3 Perks You Didn't Realize Come With Verizon Home Internet Plans

Verizon continues to reign as one of the most well-known cell service providers in the U.S. Even if you don't use Verizon per se, you might be using one of the affordable phone carriers piggybacking on its network. Some may not be aware that Verizon has also been an internet provider for quite some time. It's had a fiber-optic service since 2004 under Fios, and in 2018 added Verizon 5G broadband home internet service. Now it's rubbing shoulders with giants like Cox and Comcast. Despite being one of the dominant providers, Verizon still offers a few noteworthy perks to draw in new customers.

It's important to note that these perks aren't always unique to Verizon. In some cases, they're quite common in the industry. Things like reduced-cost plans, multi-year price locking, and cheap bundles if you get your cell plan and internet together. Keeping that in mind, here are some perks Verizon home internet plans come with that you might not have known about.

Unless you are a light internet user, data caps can really suck. Especially in a household of people individually scrolling social media, streaming 4K media, and downloading games — and doubly so if anyone works from home. Even the "soft" kind of data cap (where your speeds are quietly reduced once you use up your cap) can make even light internet usage a true pain. Luckily, Verizon plans don't have that. Neither the 5G Home nor Fios plans enforce hard data caps, though Verizon may limit or restrict service if customers misuse it for commercial purposes or other high-bandwidth activity, like running a server.

Data caps used to be more common until U.S. politicians went after them during the pandemic. Now, Verizon has a lot of competition in that regard. Providers like GFiber, AT&T Fiber, and more offer this perk. Nonetheless, this is absolutely something you want so your internet doesn't suddenly charge you for going over your limit when, say, your son decides to download his entire Steam library at the beginning of your cycle.

We collectively laughed when streaming services overtook cable in popularity and convenience, only for streaming services to laugh at us when they became the very thing they sought to destroy. They're prohibitively expensive for many people, their fractured content availability forces you to subscribe to more services if you want That One Show, and their "cheapest" plans now include ads. It's a mess. Subscribe to Verizon, though, and there are some subsidized subscription options for you.

You have a bunch of options here. Get $20 a month off YouTube TV for 6 months, or pay $62.99 a month compared to the normal $82.99 a month plan. You can subscribe to an ad-supported combination of Netflix and HBO Max, or an ad-supported combination of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, for $10 a month apiece. There are also perks for Apple One subscriptions, Apple Family Music, Verizon Cloud Storage, Google AI Pro, and more. Note that some of these plans, like YouTube TV, don't work on an existing account.

Verizon isn't the only one to offer subsidized streaming service perks. Spectrum, for example, will offer several major streamers like HBO Max and Disney+ for free. Xfinity also has its own packages for HBO Max, Netflix, and Apple TV. Our recommendation? If you have multiple service providers in your area and no other benefit is swaying you in a single direction, then choose the service that offers the best subsidy for the streaming service you want most. The savings from subsidizing your streaming plan could add up to hundreds of dollars over the years.

At the top of your list of questions when vetting potential internet providers are probably two things: whether you're going to be chained down to a contract, and if you have to cancel your previous service before switching, whether the new provider will help you pay the termination fee. Verizon has no-contract plans and will cover a certain amount of early termination fees for competitors' plans if you join.

Verizon Fios and 5G Home Internet plans do not have annual contracts. We should put a big asterisk next to that, though, because this is no longer extraordinary. Many services, including major ones, don't force you to sign on for years of service. You can thank the FCC for this, because its war on junk fees — and growing consumer distaste for them — seems to have scared ISPs away from them.

Verizon also offers up to a $500 credit for you to pay off any early termination fees when switching to its service. We'd note, however, that the language — "up to $500" — doesn't guarantee "it will pay $500." Definitely hash that one out before signing below the dotted line. And again, there's some nuance here, with competitors like T-Mobile doing the same and legislators weakening companies' abilities to even charge termination fees in the first place. If you signed up for an internet plan in recent years, it's possible you may not even need to pay one.