Tired of paying Verizon $100/mo/phone

BoomerD · Sep 2, 2024

Looking for a Verizon-based MVNO. Part of the $100 is phone insurance ($18/mo) and some taxes.

Currently looking at Visible, (Verizon owned) Red Pocket, US Mobile…

Mint and Boost run on T-Mobile.
Where we live, Verizon is the only carrier that gets good to excellent service over most of the peninsula. AT&T and T- Mobile both tend to be sporadic…and have a lot of dead spots.

Tech Junky · Sep 2, 2024

Circledin.com

I switched to using them as they bundle you under a group plan for the best discounts. They charge an $8.50/mo admin fee and then pass the discounts into you. I went with a TM pla listed at $40/mo and all in with the fee it's $38.50 because there are ~10 people in the group.

Unlimited everything plus 40GB of tether data. I use it mostly as my ISP though and Google for voice. Saves me about $30/no on both services. Retail for the same phone only plan is closer to $90/no just for a single line.

balloonshark · Sep 3, 2024

Verizon has a discount if you're a vet, first responder, etc. (Scroll down) https://www.verizon.com/plans/?msockid=27b73240597562500bb526af58f363d9

JimKiler · Sep 3, 2024

BoomerD said:
Looking for a Verizon-based MVNO. Part of the $100 is phone insurance ($18/mo) and some taxes.

Currently looking at Visible, (Verizon owned) Red Pocket, US Mobile…

Mint and Boost run on T-Mobile.
Where we live, Verizon is the only carrier that gets good to excellent service over most of the peninsula. AT&T and T- Mobile both tend to be sporadic…and have a lot of dead spots.

Just to confirm, that is true of AT&T and Tmobile for 5G? I used to dislike Tmobile but once I got a 5G phone i have no complaints for coverage but i know there are still dead spots with all carriers.

snoopy7548 · Sep 3, 2024

I switched from Tracfone to US Mobile earlier this year and I've had zero issues. I pay $10/month for unlimited talk/text and 2GB of data; this is with their shareable data plan.

Definitely check them out. They have a bunch of really good plans.

manly · Sep 3, 2024

I had RedPocket (GSM AT&T) for about two years. It was acceptable, but they are known for poor customer service. Hard to recommend.

LOL $100 for one line in 2024? $216 annually is just for phone insurance? SMH

I live in L.A. metro and am happy with T-Mobile Connect for $15 monthly (5GB hard cap). They have the best nationwide 5G network although obviously YMMV.

Pohemi · Sep 3, 2024

I was with GoogleFi for several years and at the time thought it was cheap (it was, relative to carrier-direct).

Then I switched to US Mobile (on VZW...you can choose between Verizon and T-Mobile network). It was less than $12/mo. with 2GB of data. They only have overseas support though, and the great discount for the service gets smaller the more data you need. Always at home on WiFi? Might not be an issue for you.

darkswordsman17 · Sep 4, 2024

Just know with Visible (and probably other MVNOs) you'll get downrated. We just switched to Visible and I get LTE a lot (was on T-Mobile just prior and it seemed like it had been years since I'd seen LTE show as my network, it shows most of the time on Visible but will change to 5G pretty frequently during less busy times - work phone has Verizon and it gets full 5G in same area). Which downrating so far doesn't bother me, I don't use my phone all that much, and generally if I start using the internet, like watching a video it sort of "wakes up" and then it'll stream like 720p without issue once it gets going. There are other perks (unlimited Hotspot, 5Mbps on the cheap plan 10Mbps on the Premium, Premium gets 50GB of priority data per month, and you can add an Apple watch line for free on Premium or $10/mo on the cheap). We switched because of T-Mobile's BS and coupled with the unlimited Hotspot could ditch a tablet line, so we went from $90/month to $40. I'm seeing if they'll give us the extra $5/line cheaper since we ported from T-Mobile (they have offer of $15/mo for 5 years if you port from T-Mobile). I think you can save $5/$10 a month if you have Verizon home internet as well. We had it for a while and it was ok, unlimited data but it wasn't consistent and they updated their modem/router thing to remove features (also had some odd limitations like could set only a single schedule for a device, so couldn't set like weekday and weekend schedules; you could bridge it to your own router so could get around things like that). It was good enough that my niece and nephews could play like Fortnite on it.

If you do a year you can get the Premium down to like $32.50. I'll be really curious what they'll offer at like Black Friday or Xmas (Mint used to offer 2 years of service for the price of one if you bought a phone).

Tech Junky · Sep 4, 2024

darkswordsman17 said:
MVNOs

Sounds like you've done what I have done and tried all of them. They all seem to be about the same though. Mint though seems to offer more for less with their 50% off offerings quite often.

I just went with CI though to get group discounts instead of hopping around from one to the next. Still saving with the combined use of the SIM. There's a ton of $10 options though for phone service.

Mobile virtual network operator - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

This helps in finding the carrier they're using if you need vzw like the OP.

spdfreak · Sep 4, 2024

I just switched to visible last night from t-mo. 15/mo was too tempting. I've never had good signal at my house with T-mo and so far it is about 1 bar better with visible but is LTE. But I virtually never had 5G with T-mo at my house either. Not an issue since I'm on wi-fi almost anywhere I go. I'll keep track and see what speeds are at different places in town.

balloonshark · Sep 4, 2024

Here is a comparison site that could help. https://prepaidcompare.net/

BoomerD · Sep 4, 2024

Thanks. I know that most MVNO plans get lower priority than the big name networks…MOST of my data use is via wifi…and if I lived in civilization, that would be fine…but surprisingly, many places here still don’t have “in house” wifi…I think I average 30-40 MB (GB?) of data per month on top of my wifi data.

spdfreak · Sep 5, 2024

Visible at my house on LTE I get 6mbps down and .4 up. In town with 5G showing, I got 36 down and 22 up. Totally depends on how close you are to a tower... I have a Pixel 6 which is known to have a crappy modem, so it may be better with a different phone.

Tech Junky · Sep 5, 2024

spdfreak said:
36 down and 22 up

Wow that's slow. My OP11 gets 600/100 on TMO. Though when testing Visible it was well, slow as molasses. When I was working on vzw network though their EE phones were testing pretty high for speeds. Though TMO before 5G I could stand outside the office and pull 100DL speeds. And then there's ATT which has always been slow.

BoomerD · Sep 6, 2024

spdfreak said:
Visible at my house on LTE I get 6mbps down and .4 up. In town with 5G showing, I got 36 down and 22 up. Totally depends on how close you are to a tower... I have a Pixel 6 which is known to have a crappy modem, so it may be better with a different phone.

Sitting at home…tonight is better than most. Just connecting to the Verizon 4G network, 40.8 down, 6.02 up.

manly · Sep 6, 2024

MVNOs are not all equivalent. The "first party" ones tend to be a little better, at higher cost. Total is Verizon's in-house brand; good deal if you need 2 unlimited lines:

Total Wireless: Port-In 2+ T-Mobile, Metro or Mint Lines, Get 5G Unlimited Plan $15/mo. Per Line (for Up to 5 Years) - New Customers Only

Total Wireless offers their Total 5G Unlimited Prepaid Plan at $15/month per line for New Customers who Port-In 2 or More Lines from T-Mobile, Mint Mobile or Metro by T-Mobile using the promo ...

slickdeals.net

spdfreak · Sep 6, 2024

manly said:
MVNOs are not all equivalent. The "first party" ones tend to be a little better, at higher cost. Total is Verizon's in-house brand; good deal if you need 2 unlimited lines:

Total Wireless: Port-In 2+ T-Mobile, Metro or Mint Lines, Get 5G Unlimited Plan $15/mo. Per Line (for Up to 5 Years) - New Customers Only

Total Wireless offers their Total 5G Unlimited Prepaid Plan at $15/month per line for New Customers who Port-In 2 or More Lines from T-Mobile, Mint Mobile or Metro by T-Mobile using the promo ...

slickdeals.net

I think visible is a Verizon owned company. I will say that since I switched to visible, my battery life has been much better than with t-mo. Not sure why but very noticeable. Maybe the signal is stronger and the phone isn't constantly searching for a 1 bar signal.

BoomerD · Sep 6, 2024

manly said:
MVNOs are not all equivalent. The "first party" ones tend to be a little better, at higher cost. Total is Verizon's in-house brand; good deal if you need 2 unlimited lines:

Total Wireless: Port-In 2+ T-Mobile, Metro or Mint Lines, Get 5G Unlimited Plan $15/mo. Per Line (for Up to 5 Years) - New Customers Only

Total Wireless offers their Total 5G Unlimited Prepaid Plan at $15/month per line for New Customers who Port-In 2 or More Lines from T-Mobile, Mint Mobile or Metro by T-Mobile using the promo ...

slickdeals.net

If I was changing from one of those 3 companies, their basic plan would be a deal, but 2 lines for their 5G+ Unlimited plan is $95/month. (With no discount for changing from Verizon)

spdfreak · Sep 12, 2024

So after using my pixel 6 on Visible for a couple weeks now, I can say I'm completely happy. My battery life is 30% better and I have had no dropped calls at all. T-mo used to drop calls regularly. It is not as fast in 5G areas according to speed tests, but fast enough to not be noticeable. Pretty happy for 15/mo.

In2Photos · Sep 12, 2024

I'm on Verizon now paying about $140/month total for 3 lines, unlimited. You guys have me looking at Visible though. Same network for $25/line. Hmmm....

manly · Sep 12, 2024

In2Photos said:
I'm on Verizon now paying about $140/month total for 3 lines, unlimited. You guys have me looking at Visible though. Same network for $25/line. Hmmm....

For Verizon, that's actually reasonable. OP is paying $100 for one line? LOL

In2Photos · Sep 12, 2024

manly said:
For Verizon, that's actually reasonable. OP is paying $100 for one line? LOL

Yeah I thought I had decent pricing. But this day and time I could stand to cut any expenses possible. Heck my wife went back to work after staying home with the kids for years. We thought we'd get to do all this stuff with the extra money. All it is doing is covering the rising costs of everyday stuff.

lxskllr · Sep 15, 2024

I use Visible as my home internet via hotspot. Switching between 4G, 5G, and 5Guw screws everything up, and my internet fails. Waiting it out works, but to handle it faster I have to cycle in and out of [airplane mode]. If I could force 4G only, I think it would work great, but verizon removed those options from the rom. Also, wired tethering has been removed. As a hotspot, I get true unlimited internet, but it's throttled to 10MB on their best plan. Using phone data it's gets deprioritzed at some point, but I don't know where cause I don't use it as a phone.

Tmobile is better around here, but I pay $32/month for visible on their best plan when I prepay a year. I'm happy enough with it, cause I don't have to count hotspot bytes, and $32/month is a pretty good deal no matter how you look at it. If I were using it as a primary phone, I'd look around(at tmobile offerings), but there's a good chance I'd land on visible again. For my particular usage, I don't think there's a better offer available if I don't want to screw around with contracts or renting hardware. If I get tired of visible, I just stop paying and our relationship is done. I appreciate that.

Tech Junky · Sep 15, 2024

lxskllr said:
10MB

I don't see how that for $32/mo is a good deal.

Buy a 5G modem for $100 and a USB adapter for it for $30 and grab an unlimited TMO sim from circledin.com and boost your speeds.

I'm paying $38.50/Mo for unlimited + 40GB of hotspot because I use it in the car through the phone. There are cheaper plans without hs data that should come in around $30/Mo and speeds much higher. I get at least 250/70 and the highest is 400/100 but on the phone 600/100.

BoomerD · Sep 15, 2024

manly said:
For Verizon, that's actually reasonable. OP is paying $100 for one line? LOL

I think it's actually $75/line plus phone insurance, taxes, etc.

Tired of paying Verizon $100/mo/phone

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