OK, so you have everything in one package for a hefty price. As you can see in the table above, you get a better deal when you add more lines to your contract. A line means a device added, so if you get your whole family on a plan, you get a bigger discount.

Mexico and Canada coverage — you can still use your unlimited talk, text, and some data when north or south of the border. There are a couple of caveats: data is limited to 512 MB per day before being throttled to 2G speeds (around 40 kbps). If for 2 months straight, more than half of your line usage is outside of the US, your service will be blocked.

Just Kids is a brand new offer for 2019. It can only be activated if you pair it with at least one Unlimited line. Kids is basically a cheaper Unlimited that can only call and text with 20 contacts. It has a 5 GB data cap, 480p video cap, and a subscription for the Verizon Smart Family app, which allows you to check location tags and set filters on the content your kids get to consume.

Now, let’s explore the differences between the four plans and discuss the meaning behind them:

5G access — right now, 5G access is free to Play More, Do More, and Get More customers. Start Unlimited users can upgrade to 5G access for an extra $10 per month. When connected to 5G, you get much faster data speeds and you can stream video at 4K and use a 5G wideband hotspot (if your device supports it). The thing is, 5G coverage is not amazing right now, so you should absolutely keep the 4G stats in mind when picking your plan.

Extra devices — of course, it would be rather silly if you had to pay a full line’s price if you wanted to add a smartwatch, tablet, USB modem, or mobile cookie to your lines. Extra 4G devices that are not a phone can be added via an extra data plan. 

Shared data plans: do you need data?

Limited plans let you pick a cheaper package if you don’t want to shell out for an unlimited contract. They let you buy a certain amount of data at top speeds and attach as many phones to that plan as you want.

We’ve got three tiers of data to pick from, but these are for account access only. As soon as you add a phone line to that account, you need to pay an extra $20 per month. So, you can get the 4 GB plan and then add two phones to it. That’ll be $50 for the plan and $40 for the two devices — $90 in total.

Please note: if you are connecting a phone that you bought from Verizon on a 2-year contract (and are still paying off said phone), it’ll cost you $40/mo to connect that phone to your shared data plan.

The shared plans still give you unlimited text & talk, even outbound international texting. The only place they are limited is data — and that limit is shared between all phones that are attached to your plan! If you run out of premium data for the month, you can buy an extra 1 GB for $15, which is rather steep. Unused data does carry over to the next month (for 1 month only, though), so that’s nice.

Shared data plans have 720p video streaming caps and allow you to use the hotspot feature for as long as you haven’t hit your chosen limit.

Essentially, getting a 4 GB limited plan with a single smartphone will cost you $70. The benefit is that you get hotspot usage and a higher video resolution stream. But that 4 GB can fly by like nothing, and adding an extra GB will make this an extra-expensive plan. Instead, you can just get Play More Unlimited and sign up for Auto Pay, bringing its cost down to $80.

Our verdict: The more phones you need to add to your line, the more it makes sense to actually go for Unlimited and look away from the shared data plan. The latter is only viable if it is shared between users that don’t really browse the web all that much (or one user that does, while the rest don’t). And even then, the extra perks of Unlimited (Apple Music, cloud storage) bring extra value where it matters, while the shared plan only offers you data.

5 GB single line plan

OK, so you’re just one person with just one phone that wants just one, simple plan. The 5 GB Verizon plan aims to offer that. For just $60 a month ($55, if you enable Auto Billing), you get:

At $55, this plan doesn’t sound too bad — it has unlimited talk & text as well as outbound international text. It all comes down to how much data you use per month. Because, if you hit that 5 GB limit and need to buy extra data to make it through the month, your total bill will very quickly hit the prices of an Unlimited plan.

Unbound: prepaid plans with no contract

If you don’t want to bind yourself to a lengthy contract, you can always go prepaid. There are no credit checks to worry about, too, and you are always free to jump ship or skip a payment if you are not going to be needing your line for that particular month. You can mix and match these lines however you please, in accordance with you household’s needs!

*shave off $5 per line by rolling in the Auto Pay program (not applicable for 1 GB plan)

Pretty cool, right? But there are a few caveats — every tier here gets video streaming capped to 480p for phones and 720p for tablets. Also, you may experience slowdown in data speeds in congested areas. But, on the flip side, you get unlimited text to over 200 countries and users that are on 16 GB or Unlimited will get unlimited talk & text to Mexico and Canada!

Once you reach your data limit, you get capped at 128 kbps — not ideal but enough to respond to chats. You can buy an extra gig of top speed for $15. Your data will carry over to the next month if you prepay before your billing cycle is up or if you have Auto Pay enabled. You can 

Our verdict: Depending on how many lines you will be using, a prepaid Unlimited plan could cost around the same as a Go Unlimited one. Also, the limited prepaid options seem to be a better deal than the contract-bound limited plans.