# prepaid sim card



## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I recently got a Banamex account, because I wanted to be able to pay bills electronically. I didn't have a cell phone with a Mexican number when I got the account. It's been suggested here that it's useful to have, the suggestion was to use an old cell phone (which I have) and get a prepaid sim card and just never make any calls on it but leave it at home and use it for text messages.

It turns out that Banamex almost requires that you have a cell phone. I've gotten into my online "bancanet" account with a web browser, but all the functions I want to use are disabled until I get a netkey. The choices for that are to get a special key fob from the bank or register a cell phone. 

So I tried to get a sim card. I ran into a device unlock problem on my old phone, which I am working on separately.

My question is (after all that): where do I get a sim card that won't expire? The ones the telcel shop offered had various amounts of pesos I could put on it, but the guy there said they all expire after 30 days. The sim card itself cost only 30 pesos, what a deal. But I don't want to be having to recharge the card every month, even if they had a very low amount I could add, like 20 pesos. I basically want to buy a phone number and just use it for text and data.

Is there some other provider that I should try? Or something I need to ask for specifically? Or was the guy incorrect about the expiration of the pesos on the sim? 

(I didn't end up buying the sim because my phone wasn't unlocked for it, but I hope to have that part fixed in 48 hours when my whitelisting comes through).


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

Telcel chips used to last up to 6 months if you put sufficient time on them. I wonder if this is still the case, but that the guy said it expires after 30 days because he was assuming you’d be putting the minimum on them*. The less you recharge, the sooner it expires.

*If this seems weird, I’ve had shop people in other contexts tell me something wasn’t possible or wasn’t available because they were making unwarranted assumptions – it seems to be a common thing.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

We have 2 cell phones. One has a Telcel prepaid plan (no contract) and we pay 199 pesos/month. The other has AT&T plan (mas I think). We paid 4500 (or so) pesos for 24 months of service. (pay for 12 months get 12 months free). We have never had an issue with our internet usage etc. The amounts we pay never deviate. Sometimes we are places where reception quality differs on the two carriers.

We use key fobs for most of our Mexican bank accounts, and I prefer that over the phone app which we have for one account. The fob is so straight forward and it always works. Some banks are no longer issuing fobs. The bank app wants you to navigate differently based on the type of transaction. I've already had one phone stolen.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I had selected the 200 peso prepaid card, but it looked from the chart that he showed me like all the plans expired after 30 days. That's a bummer to hear, I thought I could just buy something that wouldn't have a recurring subscription charge.

As far as having the phone stolen, having a second phone wouldn't increase my risk, because I'd be leaving one of them home. I might even get in the habit of taking the old phone (with the mexican sim) when I go out, since I'd have telcel coverage everywhere, vs my newer US-number phone where I have to rely on wifi or roaming.

OTOH, a security fob would certainly get left home. Well, if it comes down to it I can afford another 200 pesos/month, but I'm stingy and didn't want to have to pay that.

Thanks for the replies


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

eastwind said:


> I had selected the 200 peso prepaid card, but it looked from the chart that he showed me like all the plans expired after 30 days. That's a bummer to hear, I thought I could just buy something that wouldn't have a recurring subscription charge.
> 
> As far as having the phone stolen, having a second phone wouldn't increase my risk, because I'd be leaving one of them home. I might even get in the habit of taking the old phone (with the mexican sim) when I go out, since I'd have telcel coverage everywhere, vs my newer US-number phone where I have to rely on wifi or roaming.
> 
> ...


Honestly, the Mexican Telcel Sin Limites plan is hard to beat anywhere.You get unlimited calling and texting to anywhere in Mexico, Canada and the US, and data amount depending on the amount of money you put on it. I can call my friends and family in Canada and yak for hours on the 150 pesos I put on my phone every 3 weeks.
I can't understand why people who live in Mexico want to keep their out of country number.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

surabi said:


> Honestly, the Mexican Telcel Sin Limites plan is hard to beat anywhere.You get unlimited calling and texting to anywhere in Mexico, Canada and the US, and data amount depending on the amount of money you put on it. I can call my friends and family in Canada and yak for hours on the 150 pesos I put on my phone every 3 weeks.
> I can't understand why people who live in Mexico want to keep their out of country number.


I agree. I have an AT&T Plan. I pay for it two years at a time. It gives me unlimited calls to the US, Canada and Mexico and 4 GBytes of data/month. And the total cost is 4188 for a monthly cost is 174.5 pesos.


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