As the person responsible for evaluating the best phone carriers at Tom's Guide, I find that there's a lot to like about Visible, the Verizon-owned wireless service that offers lower-cost coverage on its parent company's network. But if there's a knock against Visible, it's the carrier's lack of family plans offering discounted rates when you add more lines.
That's about to change later this month, as Visible announced a new Inner Circle program that allows groups of people to save money on their monthly cell phone bills. Best of all, the people included in your Inner Circle plan don't even need to be family members — anyone can link together their Visible data plans and reap the benefits of lower rates.
Starting August 21, customers can pool together up to seven lines at Visible on a single account, with Visible offering discounts on its two premium plans for accounts with two or more people. With Visible Inner Circle, you can save $5 on the cost of either a Visible Plus or Visible Plus Pro plan, two unlimited data offerings that normally cost $35 and $45 a month, respectively.
The standard Visible unlimited data plan keeps its $25/month cost, even on Inner Circle plans.
Regular monthly cost |
Monthly cost with 2 or more Visible Inner Circle accounts |
Plan details |
|
Visible plan |
$25 |
$25 |
Unlimited data |
Visible Plus plan |
$35 |
$30 |
Unlimited data with no speed caps, fastest 5G service |
Visible Plus Pro plan |
$45 |
$40 |
Unlimited data with no speed caps, fastest 5G service, 4k video streaming |
The potential to lower the price of the Visible Plus plan via Visible's new family plan offering seems especially intriguing, since I consider Visible Plus to be the best unlimited data plan you can get right now. The regular $35 rate is already pretty low for unlimited data — it's a fraction of what you'd pay for comparable plans at AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon — and Visible stopped putting a cap on the amount of high-speed data you can enjoy with Visible Plus. Even modest savings of $5/month through Visible Inner Circle make a great plan already more appealing.
Visible says that Inner Circle members can mix and match different plans. In this scenario, I could have three other people in an Inner Circle group, with one of us subscribed to the standard plan, while two others pay for Visible Plus and the fourth signs up for Visible Plus Pro. The first person would pay $25/month, the Visible Plus subscribers would pay $30 each for their service, and the Visible Plus Pro subscriber would pay $40.
Besides the discounted rates, the other noteworthy thing about Visible Inner Circle is the ability to add anyone — not just family members — to your family plan. That means anyone from roommates to distant relatives can pool their wireless plans together. Even though the accounts are connected, billing can be assigned separately, with each member of your Inner Circle responsible for their own plan.
It all sounds very similar to the old Visible Party Pay program the carrier offered half a dozen years ago, where accounts could be grouped together for significant discounts. Visible dropped its Party Pay program as it expanded to offer more plan options, so it's good to see a similar program return, even if the per-line discounts are more modest this time around.
The ability to create family plans that aren't necessarily restricted to family members will make the new Visible offer appealing to some customers when it debuts next week. That said, the best family cell phone plans I've found offer more significant discounts the more lines you add. For example, a four-line plan at Total Wireless — another Verizon-owned carrier — reduces the per-line cost of unlimited data to $27.50, totaling $110 per month.
Still, in this day and age, flexibility counts for a lot, and Visible's soon-to-launch Inner Circle program certainly offers that to a wider audience than just immediate family members.
