[Expired] Money-maker: American Airlines miles + profit with Visible Mobile

Update: The $200 offer has been extended to 11:45pm Eastern time on 2/3/22. This might get cheaper yet with promo code 2FOR22. See more below within the post. YMMV for sure.

Are you the owner of a Verizon prepaid line or two? You might be able to parlay that into 2,000 American Airlines miles and Loyalty Points and maybe $150 in profit with a great stack at Visible Mobile, a prepaid carrier that runs on the Verizon network.

Visible Mobile: 2,000 American Airlines Miles (link) or more through a portal

The American Airlines AAdvantage Shopping Portal is offering 2,000 miles for new Visible Mobile service. Here are the terms at the time of writing:

Please note these terms & conditions: Rewards are only eligible for new Visible customers. Eligible on one (1) per loyalty account number. Monthly payments are excluded from reward eligibility. Rewards eligibility requires a port in of an existing mobile telephone number from a bona-fide carrier. You will only be eligible for rewards after Visible has confirmed you have activated Visible service and have maintained service continually for at least 60 days. Customer accounts subject to Visible’s terms of service and privacy policy. Rewards may be added to your account in accordance with site and program rules, but will not be processed until all stated conditions are met. Not eligible on purchases made with coupon or discount codes that are not found on this site.

Note the requirements: you need to port in a number and keep service for at least 60 days. You also need those things for the next parts of the stack.

Note also that it says you need to port “from a bona-fide carrier”. For those wondering whether porting a number from Verizon Prepaid to Visible Mobile (since you may have recently opened a Verizon prepaid line under this now-dead deal), the answer is yes. Visible lists qualifying services on this page and there is a note at the top that says that both Verizon prepaid and postpaid customers qualify for port-in promotions.

Unfortunately, it seems this will only work once per American Airlines loyalty account. That’s a bummer for those with multiple Verizon prepaid lines, though the consolation prize is that at the time of writing Capital One Shopping (open to anyone) is offering $30 back on Visible service, as is Rakuten. You have options.

Visible $200 gift card “Bring Your Own Device” offer

This is the pot-sweetener that makes this deal worthwhile whether or not you’re getting American Airlines miles. Visible is currently running a promotion to get a $200 Gift Card of your choice (options include a virtual Mastercard Gift Card, Amazon, Lowe’s, Best Buy, Hotels.com, Southwest, and more) when you bring your own device, port a number from an eligible carrier (yes, Verizon prepaid counts), and maintain service for 3 months. See all promotions on this page (the bring your own phone promo is the first one listed). Note that some pages on the Visible site seem to be out of date and mention a $50 gift card, but I can confirm that it showed a $200 gift card in my cart and all the way through to the final checkout (though you don’t receive the gift card until you complete 3 months of service).

The most expensive price for the cheapest plan is $40 per month, but that is reduced to $25 for the first month. At most, you’ll pay $25 + $40 + $40 = $105 and you should receive a $200 gift card and 2,000 miles. However, there are several ways to improve on that deal and turn it into a money maker of more than $100.

Keep in mind that this promotion is set to expire at midnight tonight (i.e. after 11:59pm on 2/2/22), so you need to move quickly for this (most generous) part of the stack. Update: This offer has been extended until 11:45pm Eastern time on 2/3/22.

I’ll note that I did do a Visible Mobile offer a while back that included both a gift card and earbuds and the whole deal went smoothly.

Here are full terms of the BYOD offer:

Offer disclosure: New members who (1) purchase a qualifying device or bring their own, (2) transfer their existing phone number from an Eligible Carrier within 14 days of transaction , (3) activate their Visible service, & (4) complete 3 full months’ service payments, are eligible to receive up to a $200 virtual gift card, redeemable via a promo code, which is valid for a select offering on https://www.visibleoffers.com.

Device & promo eligibility is subject to change. Specific gift card values are limited to a devices’ displayed gift card value at time of transaction, as found here. This promotion is fulfilled through a 3rd-party, Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc., and may be subject to additional policies and terms.
Limit 1 virtual gift card per member per device . The promo code is itself not a gift card and has no cash value. Promo code and redemption instructions will be emailed to the member after qualification. While supplies last. Limited time offer. Can only be combined with other Visible promos where indicated.
Visible reserves the right to change or terminate this offer at any time. If Visible, in its sole discretion, determines that a member has engaged in abuse, misuse, or gaming in connection with this offer, or that the member intends to do so, Visible reserves the right to disqualify the member from this promotion.
Gift card vendor list is variable and subject to change. Gift Card redemption promotion code is valid for redemption with third-party for 30 days. Valid for up to 12 months; unused funds will forfeit after expiration date. Gift card to be fulfilled digitally; physical cards will not be issued. Gift card vendor-specific terms and conditions may apply; see gift card for additional details

Chase Offer for Visible Mobile: $25 back on $25+

There is a targeted Chase Offer out for Visible Mobile that’s good for $25 back on $25 or more. I have used this offer in the past and didn’t find it on any of my cards, but my wife currently has it on her Chase Ink Business Cash card.

This offer would reduce the cost of Visible service to about $70, making the $200 gift card offer nicely profitable.

Party Pay to decrease cost further

Visible Mobile offers something called “Party Pay” where you can join up with friends and family to pay less (more details on this page). A party of 4 or more people costs each person $25 per month. The nice thing is that each person still has his or her own account and pays for himself or herself. As I understand it, the party continues to pay $25/mo as long as there are 4 or more people in the party. There is an entire reddit forum for people looking to join a party.

It sounds pretty straightforward and Visible even mentions that you can join up with friends or family or an Internet stranger (and they mention the VisiblePartyPay subreddit right on the Visible Mobile page, so this is something they encourage).

Dropping the monthly price to $25 means your net cost would be $75 without the Chase Offer or $50 with the Chase Offer. That’s a really nice little profit for low effort, particularly for people with Verizon prepaid lines about to expire anyway. Even without the Chase Offer, turning each Verizon line into a $200 gift card for $75 might be appealing. The terms of the $200 gift card offer suggest that it is one $200 card per person per device. I’m not completely clear on whether that means someone with multiple devices can get multiple $200 gift cards, but many carriers allow for multiple devices for a single person/account, so YMMV.

You can also get a month of service for $5 when referring friends. I don’t know for sure whether you can stack a referral code with the $200 gift card deal which is why I didn’t try that. If it does work, the deal could be even better.

Will 2FOR22 stack?

A couple of readers asked whether promo code 2FOR22 would stack with the $200 Gift Card promotion. This promo code gives you the first two months for $22, making the net cost of 3 months just $47 without a Chase Offer.

At first, I thought it might not work because it wasn’t listed on the American Airlines portal and indeed it may not stack with the 2,000 American Airlines miles since I don’t see that promo listed on the AA portal. However, I do see the 2FOR22 promo code listed on Rakuten, which is offering $30 back or 3,000 Membership Rewards points. That drops the net cost to almost nothing. If you were earning that as cash back, that would drop your net cost to $17 for 3 months of service and a $200 gift card.

Note that each portal seems to indicate that you can only do this offer once through that particular portal.

Note that there is also a referral promotion, but I expect that likely won’t stack with a portal and as such the portal rewards (especially if combined with 2FOR22) would be worth more.

Want to port your Verizon number? It might be kind of a pain.

I have only done this so far with one Verizon number and it took me longer than I’d like to get all my ducks in a row.

The first step will be registering for a My Verizon account. Unless you somehow created a PIN during the purchase process or you got a text message with a PIN after setting up your new number, you’re going to have to register for a new PIN and My Verizon account. I think you will need a device in which you can use your Verizon prepaid SIM and you will need to download the My Verizon app. From the app, it is relatively painless to register your account provided you have access to text messages on that prepaid SIM.

I had a lot of difficulty because I had a number of phones that I thought were unlocked and yet I couldn’t get any of them to work with the Verizon SIM. My Google Pixel 4a 5G is unlocked, but I was hard-headed about putting the SIM in my main phone when I thought I had a bunch of other (old) compatible devices. Once I put it in my Pixel and downloaded the My Verizon app, it was fairly painless to set a PIN and find my account number in the security settings (it isn’t your phone number with Verizon — my account number started with the letter A).

I entered that account number and the PIN I set up this morning on Visible’s site to port the number. So far, that looks good to go.

On the Visible side, you have to “check compatibility” with the device you intend to bring to Visible. For some reason, despite my Pixel being compatible with Verizon, the system kept saying that my IMEI was not compatible. I got the same message on the other Android phones I had lying around. Eventually, I chose the option that I was bringing an iPhone to Visible rather than an Android phone and I chose a late model iPhone from the drop down and Verizon from the carrier list. At that point, Visible recognized that it was compatible and did not require me to enter an IMEI. Just be sure that on the next page you choose to receive a physical SIM (they will overnight it) rather than using an eSIM unless you really want to go through the process of downloading the eSIM (and you know you have a phone compatible with eSIMs).

The biggest pain point ended up being the Visible Mobile site. It crawled along and errored out repeatedly. However, I eventually got my order through and I’ll call it a win if everything comes through.

Bottom line

Assuming you go the party pay route, after taxes and assuming you have the Chase Offer, your net cost for 3 months of service, a $200 gift card of your choice, and 2,000 American Airlines miles / Loyalty Points should be about $50. That’s a great deal on its own, but it is even sweeter if you previously got most of the cost of your Verizon prepaid line rebated by a Chase Offer or Amex Offer and you weren’t planning to do anything with the line anyway. Overall, I’ll be pretty happy if this works as expected. Now on to the next line . . .

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