After giving up my job to be primary caretaker to my granddaughter, who was born with physical and mental challenges, my financial resources were dwindling. I began cutting expenses. One that came to the top of the list to examine was my mobile phone and internet.

I said “bye, bye Verizon.”

I was a Verizon customer since the 90s!

I had been a true-blue Verizon customer since the late nineties when I leased at Motorola bag phone. The huge black bag contained a full-sized receiver and the 10-12 lb. base which was designed to plug into your cigarette lighter and place on the floorboard under the drivers seat. It was marketed as one of the first “mobile” phones available and “affordable” for consumers and small businesses. Then, cell service was expensive. Not only did you pay the monthly fee, but there was a fee for leasing the unit, and you paid usage fees by number of calls placed and received and a rate per minute. One could easily be responsible to pay hundreds of dollars by misunderstanding the contract for cell service.

Do You Remember the First Car Phones?

Cell phones became smaller. My next phone was a neon yellow full-sized “walkie-talkie” fashioned receiver with a 6-inch antenna jutting from the top. After that came one of my favorite phones; the flip phone. It fit well in a modest, wearable holster, was multi-function with texting capabilities and a camera. Service costs were somewhat more affordable. Coverage was spotty but popularity continued to grow.

The point is from 199? through Spring of 2022, my family and I were loyal Verizon customers. At one point, there were 5 phones connected through my account. One memorable monthly statement, where teenagers had worked their magic, was more than $800!

It’s Time to Say Bye, Bye to Verizon

In the spring of 2022, with dwindling savings, I took a look at my monthly statement and decided it was time to take the leap to another carrier. My bill for two phones on unlimited data, cell and text service and a $30 to pay toward purchase of my iPhone 12, topped $180!

Is Visible the Answer?

I had been entertaining a change for more than a year. In that time, I purchased an RV, gave up my apartment lease, and began traveling frequently. Travelers from a Facebook group introduced me to Visible almost a year prior. The $40 per month price tag seemed to good to be true, so I did my due diligence. Was the cell, data, and text all unlimited? (Even Verizon throttles streaming services.) What about contracts? (I’m on a mission to be free of all long-term contracts.) Do you truly have the same coverage through the US as Verizon. (After all, that was one big reason that I had stayed with Verizon for all these years!)

I was still wary. I wanted to make sure that my business coaching and website clients were able to contact me no matter where I was. If I changed carriers, I could cut my bill by $100 a month and that was key! I have to admit that I was disappointed that Verizon rarely offered retention incentives. Several times over the years, when I contacted them and made a change to service, my perception was that cost would go down or stay the same, but it almost always led to a higher price tag. Then I learned about about Visible’s Party Pay!

The Visible Plan

I visited Visible.com. There, simply written and displayed were the answers to my questions and more, and Party Pay (using a referral code from an existing customer upon sign up.) would lower my monthly cost to a flat $25 (all fees included)!

Taking the Leap

Signing up turned out to be more complicated than it should have been because I had tinkered with the idea of adding a phone with a new number to “test the waters.” That confused things because I unwittingly assigned my preferred email address with that account. My husband would also have his own account that was bundled with mine, so when I set his up, I used my other email account instead of his! Ugh! We were both keeping our phones, so Visible is able to send a physical SIM card or process ESIM. ESIM gets the process over with. Read the directions first! 1) Download the app on your device. 2) Walk through the directions. Steps include: 3) Switch your carrier in settings and delete your former carrier. 4) Remove the physical SIM card (if you have one installed) from your former carrier. Looking back, it seems a logical process.

As I write this article in July 2022, I am pleased with the service. There have been few locations where I didn’t have serve. The lonely roads of Texas and New Mexico rendered me without GPS (phone and data service). Each dead spot lasted for about 50 miles which was typical for Verizon and other major carriers. Drafts and posting of this article are happening with the aid of Visible hotspot from phone to computer. There are a few times that it seems a bit sluggish, but it hasn’t slowed down my progress.

If you have questions or would like to switch to Visible, use this link you will get $20 off your first month, so will I! Once there are 4 of us, I will switch to Party Pay and we will all pay only $25 EVERY month!