Offer Summary

Visible’s phone purchase promotions (all phones are unlocked) all require porting in a number. There are three main options:

  • Buy a new phone and port in (for example, the latest iPhone; bonus of a $50-200 Mastercard gift card. If you use code 3NNH6PW, 3MPTMFM, or 3M6D3FQ, both parties get $20 off the first month).
  • Port in without buying a phone (bonus of a $100 Mastercard gift card, Save2021, plus $20 off the first month, potentially making it profitable after portal cashback).
  • Trade in an old phone for a new phone and port in (SWAP: trade an unused phone you have at home for a new one, usually shipped via Fedex overnight) [currently no gift card bonus].
  • The carriers eligible for port-in on Visible change over time. Please rely on the real-time information shown on the checkout page. You can also try selecting the underlying carrier used by an MVNO and then use that MVNO’s Account and Pin to attempt the port-in.

In addition, there are sometimes extra physical freebies. The same purchase strategy can often be reused for different models and stacked with various promotions and discounts to get an iPhone at a very low net cost. Note that each new purchase requires registering a new Visible account; otherwise, you may not receive the bonus, including shopping portal cashback.

As for cashback sites, the best current options are:

[2023.1 update] The iPhone 14 + AirPods deal is back. TopCashback is offering $53.55 cashback.

[2022.11 update] Black Friday promotion: buy a phone with port-in and get up to a $300 Mastercard gift card. Combined with TCB $63 cashback, this is basically a moneymaker deal. For example, the SE 3 costs only $329, with $300 MGC + TCB $63 back; iPhone 14 also hit a historic low price with a high rebate ($300 MGC + $63 TCB). See the Visible page for details.

iPhone 14 also came with a $300 Mastercard gift card + Beats headphones, which was also a very good deal.

[2022.10 update] Feel free to use the blog’s referral code going forward ($10 for the first month of service):

  • Author’s: 3NNH6PW, 3MPTMFM, 3M6D3FQ, 3mnthb
  • Readers’: 3MNC3D7, 3sls6Z, 3nnpWr
  • Visible’s promotion code generally allows only one code per order
  • After use, both parties receive one month of $20 off (applies to the first month)

Visible is a Verizon-owned wireless carrier that sells phones and offers a Prepaid Plan. The cost is $40/m, or $25/m with PartyPay (grouping up with friends). Payments for its Prepaid Plan and online phone purchases can both trigger the AMEX wireless credit (note: this was previously stated incorrectly). Normally there isn’t much to talk about, but when the latest unlocked iPhone SE launched, Visible introduced an interesting Deal.

The phone is the latest iPhone SE, and the plan runs on Verizon, so this is the unlocked version.

  • Port in your old number and keep service for at least two months, and you’ll receive a $200 Master eGC rebate

The terms require that you be a new customer porting in an existing phone number, and you must keep service for at least 8 weeks (2 months) before the $200 Master gift card is issued by Email.

New members must port in their current phone number from another carrier in order to be eligible for this promotion. Virtual accounts will be delivered within 8 weeks of meeting the promotion’s requirements. Virtual accounts will be delivered in the form of an activation code sent to the email address listed in the member’s Visible account profile.

Visible offers many iPhone models. If you prefer another model, you can follow the same approach when buying (for example: iPhone 11) and still save quite a bit.

Maximizing Cashback

The original $200 Master gift card is already attractive. But we can optimize further by stacking a Shopping Portal and the AMEX wireless credit, bringing the net cost of the 64G iPhone SE down to under $140. If you don’t have a number available to port in, Google Voice is the best option (abbreviated below as GV), and the cost to unlock GV is $3.

Note: TCB is not always the highest. You can check Cashbackmonitor for the best Shopping Portal.

TopCashback Cashback

No need to overthink it: choose whichever portal is paying the most. [Based on the discussion above, it is currently RebatesMe 15%.] When the order ships, remember to check the tracking record. In our testing, cashback posted as soon as the phone shipped, and $38.4 tracked correctly.

Chase/BofA Offers [available from time to time]

  • Buying a phone, porting in, and paying the phone bill can all trigger them.

[Updated 05/15] A targeted Visible $35 off offer has appeared via Chase Offer and BofA Deals. Stacking it can bring the cost down to $125. So far, this offer has been seen on Freedom and CIP (3x UR on phone services). The offer expires on 2020/06/14. One important note: when paying Visible, Chase cards often do not go through either, YMMV. HT: az, HJ, and WeChat reader Sky. In addition, TCB has a small extra deal for another $3 off; see this 101 update.

The offer may appear on Freedom or CIP. Image courtesy of reader Sky.

Party Pay

If you join Visible's Party Pay program, as long as all 4 people in the group are Visible users, everyone only needs to pay $25 per month for service.

Party:

AMEX wireless credit

Buying a phone on Visible's official website and paying for prepaid service can both trigger the credit. In the best-case scenario, we count both the phone purchase and two months of service!

Final cost summary

Since this is a prepaid plan, you can use it for only 2 months if you do not like it; if you do like it, it may be worth keeping. Calculated based on using it for only two months, excluding taxes and fees, if everything works well, the cost of buying this 64G SE is:

  • Phone cost: $384
  • GV unlock cost: $3 (this may also trigger streaming credit)
  • AMEX credit on phone/service purchase: -$20 (or get $35 off directly on the phone purchase via Chase/BofA Offer)
  • TopCashback cashback: -$38.4
  • Master eGC rebate: -$200
  • Party Pay cost for two months: $25*2=$50
  • Wireless credit: -$20*2=-$40

Final total: 384 +3 -20 -38.4 -200 +50 - 40= $138.6. If Chase and AMEX do not work at checkout (most people cannot use them), you will need to switch to PayPal, and you may still need to use a non-AMEX credit card. In that case, the final phone cost would be about $158.6. You may consider using PayPal + BOA123 for 3% online shopping. [Note: one reader in our WeChat group was able to use an AMEX Platinum; everyone else including the author had no luck.]

If you have a Chase/BofA Offer, the cost would be $123.6.

Also, according to data points from WeChat readers 31岁童颜大叔 and 天地之间, you can buy it with Master/Visa gift cards. If you are good at MS, being able to use those is a huge win.

How to buy

Next, we will briefly walk through the steps:

Prepare a number for port-in

You need the number's Account Number and PIN. The Account Number is often the phone number itself, though it varies by carrier. You can get these from your current carrier's customer service. As long as the number is activated, it can be ported into Visible. Since the most convenient method, Google Voice, is no longer available, the carriers currently supported are listed here:

Buy the phone

  • Go to Visible's website through the cashback portal with the highest payout.
  • Select Shop. You will see the iPhone SE listing below. Then choose Pay Today $384! (Do not pick the wrong one—the option on the right is financing, and if you are not getting any upside, you may also get a HP.)
  • Then remember to select Keeping your number.
  • If it is GV, choose Others for Carrier.
  • The Account Number is your GV number, and the PIN is the Voicemail PIN mentioned above.
  • Payment screen: note that this payment is for the phone purchase. You can first try a credit card with Chase Offer or BofA Deals ($35 off), or an AMEX Platinum card ($20 wireless credit). If the charge goes through, it can trigger the credit. You can also use Master/Visa gift cards to pay (HT: our readers 31岁童颜大叔 and 天地之间). If the card does not go through, first log in to PayPal in your browser, then click Visible's PayPal checkout. In the future, you can also use your saved payment method to pay the monthly bill, though of course we want to maximize the AMEX wireless credit. [Based on testing, only a small number of people can use AMEX successfully, including via PayPal. Visible may have blocked AMEX credit cards for phone purchases from most IPs; the reason is unknown.]
  • After the purchase succeeds, just wait for the confirmation email. It still states that you must pay the second month's bill before receiving the rebate. It also includes a phone case that Visible claims is worth up to $60 (Speck Cases).
  • Shipping: delivery is via Fedex overnight. Since payment approval is the main hurdle, orders that go through generally arrive the next day. Good luck. After placing the order, it shipped out the next day.
  • TCB also tracked quickly; this company is quite solid!

Porting another number

If you want to port in a number from another carrier, the process is basically the same. Get the carrier's voice PIN, address, ZIP, and other information, and fill it in during checkout.

Activation and use

Port-in rules may vary by carrier, so make sure to ask and do not miss the SIM activation window for the new card.

Activate the phone

A few things to note:

  • The app and SIM card must be used on the same phone. If there is no signal after inserting the SIM, try restarting the phone or toggling airplane mode.
  • There is an Activate option in the app for activation.
  • During activation, you can change or add a Payment method—do not forget. If you do not change it, the default will be the payment method used to buy the phone.
  • It is not recommended to activate in a very remote area with weak signal.

Join Party Pay

Visible has a group plan option that lets you keep enjoying the $25 monthly prepaid plan. See the official introduction here. After registering, you can start your own Party or join someone else's. Simply put, it is like adding friends to use Visible together, even if you do not know each other at all.

  • Note that only the holder of an activated SIM can start or join a Party.
  • You must have a 4-person Party to get the $25 rate for the second month, so do not join the wrong one.
  • There’s also a dedicated Reddit thread for people looking to form groups: click here to visit
  • If you can’t find group members, you can also start a group in our comments section. Once your group is full, please leave a note. Let’s help each other out～
  • New users can use code "VIS20" for the first month to get service at $20/m. That gives you plenty of time to join a group before paying for the second month. If you do not join a group, the second month will cost $40

Paying the wireless bill

Note that everything above is about buying the phone, which requires a one-time payment upfront. After activation, you can set your AMEX Platinum credit card as the payment card to trigger the wireless bill credit.

Is Visible worth keeping long term?

This phone plan runs on Verizon. The monthly cost is actually quite low, though it can only be used within the U.S. With a four-person party, it costs just $25 for unlimited everything, so it’s a solid option for long-term use. The only downside is that there is no 2G/3G network, so in certain places you may end up with no signal at all. HT: reader Qi, reader Mr.Black, reader Kuro

Visible also supports Wifi-Calling. In places where you have no signal but do have Wifi, you can use Wifi calling with essentially the same effect as having full signal, including while in China.

Data is unlimited. After activation, we tested the speeds. The two tests below are from author BY, and the speeds were still very good:

If you’ve also used Visible, feel free to leave a comment and share your experience～

Redeeming and using the rewards

Whether it’s the $100 or $200 Master gift card, you need to pay for the second month of service before qualifying. Visible will send a code to your email, and you can click to redeem it from the homepage.

You can see the redemption page from your account homepage
After paying for the second month, redeem using the code in the email

Closing the account and what happens to the number

If you’re only doing this for the phone or the reward, you need to cancel service before paying for the third month. The official instructions for canceling service are here.

You can change the number, or ask customer service for the Account and PIN, but it doesn’t explain how to cancel directly. The author contacted online support, and customer service said you can simply reach out to them directly to close the service.

Before canceling, if you still want to keep the number, you can consider porting it to another carrier or turning it back into Google Voice. The cost to port in to GV is $20. If you think porting in to GV is too expensive, while the Plan is still active, you can use this number to go get a new Google Voice number.

After canceling auto-pay, you can basically just leave it alone afterward. See:

In any case, if you joined someone else’s group, it’s best to let them know that you’ve left. That way they can find someone else and keep the discounted $25 monthly price.

Summary

This deal is really a great one! Of course, you still need to spend some money to buy the phone, but $125, $140, or $160 should be among the lowest prices available anywhere online.

Shipping is amazingly fast after you place the order. KUKU hadn’t even finished writing the post before the phone had already shipped out. When the iPhone SE2 first came out, it sold out almost instantly from people jumping on this deal.

If you’ve already jumped on this deal, feel free to leave a comment and form a group to get the $25 monthly price~

Group information

Everyone is welcome to form groups in the comments section! There are two ways to join a group:

  • Search for a Party name through the App or website and request to join the Party.
  • Apply by clicking the Party link shared by the group leader.

Group leaders should specify whether the group is long-term or short-term. Long-term means ongoing use, while short-term means leaving after two months of service just to get the deal. Head to the comments section to start or join a group.

Ways to buy an iPhone at a lower price

There are actually quite a few methods. Here are some we’ve covered on this site:

Stocking up on Apple gift cards:

Phone deals tied to porting your number with some carriers: