Visible’s new annual plans cut the price on a full year of service

Visible has just launched its first annual plans, letting customers lock in a year of mobile service all at once for either of the company’s two tiers. The Verizon-owned prepaid carrier is charging $395 per year for its Visible Plus plan, which it says leads to annual savings of $145. The standard Visible plan runs $275 per year, and in that case, you’re only saving $25 compared to the monthly rate.

For now, annual plans are only available to new Visible customers and not existing users. Even once they do roll out more widely, it’s worth thinking twice if you’ve got a discount code applied to your Visible Plus plan. Many people are only paying $35 / month for the normally $45 service. And if you do the math, you’re only saving $25 for the year by paying ahead of time. Is that worth losing the freedom to jump to another carrier at any time?

The core Visible plan offers basic unlimited data and includes mobile hotspot functionality (though it’s throttled to 5Mbps). The primary benefit of stepping up to Visible Plus is that you get “unlimited premium data on Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network.” That means whenever you see the 5G UW icon in your phone’s status bar, you’re getting the best speeds possible.

On regular 5G and 4G bands, you’ll receive 50GB of premium, full-speed data each month before you could potentially be deprioritized and slowed down. There’s also faster mobile hotspot performance, free smartwatch service included (a $10 value), and better international coverage on Visible Plus as compared to the cheaper plan.

The biggest frustration with Visible Plus, however, is that the company throttles video streaming to SD quality even when you’re on 5G UW. As someone who switched to the service a few months ago, I do occasionally run into and feel that silly restriction — and I’m too lazy to skirt it with a VPN. But if you’re not someone who watches video on your phone a ton, I’ve found Visible to basically match the reliability and overall experience of the postpaid Verizon account that I finally ditched after many years. I’m one of those people paying the discounted $35 per month for Visible Plus (taxes and fees included), and it continues to feel like a pretty great value.