Tired of paying Verizon $100/mo/phone

[lxskllr]

Curious why you're switching? I saw those new tiers announced shortly before I was up for renewal and was annoyed I would have to upgrade to the Pro plan since I had free service for my Apple Watch on the old Visible+. Turned out they grandfathered into that "old" version (they call it Legacy 2) that has the smartwatch service and a few other things from the new Pro tier and the rest from the new Visible+ middle tier, so it was a no brainer to pay $395 to keep that for another year versus paying more for that Pro tier.

My primary use is the hotspot, so the boost in speed for +$7/month is worth it to me, though I wish the speed increase was greater.

 

[BoomerD]

Finally...after 6 months of back and forth...I joined Circledin today. $38/month per phone...or estimated $86/month for both phones with taxes and fees. MUCH better than the current $174/month.

Boomer at least you cut your bill way down.

Did you ever look into Mint? Do they have reception where you live?
I am a total cheapskate. I was paying MetroPCS around 60/month for 2 lines.
I went to Mint and cut that in half. 15.00/line/month.
I did have to prepay for a year but it was 360.00 for 2 lines for a year.
BTW, Mint uses the T-Mobile network.

Well...Circledin has played some kind of magic trick on me. My bill for 2 phones is over $130/month plus $16 for their fee. (I think they upgraded my plan to the same level of service I had prior to making the switch) I'm going to be talking to them and getting that straightened out...or I'll be changing again.

Well...I got nowhere trying to get Circledin to change my phone plan to the cheaper plan. I had the Verizon Play More plan originally, that's what they signed me up for in the circle, they told me I can't change it without dropping out and re-signing up in a different circle.
We only ended up saving about $30/month, but lost the Disney/ESPN/HULU package that came with the Verizon Play More package when we signed up for it almost 4 years ago. I didn't watch much on Disney...mostly kid stuff with a bit of Star Wars stuff, nothing on the ESPN channel, and only a bit on HULU. Nothing I'd actually pay for...but for free...I got SOME benefit out of it.

Then, my wife lost her phone a week or so ago. (fortunately, it was found and turned in by a Safeway employee) Because we're not the "account owners," just members of the circle, I was unable to access any part of our Verizon account, couldn't utilize any "find my phone" feature through Verizon, and couldn't lock or turn off the phone.
As I said, FORTUNATELY, the phone was found and we got it back, but this showed a major "weakness" in the Circledin plan.
I gave it a try...not happy with the results, back to looking for alternatives.
Even though I really don't like the pre-paid phone stuff, I'll probably go with Visible since they're on the Verizon towers, T-Mobile and AT&T service here is spotty at best.

 

[manly]

Visible sounds reasonable, and Total Wireless is also a sub- brand of Verizon.

I'm not a big fan of switching around, so currently planning to stick with T-Mobile's cheap $15 Connect plan.
If I was okay with yearly carrier hopping, Ultra Mobile is half off for the first year. They are owned by T-Mobile.

New Ultra Mobile Customers: Unlimited Talk, Text + 8GB Data Phone Plan - 2025-11-01

Ultra Mobile has for New Customers: select Wireless Plans (Physical SIM or eSIM) on sale from $8.50/month for 12 months (starting from $102 billed upfront, see details below). Shipping is free. Tha

slickdeals.net

 

[BoomerD]

Visible sounds reasonable, and Total Wireless is also a sub- brand of Verizon.

I'm not a big fan of switching around, so currently planning to stick with T-Mobile's cheap $15 Connect plan.
If I was okay with yearly carrier hopping, Ultra Mobile is half off for the first year. They are owned by T-Mobile.

New Ultra Mobile Customers: Unlimited Talk, Text + 8GB Data Phone Plan - 2025-11-01

Ultra Mobile has for New Customers: select Wireless Plans (Physical SIM or eSIM) on sale from $8.50/month for 12 months (starting from $102 billed upfront, see details below). Shipping is free. Tha

slickdeals.net

Unfortunately, where we live, T-Mobile is like trying to call with a potato. They CLAIM to have coverage here...and maybe they do for small select parts of town, but for most of us, nearly zero signal.

 

[lxskllr]

Even though I really don't like the pre-paid phone stuff

How come? I love pre paid. I give you money, you give me service, and we're done til next month. I'll decide then if I like you enough to stay. I don't want a "relationship" with a telecom, and when I want out, I want out *now*; not next year.

 

[Brainonska511]

How come? I love pre paid. I give you money, you give me service, and we're done til next month. I'll decide then if I like you enough to stay. I don't want a "relationship" with a telecom, and when I want out, I want out *now*; not next year.

Postpaid can be fine too, but the major carriers are huge ripoffs if you only have one or two lines. I think pricing wise, it only makes sense if you use a lot of data, have 3+ lines, and/or can take advantage of other incentives or discounts.

For most people with 1-2 lines, they'd probably be better looking at MVNOs, but people are lazy.

 

[manly]

How come? I love pre paid. I give you money, you give me service, and we're done til next month. I'll decide then if I like you enough to stay. I don't want a "relationship" with a telecom, and when I want out, I want out *now*; not next year.

It's weird because Boomer signed up for some outfit I'd never even heard of (Circledin) on the rec in this thread? And they promptly proceeded to rip him off?
The world of MVNOs is pretty large, and the first party ones are generally the safest. Just for my own sanity, I'd avoid the dodgiest ones, just like anything in life (read the Wikipedia for Lyca Mobile, it's kinda funny tbh).

Most of the world operates like prepaid if I'm not mistaken; it's mainly us Muricans that are roped into long-term contracts because sheeple like having their expensive iPhones "subsidized." I put that in quotes because it mainly means hiding the true hardware cost within a monthly bill.

 

[spdfreak]

I saw an ad for Verizon's Visible for 19/mo. I've been using them for a yr now and as far as I can tell, it is just like having Verizon. I guess there are caps where they slow you down if you use a lot of data but I've never experienced it.

 

[BoomerD]

Grrr. I finally managed to get Circledin to cancel my plan…BUT I can’t port my number to Visible until the “owner” of the account provides me with the port pin and actual account number…and she’s non-responsive. I’ve had this number for ~12 years…I really don’t want to change it.

 

[spdfreak]

I was at my sister's house in Atlanta over the weekend and decided to do a speed test with my Pixel 10 pro where I know Visible (Verizon) is very strong. 403mbps down and 40 up. So, even the cheapest plan they have is crazy fast...

 

[BoomerD]

Grrr. I finally managed to get Circledin to cancel my plan…BUT I can’t port my number to Visible until the “owner” of the account provides me with the port pin and actual account number…and she’s non-responsive. I’ve had this number for ~12 years…I really don’t want to change it.

Good gawd…took over 6 weeks to git er done, but FINALLY today, Circledin and the account owner released the port pin and account number. (They got an extra month of service out of me) All switched over to Visible. They had a Black Friday deal, buy a year of the Visible Pro + plan for 50% off. $225/year instead of $450. It KIND OF sucks that there doesn’t seem to be any kind of customer support by phone, but their chat agents seem pretty good.
About 18 months ago, my S21 Ultra stopped working. Verizon diagnosed it as a bad SIM card and set me up on the eSIM.
So, when I signed up for Visible, I thought, “hey, good time to get a new SIM card.” Spent bout 30 minutes trying to get the phone working…nope. Got into a chat with one of their people…he put me through all the hoops and circles….finally diagnosed it as…you guessed it…bad SIM card…or most likely, bad SIM port in the phone since it killed 2 cards. Back to the eSIM…but it’s working. $225 for a year of service per phone, $450 for 2. That’s about what I paid for 3 months with Circledin. Got my old number ported in…good to go…for now.

 

[lxskllr]

Yes, CS is pretty much 100% digital. I didn't know that before I called the verizon # that was displayed in an error message, and nobody knew WTF I was talking about, or what to do about it. Verizon proper doesn't really deal with Visible stuff. Once it's working though, you shouldn't need any CS.

I think you're gonna like the service. If verizon works for you, you get basically the same thing but much cheaper.

 

[BoomerD]

Yes, CS is pretty much 100% digital. I didn't know that before I called the verizon # that was displayed in an error message, and nobody knew WTF I was talking about, or what to do about it. Verizon proper doesn't really deal with Visible stuff. Once it's working though, you shouldn't need any CS.

I think you're gonna like the service. If verizon works for you, you get basically the same thing but much cheaper.

Visible and Verizon, while being related, are separate companies. I know Verizon doesn't support Visible.
Verizon's customer service has gone down hill badly in recent years, and the trend towards "Hello. I'm your virtual agent. How can I help?" is really getting bad. Fckn AI is replacing humans everywhere.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Who wants to be the ATOT Guinea Pig?

FREE Phone SIM Plan - 3GB, 100 Mins, 300 Texts

Helium Mobile is the only carrier to offer a FREE plan that rewards you. Itâs time to break free from Big Telco.

heliummobile.com

 

[lxskllr]

Who wants to be the ATOT Guinea Pig?

FREE Phone SIM Plan - 3GB, 100 Mins, 300 Texts

Helium Mobile is the only carrier to offer a FREE plan that rewards you. Itâs time to break free from Big Telco.

heliummobile.com

From Tom's...

Helium augments that coverage with a network of mini cell towers placed in customers' homes, allowing the carrier to tout itself as "a people-powered network." Helium says they've deployed 26,303 hotspots around the country.

https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/network-carriers/helium-mobile-unveils-a-free-monthly-wireless-plan-heres-what-you-need-to-know

That's an interesting approach, but I'm not clear how it works. Is the hotspot using the user's internet? What if the user doesn't have wired internet? The site itself is pretty sparse on details. Maybe I just haven't seen it.