Singapore Expats

I need a cheap mobile phone. I will be in and out of Singapore in the next few months and I wouldn't want a contract.

How does the mobile phone service work, is it a sim card pay by call proceedure, or do you need a contract?

Anyone have any idea how much it would cost to buy a cheap phone, and get the cheapest service available so that I would be able to use the phone for the next few months.

thx

How much is your budget? For as little as $100, you should be able to get a export phone without waranty. Since you will be in and out, local plans will not be useful, hence a prepaid card will be good enough. You should be able to get one less than $50.

With your information, a cheapest service plan will end up like $30 per month, is it worth over 3 months paying more than $90? Certain calls can be made at the airport before you check out which is free.

Hope this is helpful.

cheapest service (since the last time i checked) would be starhub prepaid - they have a 50c/day unlimited incoming (you text to enable/disable this function).

they also charge calls by the second instead of blocks of X-seconds.

cheap cell phones can be found all over the island - you could ask the nearest stranger or concierge where the nearest "HAND PHONE SHOP" is.

good luck and be sure to haggle. stick to your budget too!

if you got an unlocked mobile fone, you can use that in singapore. just get yourself a prepaid sim card only. only need to top it up when you are running low. prepaid are valid for 6 months without a top-up.

all the mobile SP are pretty much the same on their rates for prepaid. the SP are...

www.singtel.com.sg
www.starhub.com
www.m1.com.sg

a sim card only cost about S$10 and you get some free credit in it too. you will need your passport to purchase a sim card only.

Biggest drawback with prepaid here in Singapore is the balance is only valid for 30days. When I was using top-up and really just wanted to use the phone very rarely I used a Thai SIM card and prepaid card with the balance lasting for 12 months from purchase. That was cheaper for me than continually losing my balance after 30 days.

no way 30 days balance validity... it's like 6 months IIRC.

(unless they've changed it... but i was never told!)

I used the Singtel Top-up Hi Card and the balance lasts for 30 days, unless you re-top up and it gets rolled over. If not it disappears! lol

my starhub prepaid balance is still valid after topping it up during a visit to singapore over a month ago.

this might be evil singtel at work.

Thaiclan wrote:I used the Singtel Top-up Hi Card and the balance lasts for 30 days, unless you re-top up and it gets rolled over. If not it disappears! lol

singtel hi!card prepaid last for 6 months from last top-up. you need to get the normal top-up card, not the hot$128 or BONUS$30.

here's a t&c from singtel..

"hi!Card must be topped up every 180 days. Otherwise, your hi!Card will be de-activated and the value in your hi!Card will be forfeited."