Clark Howard

Hey, Verizon customers: 4 ways to cut your wireless bill by 60% to 75%!

You can save up to 60% or 75% on your monthly cell phone bill while still enjoying the same service from your current cell phone provider…
Here’s how!

The Big 4 have secret discount brands

AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have long had secret sub-brands for price-sensitive customers.

AT&T has Cricket Wireless, Sprint has Boost Mobile and T-Mobile has GoSmartMobile.

Price points generally start around $25 to $35 a month for the same towers and the same service you could pay a lot more for.

RELATED: 5 things you need to know before switching to Cricket Wireless

Like Verizon service? Total Wireless offers it cheaper

Tracfone has a new service with Verizon called Total Wireless. This hidden gem is basically Verizon's sub-brand.

Total Wireless offers the same service, same towers — the same everything — you’re used to with Verizon.

But it comes at a price you’re unaccustomed to from a Big 4 wireless carrier: $35 a month for unlimited talk, unlimited text, and 5 GB of data.

All with no contract…for the same towers and the same service as the name brand!

Now with 4G!

When money expert Clark Howard first talked about this service last year it had a catch: It would only run on Verizon’s 3G network. That was a deal breaker for many people.

But no more! Total Wireless is now 4G too!

“It’s the best service available for people who want to be on Verizon’s network,” Clark says.

With Total Wireless, you can typically use the same phone you currently have from Verizon as long as you’ve completed your contract with the carrier.

Xfinity Mobile: Pay from zero dollars to $12/month for Verizon service

If you really want to reduce what you pay but still have Verizon service, there’s a new play in the marketplace that you need to know about.

It's called Xfinity Mobile and you must have internet service through Xfinity in order to sign up for this offer.

Xfinity Mobile plans, which runs on Verizon’s 4G LTE network, operate on a freemium business model.

That means you can get unlimited nationwide talk and text and 100 MB of shared data for free — with no line access fees on up to five lines.

Need more data? Just connect to Xfinity’s 18 million free Wi-Fi hotspots for additional data needs.

The net result is that it’s entirely possible to pay zero dollars a month for this service if you’re a light data user!

If you decide you want access to more cellular date in your life, there are two monthly data options to choose from:

  • By the Gig: $12 per GB of shared cellular data across all lines
  • Unlimited: $45 per line on up to five lines; speeds reduced after 20 GB

So there you have it; you can skate for free with the freemium data lite offer of 100 MB of cell data and piggyback off free Wi-Fi hotspots when you need more. Or you can pony up $12/month and have at least 1GB of monthly cellular data for when you’re on the go and maybe can’t access Wi-Fi.

Either way, this is a really cheap option!

There is one caveat though: Unlike Verizon, Xfinity Mobile doesn’t allow users to bring their own phone. That’s still in the works.

In the meantime, Xfinity Mobile sells more than a dozen smartphones on its website — including the iPhone 8 or X and the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+.

For an in-depth review of Xfinity Mobile, check out this article by Clark.com writer Mike Timmermann. He received no compensation to write an unbought and unbossed review of his experience on the $12 plan so far.

Visible: Get unlimited data on the Verizon network for $40/month

Here’s a new option for cutting your Verizon bill down to size…

Visible offers unlimited data, messages and minutes in the U.S. for just $40 a month.

This is a new company that runs on the Verizon network and is actually owned by Verizon, yet it runs independently of its parent company.

In that sense, it's similar to Cricket Wireless, which is owned by AT&T and offers service on AT&T towers while operating independently of Ma Bell.

Here are five things you need to know about Visible:

  1. Visible is only set up for unlocked iPhones at this time. So if you're an Android person, you're out of luck with this one.
  2. Everything is done through the Visible app, including customer service and paying your bill. There are no physical storefronts.
  3. You won't be penalized for being a data hog. The only time you'll be slowed down is during times of network congestion — not because you scarf up too much data.
  4. Download speeds are limited to 5 Mbps.
  5. This service is currently in beta, so you'll need an invite code to sign up. Get yours at bevisible.com.

Prepaid plans from Verizon starting at $40 for 3 GB

Finally, if you want a little more simplicity in your life without having to always chase free Wi-Fi, the fourth way Verizon customers can lower their bill is with the introduction of a couple new prepaid plans.

3 GB for $40

Plus unlimited talk and text in the U.S., carryover data with on-time payment, mobile hotspot and unlimited international messaging to more than 200 countries.

7 GB for $50

Same as above. With this tier, you get more than twice the data of the lower priced plan for only $10 more.

10 GB for $60

Same features as above, plus unlimited calling to Mexico and Canada thrown in. So you get more than triple the data of the $40 plan for only $20 more each month.

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