Verizon Visible Party Pay - Thoughts?

[Rustic23]

My son has Verizon Visible. It is your standard pay as your go for everything plan. The novel part is Party Pay. You can have up to four people on a plan, each is billed separately, and all get unlimited. I understand only sales tax is added. For each phone up to 4 you add you subtract $5 per phone. So:
1 - $40
2 - $35 per phone
3 - $30 per phone
4 - $25 per phone

Only on the Verizon network, roaming not included. This seems like a great deal. Does anyone have first hand experiecnce with them?

 

[Time2]

My son has Verizon Visible. It is your standard pay as your go for everything plan. The novel part is Party Pay. You can have up to four people on a plan, each is billed separately, and all get unlimited. I understand only sales tax is added. For each phone up to 4 you add you subtract $5 per phone. So:
1 - $40
2 - $35 per phone
3 - $30 per phone
4 - $25 per phone

Only on the Verizon network, roaming not included. This seems like a great deal. Does anyone have first hand experience with them?

I need to look into this, I have 5 phones on a Verizon plan at $205 a month. The roaming is a limit though, but not sure how much.

 

[tgotch]

I switched 3 phones from T-Mobile to Visible a few months ago. Better coverage than TMo. Some claim deprioritizing Visible during peak times. I've not noticed it if happening.

Their support is chat only I believe.
Also phones purchased from them are unlocked, so easy to move on if you don't like it.

I would do it again.

You can go to r/visiblepartypay to request/join parties.

 

[ransil]

I switched over a year ago, went from 2 phones at $175 to 3 phones at $75 total
One phones is always tethered to a router for the house internet.

There is a reddit site to find people to fill your party, it has taken me no longer than an hour to fill my last spot when people drop. All billing is separate no need to know your party people.

Even the 3 phones I have are all billed separately.

No network issues works as good as Verizon did.

 

[camfused]

My Cricket (ATT) plan is $100 for 4 lines, taxes and fees included. Unlimited everything (although data is throttled to 8Mb/sec (I don't care)). If you have good ATT coverage in your area, it should be considered too.

I seem to recall complaints about bad service and features not working, when Visible first came out. I gather that these have been resolved now?

 

[OldShooter]

We spend about $20/month/phone for two phones on Google Fi. But data is $10/gb, so our breakeven point would be about 1.5gb/phone. We don't get close to that, so total bill is usually around $45 total for the two phones. It's a good deal for us domestically but we also have that $10 data plus 20c/min calling in something like 200 countries worldwide. That's the big thing for us.

I'm expecting Fi to cut their data rate soon. I has become less and less competitive over the past few years. That keeps even the moderately data-hungry from being customers I think.

 

[TNBigfoot]

I’m considering Visible as well. Clark Howard has a review on them.

https://clark.com/cell-phones/visible-review/

 

[camfused]

@TNBigfoot, be sure to read the comments posted below that article.

 

[Major Tom]

I understand only sales tax is added. For each phone up to 4 you add you subtract $5 per phone. So:

1 - $40
2 - $35 per phone
3 - $30 per phone
4 - $25 per phone

Sales tax is not added. The prices you quote above are what the user pays. I am on a Party Plan with Visible. Our party has the full quota of 4 members, and I am billed $25/month. I got the $19 phone, and use it as my sole source of internet - both when mobile and at home. The hotspot can only handle one connected device at a time, so I use a little WiFi router to distribute the WiFi signal around my apartment.

Filling up your Party Pay group is easy, even if you don't know enough people who want to get on board. There are FB groups designed solely for the purpose of finding Party Pay members. I already knew 2 of the other members in my group. We found the remaining member in one of the FB groups in an hour or two.

My data speed does vary quite significantly. In the middle of the night, I get 30-40Mbps. In the daytime, it tends to hover at around 4-5Mbps, though it does go lower. When it gets down to around 1Mbps and becomes unusable, I remove the SIM card, restart the phone, replace the SIM card, and the connection speed improves.

For $25/month, it is well worth it.

 

[ncbill]

My Cricket (ATT) plan is $100 for 4 lines, taxes and fees included. Unlimited everything (although data is throttled to 8Mb/sec (I don't care)). If you have good ATT coverage in your area, it should be considered too.

I seem to recall complaints about bad service and features not working, when Visible first came out. I gather that these have been resolved now?

I switched 3 lines from Cricket to Visible last year....and am trying to convince another relative to join us so we can all pay $25/month.

This allowed me to separate the kids onto their own accounts...one has already graduated & is working so he's paying for his own cellphone (his only phone) now...another few years & the other kid will be paying their own way.

Though my biggest complaint with Cricket was that hotspot use was limited to only certain phone models & only on the most expensive monthly plans.

I've had no problems using my Visible phone as a hotspot whenever needed.

 

[Rustic23]

Major Tom, how did you connect an external router?

 

[Major Tom]

Major Tom, how did you connect an external router?

I purchased this little router, though there are other similar ones available. It receives the WiFi signal from the phone hotspot, and repeats it to however many devices you want to connect. The only wired connection to the router is the power connection, via USB. I have only one slight criticism of this particular router. The USB power connector is recessed behind the front panel, such that some USB connectors become unplugged quite easily. After trying a few, I found a cable that engages a little deeper, and latches well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N5RCZQH/

 

[Rustic23]

Major Tom, is this essentially a range extender, and/or would a range extender do the same thing? I have a TPLink range extender I can set it up with a different SID.

 

[Major Tom]

I'm not too familiar with the specific nomenclature Rustic23, but I believe it is. It receives a WiFi signal and rebroadcasts it, on a different channel and with a different SSID. As long as your range extender will allow multiple devices to be connected to it (and I believe they all do), it should work well for you in this application.

I suspect that your device and mine are the same thing, but with different names!