How to get Philippines tourist SIM card?

It’s convenient to buy a SIM phone in the Philippines to network easily or make emergency calls. While you can find fast wifi connection in countries like Thailand, Singapore or Bali, the Philippines is not going to offer you the wifi as fast as you want. Therefore, it is essential to equip sim phones when visiting the Philippines! Let’s discover How to get Philippines tourist SIM card below.

Why should you buy sim phones in the Philippines?

• Get lost and you need GPS.
• Find tourist information.
• Reservations
• Need to contact people overseas
• In case you need to book a hotel or make an inquiry about availability

Where can you buy a SIM card in the Philippines?

When landing off the airport, don’t forget the first and necessary thing to do is to find the place to buy a SIM phone, these following places are highly recommended.

Airport

You can easily find many counters selling SIM cards at the airport. The price here is quite more expensive but not too pricey. Purchasing one at the beginning will save you a lot of time when you are heading to a city afterward. In the Philippines, there are almost no credit card payments. Additionally, there are few ATMs as well, so when you head to a city, make sure you get enough cash until you visit the next city.

At any stores by the road

Shops of SIM cards in the Philippines are ubiquitous. You can buy in any small market or roadside shop, and it will soon to see TNT, Globe and Smart advertisement signs.

In a phone shop in the city

The Philippines has many shopping centers, shopping outlets, and phone stores. Filipinos learn English at a young age when they go to school, if you can’t find your way, don’t hesitate to ask someone and they will direct you to the nearest phone shop.

Phone sim card supplier in the Philippines

In this country there are two major networks:

Smart

Smart is one of the two leading network providers in the Philippines with over 70 million customers, using all three of its brands: Smart, Sun Cellular and Talk ‘n Text. Their prepaid cards are always on sale on every street corner, and you will see their sign. The starting price is around 40 pesos, there is no credit on the card, but there is 30MB promotion used in 7 days and 35 domestic messages.

The recharge is also very easy, can be done anytime, anywhere, using electronic charging system. The seller will use a special SIM card (retailer’s SIM) to transfer/recharge your account. The minimum charge is PhP15.

Globe

Globe includes Tatoo (Globe’s leading mobile sim card), Touch Mobile – also known as TM, ABS-CBN mobile, Cherry Prepaid. This is the only competitor of Smart in the Philippines, with over 40 million users. Globe’s prepaid sim card is always available on every street corner, at a cost of 40 pesos. Recharging is easy at the Globe’s selling shops across the Philippines, for P10 or more.

In the Philippines, there is a long controversy which is better: Globe or Smart?. At most locations (outside Manila), only one operator is used. Smart, for example, is used in Boracay. While in Baguio City, the Globe is stronger than the Smart. If you need to use sim cards at a certain location, ask the locals to opt in, but do not ask anyone who has contact with the vendor at the counter because they just want to sell the product. It is better to ask the hotel staff you are staying in.

How to use SIM card?

• First, you buy the SIM card from the supplier. You can choose either Globe or Smart. The average price for a card is about 40 PHP.
• If you need a data/ 3G, you will buy a prepaid phone card then buy data on top.
• If you run out of data, you can buy more data or just add credit at the phone stores.

Read more Philippines travel guide at here.