huge “GOTCHA!” that I’ve yet found. They won’t bump you up to a more expensive plan and this isn’t a one-time dealio. No bamboozles, seriously. There’s only three potential drawbacks I’ve found, which I consider irrelevant for my situation but it may mean something for yours.
1. Shitty customer service
This I consider the main con that might affect me. The only things I’ve heard about Visible’s customer service have all been negative; the consensus seems that the operators are never rude, but they are NOT trained to help you through your issues. Which is about as helpful as a soggy tissue if something goes wrong. The service is simple enough that most users never have to try to contact them; I’m hoping my luck with electronics continues to hold so this won’t matter to me.
2. Crap mobile app
The Visible app sucks. You heard it here first. Not a deal-breaker because I don’t need to use their app for anything, but it’s clearly a bare-bones V1 endeavor.
3. Visible “reserves the right” to throttle data
I’m already hearing mom gasps from the audience; calm down, this still isn’t a gotcha. Visible adds this to their ToS for the same reason lawyers add convoluted fine print to a contract: to cover their asses. If Visible is ever particularly overwhelmed they might reduce your speeds, and that’s a BIG “if”. I sincerely doubt that will happen anytime soon, what with all the deals they’re throwing at new customers. They clearly want more folks joining their parties and earning a reputation as a data throttler is not in their best interests. Nevertheless, it remains a possibility and I want to be honest about that.
The Other Options Out There
So if you’re in the market for a cheap unlimited phone plan, Visible’s your best bet. Keep in mind, though, that this isn’t the cheapest option out there for phone plans. Other MVNOs like Mint Mobile and Ting are even cheaper; Mrs. Frugalwoods reports she pays less than $11 a month on her phone plan, which is a fifth of what I paid with Boost. For my needs, I’d rather pay a little more to get the unlimited everything. Hey, I’m a Millennial in a quarantine stretching over several long, long months. My phone’s getting a ton of use so I’m all about paying $25 in case I need the hotspot.
Hope this review helps!
Cover image credit: Live Richer via Unsplash