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VISIBLE REVIEW: 9 Things to Know Before You Sign Up (October 2019)
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Oct 27, 2019
UPDATE! Visible launched new unlimited plans in August 2022. See my updated review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRCewrB665U VISIBLE REVIEW SUMMARY FROM MICHAELSAVES.COM: Verizon-owned Visible offers a simple unlimited plan for $40 a month, taxes and fees included. The new Party Pay feature drops the monthly price to $25/line for groups of four. Aside from the cheap price, the biggest plus is that Visible runs on Verizon's 4G LTE network. In October 2020, Visible said 5G is coming soon! Visible eliminated a 5 Mbps speed cap, though download speeds may still be affected when the network is congested. Video typically streams at 480p. There are frequent deals for customers who bring their number to Visible, whether they keep their current device or purchase a new one. Support is only available online, not in stores or by phone. In this video, I lay out the pros and cons of Visible's phone service. If you sign up for Visible using my link, I will receive a commission to help support https://MichaelSaves.com. This is not a sponsored video -- it's my real customer review. I only review products and services that I pay for myself. Visible Review: Table of Contents 0:00 Introduction 0:28 Plan and pricing 1:22 Network coverage 2:23 Call and text performance 3:14 Data speeds 4:14 Mobile hotspot 4:56 Video streaming 5:45 Phone options 6:54 Customer service 9:00 Deals and discounts 9:47 Pros and cons recap
View Video Transcript
0:00
for risings network for half the price
0:02
is that too good to be true hello and
0:04
welcome my name is michael from the
0:05
personal finance blog michael saves comm
0:08
and in this video i'm going to tell you
0:10
all about visible it's a low-cost cell
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phone service actually owned by Verizon
0:14
but can save you a whole lot on your
0:16
cell phone service I know because I've
0:18
been testing visible along with about a
0:20
dozen other cheap cell phone providers
0:22
over the last year so let's get right to
0:24
the pros and cons and what you should
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know before you sign up number one plan
0:29
and pricing with visible there's just
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one plan and as of October two thousand
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nineteen when I signed up that's $40 a
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month for unlimited talk text and data
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so compare that to Verizon's postpaid
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plans those are seventy to ninety
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dollars a month for a single line
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another big difference with visible
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taxes and fees they're included so forty
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dollars is what I pay every month but
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the horizon postpaid plans that seventy
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to ninety for a single line that's just
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the beginning
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you'll pay taxes and fees on top of that
1:00
another thing that distinguishes these
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two is that visible is a prepaid carrier
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so I signed up on October 1st and I paid
1:08
for my whole month of October service my
1:10
next bill November 1st that's unlike the
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big four carriers because usually
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they'll believe after your service
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prepaid service just means that you pay
1:18
in advance and no credit check is
1:20
required next let's talk about network
1:24
coverage as I mentioned for pricing owns
1:26
visible so as you'd imagine you get
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Verizon's network with this service but
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there are a few things you should know
1:32
when I reached out to visible just to
1:34
get some clarity on the network coverage
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I have a statement and I'm going to read
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it to you right now visible rights
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meanwhile visible uses Verizon's network
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we specifically operate on their 4G
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enabled towers so there may be some
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towers on their prepaid and postpaid
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network that aren't accessible to
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visible customers that said we do have
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domestic roaming available through some
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third-party towers which helps make our
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service accessible in some areas Verizon
2:01
4G isn't available
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so that's the bottom line for visible
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really you should know by now whether
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Verizon works in your area and if
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Verizon is the strongest provider where
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you live or if you're with Verizon right
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now visible may be a good option for you
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on visibles website there is a coverage
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checker so you can make sure that the
2:20
coverage will work where you live
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number three call and text performance
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so once you establish that Verizon has a
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strong network where you live you should
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feel pretty confident that visibles
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gonna work out pretty well too and for
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me that has been the case long ago I was
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a Verizon customer the past two years I
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was with the Xfinity mobile which uses
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four reisen's towers and now with the
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visible really I haven't noticed much of
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a difference with the : text performance
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it's been great I've had no dropped
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calls no missing text messages one thing
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to note I have had a few more spam text
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messages than I had on Xfinity mobile so
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what I did is I downloaded the free hiya
3:00
app and that seems to have stopped them
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also with Invisibles native app they
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have a function where you can block a
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sender so you won't get text messages
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from the same sender ever again
3:14
now on to data speeds and there's a lot
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to talk about here when visible first
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launched they kept download data speeds
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to 5 megabits per second when I signed
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up again in October 2000 19 that
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restriction was lifted so what have I
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got in with data speeds well I've done a
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number of tests and now put a link below
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to my blog Michael saves com or you can
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see them all and the average was about
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35 megabits per second download speed
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that's plenty fast to do whatever I need
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and really how you have just basic needs
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I watched YouTube videos I check my
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email use apps those are the main ways
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that I've used my cell phone
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in fact as I've been recording this
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video I just did another speed test
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using the speed test app and the
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download speed was 19 megabits per
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second it's still pretty good now it may
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be a little bit less than Verizon and
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you should know that with visible when
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the network is congested your data is
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going to be slowed down but a lot of
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carriers especially prepaid carriers
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seem to be doing that right now it's one
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of the things to consider before you
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switch number five mobile hotspot and
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you might not expect a $40 cell phone
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service plan to include mobile hotspot
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but visable does and as someone who's
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tested a lot of these plans that is very
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rare in fact the mobile hotspot use is
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unlimited but that data cap of 5
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megabits per second that went away for
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regular data it does exist for mobile
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hotspot I tested this out and I tested
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it out quite a few times when I'm doing
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work from coffee shops and I've actually
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found that the mobile hotspot has been a
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little bit faster than 5 megabits per
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second the last time I tested it it was
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more in the 10 range so mobile hotspot
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unlimited mobile hotspot but it's not
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going to be at blazing fast speeds next
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onto video streaming and this is going
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to be a con for a lot of people with
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visible video typically streams in 480p
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so that standard resolution if you want
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HD you
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can connect to Wi-Fi but visibles
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network it's probably going to be 480p
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now it seems a lot of cell phone service
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providers are also implementing this
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restriction and you have to decide
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whether or not you really need to watch
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videos in HD
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especially on a tiny little phone screen
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for me it's really not that big of a
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deal it comes in pretty sharp and clear
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when I run a test here's what I suggest
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just go to youtube you can easily even
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use my youtube video as an example and
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change the resolution watch it in 480p
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then watch it in 720 HD if you can tell
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a difference and if you can maybe 480p
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is it really going to be a deal-breaker
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for you alright let's talk about the
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phone options and this is an area in
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which visible has made a lot of progress
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when they first launched only some
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iPhones could be brought to the network
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or purchased now they've got a whole
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suite of phones available for sale
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whether that's an iPhone a samsung phone
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or a pixel device like the one that I
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have I purchased the Google pixel 3a for
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about $400 you can also bring your phone
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and including some Samsung devices but
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make sure to go to the website and check
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compatibility first I'll have a link
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below all the information you need about
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that the only thing I've noticed about
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visibles phones that are available for
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sale is that sometimes they go out of
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stock pretty quickly but you can usually
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just wait a few days and the latest and
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greatest phones will be available again
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I have noticed that most of the devices
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for sale are high-end ones not so many
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of the budget phones but in that case
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you may be able to purchase one
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elsewhere if you want a budget phone and
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then bring it to visible one exception
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to that is that visible has its own
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phone that is only $19 and free if you
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traded an Android device it's called the
6:51
visible r2
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time to talk about customer service and
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this is where visible is a whole lot
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different from Verizon and really most
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other cell phone providers visible keeps
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costs down because it has no stores and
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there is no 800 phone number to call for
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support if you want help you can do a
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few things you can talk through live
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chat you can contact them on facebook
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Messenger or ask on Twitter now if
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you're used to walking to a store and
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having a representative do everything
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for you this could be really
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overwhelming and a reason why you may
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not want to switch to visible for me I'm
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pretty tech savvy but not super tech
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savvy yet I felt pretty comfortable
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doing this on my own and what I noticed
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is that visible will really walk you
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through things every step of the way for
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example I ordered my phone on Friday and
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then I've had these emails from visible
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telling me about the next steps on
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Monday I was home waiting for FedEx
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because I had to sign for the delivery
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of the device that I purchased and once
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I inserted the SIM card again this will
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have instructions for all of this it
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took about 15 minutes to transfer the
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data from my old phone to my new phone
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and get up and running with the service
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one word of caution though transferring
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a number you can transfer a number with
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visible and that's what I did the
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process did not take very long but
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visible says on its website that it
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takes an average of about five days to
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port a number so what does that mean for
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you well when you're switching carriers
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don't wait until the end of your billing
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cycle to do so give yourself at least 7
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to 10 business days that way you can
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make a seamless switch and there's no
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risk of you losing your number or having
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losing access to your phone service so
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for customer service really I haven't
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had a need to contact visible payment is
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all done through the app very simple I'm
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on auto pay but I did reach out to them
8:41
to test it out for this review and I
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found that facebook Messenger was the
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best way they're pretty responsive and
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will responded usually a couple of hours
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to your inquiries about all of the
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things you may need help with in my case
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I just ask general questions and
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actually more background information to
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provide a better review for you here on
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YouTube
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number 9 and finally deals and discounts
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with prepaid carriers there aren't those
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amazing phone deals usually like you get
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with the beta for providers because
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you're getting a lower price on your
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cell phone service with visible $40 a
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month however I was still able to get
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$200 off my $400 Google pixel 3 a device
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it comes in the form of a gift card in
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electronic gift card and you have to be
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a member for 6 weeks to get it I'm not
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saying this discounts gonna be around
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forever there's probably gonna be new
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discounts but you should just know that
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visible does offer discounts they're
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pretty aggressive with them and they may
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be 100 or 200 dollars back when you
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purchased a device or transfer your
9:44
number to the service before I go let's
9:48
review some of the pros and cons of
9:49
physical first the pros one simple plan
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$40 a month
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as of October 2009 teen if you're
9:55
watching this a 2020 or beyond I can't
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guarantee that price will stay the same
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but it's still about half the price of
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Verizon unlimited talk text and data
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another big pro Verizon's top-rated
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network for a lot of people that's gonna
10:09
be the biggest factor here unlimited
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mobile hotspot another big Pro and
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frequent deals and discounts that can
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help you save a little bit of money as
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you're starting out with visible now for
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the cons first no physical stores or
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even an 800 number to call up when you
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have problems so customer service you
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know when things are going great you
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don't need customer service and it
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doesn't really matter much to you but
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when you have a problem you really do
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want to reach out to somebody and you're
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gonna have to really think
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carefully about that one data speeds
10:39
they can be slower at times
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then there's the five megabits per
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second speed restriction on mobile
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hotspot and also something I did not
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mention earlier Wi-Fi calling not
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available on all devices it is available
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on some and you can ask about that
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during the signup process finally
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limited Robo call protections and that's
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something I would say is a con for a lot
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of cell phone service providers but you
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can always download the Hyatt app as
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well I've got more on my website and
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I'll link to it in the description below
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Michael safecom has my full review if
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you switch to visible I'm gonna know
11:12
about what you think leave me your
11:13
review and the pros and cons write down
11:15
in the comments below thanks so much for
11:18
watching Michael Timmerman hear from
11:19
Michael saves com