Start or join a quartet – friends, roommates and even strangers – to make big savings with Visible.
Giuseppe Elio Cammarata / EyeEm / Getty Images
When is a family plan not a family plan? When it comes to Visible, a Verizon prepaid operator that offers unlimited phone service at reasonable prices. How reasonable? Individuals pay $ 40 a month. But groups can get services for as little as $ 25 per person by signing up for the Party Pay. Note, however, that I said “groups”, not “families”.
That’s because Party Pay really isn’t for people who live under the same roof (unless we’re talking about, say, college buddies sharing an apartment). Instead, each person is charged separately; in fact, you don’t have the option of letting a single person pay for all the lines, which is how a traditional family plan works.
CNET’s John Falcone learned this first hand last year when he set up a “party” composed of him and his mother. (This would cause the fee to drop to $ 35 per person per month. With three people, it drops to $ 30; with four or more, $ 25.) Although she had a separate residence, he wanted to pay the bill. both lines. But he couldn’t put them on the same credit card; Visible requires separate billing. The workaround was to use two different cards.
Strangers with benefits
So, what happens if you are unable to recruit friends for your party? Believe it or not, you can also do this with strangers. In fact, there is an entire community on Reddit dedicated to helping people find Party Pay parties. That’s when Mike Sorrentino of CNET, hoping to get that $ 25 fee – and it worked. He’s been in a group with strangers for the past few months. “So far, so good,” he reports. (Your mileage may vary.) There is also a new Visible Community portal, where strangers can connect for the same purpose.
If you are the one starting the group, the risk is surprisingly small. Each person is not only charged separately, but also has their own account with unlimited calls, text messages, data and mobile hotspot. There is no overlap, with no possibility of interference. Someone may suddenly decide to leave the group, leaving you with a higher monthly fee until you can find a replacement.
In the meantime, if you are a joiner, the primary account holder can decide to fire you at any time, without notice or explanation. (In fact, group members do not have a direct way of communicating with each other, according to Sorrentino.) In an ideal world, your group would consist of people you know, to better reduce any risk of “flake” .
A recent noteworthy update: Visible no longer limits parties to four members; you can bring an unlimited number of people to your circle. And whenever someone signs up using your referral code (whether you’re part of a group or not), your next month of service drops to just $ 5. In theory, you could repeat this over and over.
Other things you should know about Visible
Party Pay is not the only thing that distinguishes Visible from other operators. An important difference: if you need help, there is no physical store you can visit or even a customer service number to call. Instead, every detail of the visible business – billing, technical support – is managed through the Visible app. This can be a difficult pill to swallow for some.
On the positive side, Visible is not a traditional MVNO; the operator “sits at the top of the Verizon network,” according to a company representative. This means that you get exactly the same network coverage as Verizon customers, and eSIM-enabled devices are now also supported (meaning you don’t have to wait for a SIM card to arrive in the mail).
But do you also get the same performance? Visible now offers 5G when available (and on compatible phones), albeit with a speed limit of 200 megabits per second. (Is still extremely Another novelty in the service: calls to Canada, Mexico, US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Check here to make sure your phone is compatible, unless you are planning buy a new one from the operator. At the moment, you can get a $ 100 prepaid Mastercard by bringing your own phone and a card up to $ 200 when purchasing selected models.
It is strange that Visible does not make Party Pay more accessible to those living under the same roof. In fact, it is almost hostile to families in this regard. But for groups of friends, co-workers and even strangers you know on the internet, Visible’s group plan is one of the best deals out there.
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