Sun Visor Phone Holder: What to Check on Your Visor and How to Set One Up

A sun visor phone holder clips to the visor and brings the phone down on an arm, so your visor decides whether it works. Before you buy, check the visor’s thickness, what is already on it, the space around it, and whether the visor still swings with a holder on. A visor holder suits passengers and time spent parked, and cars where the glass, dash and vents do not work for you.

We sell a sun visor phone holder, so read this as a shop’s notes on its own listing plus what people say online.

When a visor holder makes sense

Two people on Reddit describe the needs behind it.

• One person who lives in their car wrote that they usually balance the phone on the steering wheel to watch TV, but cannot recline the seat without straining their neck. The same person wrote that they had tried many ways to sit the phone, including having the sun visor pinch it against the roof, with no luck.
• One driver in Florida wrote that they had tried four windshield mounts and that they eventually fall off after a few months in summer heat and sunshine. The same driver wrote that vent clip mounts were unusable in their cars because of their positioning.

Neither of them used a visor holder, so these are needs and not results. The first is a high viewing spot for someone who is parked. The second is a mounting point that does not depend on the glass or the vents.

What a visor holder looks like

Our listing for the Articulated Visor Clip Phone Holder says this visor phone holder combines a large upper clip, a jointed arm and a compact phone clamp. It says the black clip has an arched handle and a round adjustment knob beneath its mounting bar.

People search for this product as “car visor phone holder”, “visor phone holder”, “cell phone holder for car visor” or “sun visor cell phone holder”. They all mean a holder that clips to the visor and carries the phone below it.

Check your visor before you buy

The listing says a sun visor phone holder needs enough mounting clearance for both the clip and the device. It says to check visor thickness, clip opening, phone-with-case width and clearance.

Turn those into four checks in your own car.

1. Thickness. Pinch the visor where the clip would go. Compare how thick it is with the clip in the product images.
2. What is on the visor. Look for a mirror, a light or a card strap where the clip would sit. Choose a spot that leaves them free.
3. Movement. Swing the visor down and across to the side window. Check that a holder on it would not stop it.
4. Your phone. Measure the phone across its width with the case on, and compare it with the clamp in the images.

Set it up in order

The listing says to set the holder up while parked and to position the arm so the holder and phone leave the driver’s view, controls and visor operation clear. It also says to confirm the clip is secure and the phone clamp engages the device without pressing its buttons.

1. Park first. Fit and adjust the holder with the car stopped.
2. Clip it on. Seat the clip fully on the spot you checked.
3. Set the arm. Bring the phone down to where you can see it without covering the road.
4. Seat the phone. Close the clamp on the phone and check that it is not pressing a side button.
5. Check everything. Nudge the phone, move the visor, and look at the road from your normal seat.

If the only spot the arm reaches covers part of the road, the visor is the wrong place for a driver’s phone. Our dashboard placement guide and vent phone holder guide cover two other places.

Quick answers

Does a sun visor phone holder fit every visor?

It depends on the visor. Compare the visor’s thickness and the space around it with the clip before you order.

Can I still use the sun visor with a phone holder on it?

Check before you rely on it. Swing the visor down and to the side with the holder on, and move the holder if it gets in the way.

Is a visor holder for the driver or the passenger?

It can serve either, as long as the phone stays out of the driver’s view of the road. Rules on where a phone can sit differ by place, and our guide to whether a phone mount is legal in your car covers how to check.

Where to go next

Browse the visor phone holders, or read how to choose a car phone holder by mount type.