Quick disclosure up front: the Visible link below is my referral link. If you sign up through it, we both get a credit toward our bill. That’s the only reason it’s a “referral” link instead of just a link. Everything else in this post is the same experience I’d describe either way.
Today, while enjoying some amazing leftovers at Amplify Bloomington (The Mill), I overheard Hannah McConnell trying to get her cell phone carrier on the phone to change her plan. It took a while. Afterward I asked if she’d ever looked at Visible. She hadn’t. That’s what prompted me to dig up a post I wrote back in 2019 and bring it current. It’s been almost seven years, and my answer to “should I switch” hasn’t changed, though a few of the details have.
Why I switched in the first place
In October 2019, I was on my parents’ shared Verizon data plan. It worked fine until I went even slightly over our data allowance, at which point Verizon charged $15 per gigabyte. I got tired of rationing my own phone, so I looked around and landed on Visible.
Visible is a Verizon MVNO. It runs on Verizon’s towers, but the account, billing, and customer service are Visible’s own. Signing up back then meant downloading the app, checking whether my phone qualified, and waiting for a SIM card in the mail. That part of the process is still basically the same now.
What’s changed since 2019
The biggest difference is the plan structure. Visible used to offer one plan. It’s now three:
- Visible: the base plan, unlimited talk, text, and data on Verizon’s standard network, starting around $25/month with taxes and fees included
- Visible+: adds Verizon’s faster Ultra Wideband 5G and a higher-priority data tier, running around $35/month
- Visible+ Pro: the top tier, with no speed deprioritization at all, plus a few extras like 4K streaming, around $45/month
All three are month-to-month, with no contract. Visible also has something called Party Pay now, where each additional line you add to your account knocks a bit off everyone’s bill. That’s likely part of why a multi-line household can land at a lower per-line cost than you’d expect. Promotions and exact discount amounts shift fairly often, so I’d treat any specific number as a snapshot rather than a promise. Check the current offer when you look.
Where I’ve landed
I’m still on the base Visible plan, seven years in, and I still have three lines instead of one: me, my wife, and our daughter, at $25/month each. I went in assuming this was too good to be true and it would fall apart eventually. It hasn’t. At this point I don’t think of it as a deal I’m waiting to lose. It’s just what our phone bill costs.
The hotspot story that’s still true
One thing that hasn’t changed: the mobile hotspot has been genuinely useful for work, not just a nice-to-have. Early on, I was meeting with a web design client whose warehouse had almost no usable internet. I turned on my phone’s hotspot, we both connected to it, and the meeting actually went somewhere instead of stalling out on a bad connection. Hotspot access is still included on Visible’s plans today, though on the base plan it can be capped at a lower speed than your regular data. That’s worth knowing if you lean on it the way I did that day.
If you’re thinking about it
Visible isn’t for everyone. There’s no retail store and no phone support line. Everything runs through the app and online chat, which has been fine for me but won’t suit someone who wants to talk to a person in a building. If that doesn’t bother you, and you’re tired of watching data caps or sitting on hold with a carrier the way Hannah was, it’s worth a look: visible.com/get/?BRtS8