I am always looking for ways to cut back on my monthly expenses One of the best things I've done was to drop my postpaid wireless service and switch to Visible's $25/month unlimited data plan

However, Visible has gained some competition courtesy of Comcast The Internet provider already operates Xfinity Mobile, one of the better unlimited data plans, especially when discounts are available for adding multiple lines And now Comcast has announced a low-cost option that rivals Visible's lowest rates

Like Visible, Comcast's new NOW Mobile service offers an unlimited plan for $25 per month This is better than the $40/month unlimited plan that the cable company charges for one line of its Xfinity Mobile service, although there are differences between the two, such as NOW Mobile's speed limit after 20GB of data (Xfinity Mobile's limit is 30GB), The new plan is an option for those who want to reduce their expenses

I am excited about the new low-cost wireless service options available via NOW Mobile, but not enough to convince me to drop Visible in the interim The reasons are as follows

What I like about Visible is that there are no coverage prerequisites, meaning you don't have to have existing service to use it, and anyone can sign up for service online NOW Mobile, on the other hand, is only available to existing customers who have either Xfinity Internet service or the newly launched low-cost Internet service under the NOW brand

Over a year ago, when I still had Xfinity TV and home Internet service in my apartment, it was fine, but when Xfinity was not available in the area where I bought my home, I switched to Verizon FIOS, a Verizon-backed Visible service is available to everyone, and this is a major difference between the two services

Not everyone needs or wants home Internet service, but it does not help those looking to save money to have to use an entirely different service to use NOW Mobile (The reason NOW makes this requirement is to take advantage of Comcast's network of more than 23 million Wi-Fi hotspots

Another reason I've been using Visible for the last year is that they are one of the few service providers that offer customers the option to add data communication services to wearables and smartwatches I used to use Mint Mobile and found their service to be incredibly reliable and speedy, but unfortunately they did not offer data communication services for wearables

This was one of the annoyances I felt when I briefly used Xfinity Mobile, and I thought it would somehow be available with NOW Mobile, but it was not While most people might be satisfied with just a Bluetooth connection between the smartwatch and the phone, I'm not sure how useful it would be to have dedicated cellular service on my Apple Watch Series 9 My Visible service allows me to make and receive calls directly on my Apple Watch, even if my iPhone 14 Pro Max is not nearby, for a $5/month add-on

As excited as I am about NOW Mobile's cheaper cell phone plans, Visible still can't be beat when it comes to long-term savings That's because of Visible's new annual plan, which essentially means customers pay for a year's worth of service up front For example, Visible charges $275 for a year's worth of service, but the standard fee for 12 months of a $25/month plan is $300 If they choose to pay annually, they would save $25, or about $23 per month

Sure, the savings may not be enough to cover the best streaming services around, but there's a photo editing app I'm passionate about, and I'm going to use what I save on Visible for that

All is not lost with Comcast's NOW Mobile service Why is that? It's access to the 23 million Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide, as already mentioned In densely populated states like New Jersey and New York, you will usually find an Xfinity hotspot when you are out and about

It's convenient to use the high-speed connection for sending large files or streaming content It's also handy when I suddenly find myself in a cellular dead zone Still, it's not enough to make me abandon Visible