hi

i bought a hk peoples sim card from a 7-11 store back around june 2010. i was wondering if i took it to hk next year around june would it work? and can any1 refresh me on what was the number i dial to top up with those vouchers u get from 7-11? was it *100* or something like that? thx ppl

Normally these sims has an expiry date of around 6 months which might increase as you top up monthly. If you've not used it or topping it up, then I'll guess that the sim will be expired by the time you back to HK. It'll be easier just to pick up another one from 7/11.
Normally when you activate the sim, you get a txt which tells you the number and expiry date, have a look at HK peoples website to see http://www.peoples.com.hk/p_prepaid_mobiledatasim_guide_en.jsp

sorry bro, but the value on the card is valid for 6 months only.

to top up, you can go to any 7-11, and tell them how much you want to top up. like 100 for CSL, or 100 for PCCW. they then punch into the register and out comes a long strip of paper that contains the code and instructions for topping up. just follow that and you're topped off, and the SIM will be valid for another 6 months from that date

These things are so cheap anyways so it really doesn't matter.   I picked up a $60 people with IDD for $55 last month.

It is a shit though when you have a load of girls who you contact and they can contact you, and yet your number keeps changing. one way round is to buy a 20 buck load card, but dont load it. Then, when it is about to expire, call the load through. That would be my only guess unless you know someone here who can caretake it for you...

the problem is, for those like myself who are not based in HK, can you actually load the card while overseas?

i generally come to HK 3-4 times a year, so if the trips are spaced equally, loading wont be a problem as the trips occur before the credits expire. but sometimes circumstances prevent the trip from being equally spaced, hence the SIM expires.

I'm pretty sure you can not load prepaid sims outside of the network so you would need someone to take care of it for you.

There seems to be a real need for phones that can cross the world with simple and cost effective plans.   A phone should be able to have more than one number to it and have functionally at a reasonable price across continents. This should be a good seller if you can do it. A job for apple?  How bout an iTunes store for cheap sims around the world.

ahh my main issue is that ive been giving that number to many ppl in hk back in may. just didnt want to go through the hassle of changing numbers... i woulda thought the credit on the phone would expire but i mean would the sim card work if i bring it back to top up again in may 2011?

also tried loading the hk sim card over here in the uk and t mobile uk came up? lol. tried making a call or txt and everything was barred :3

you can recharge your sim cards online for the one2free CSL cards that you can get in 7/11. Expires every 6 mths so just recharge then

i didn't know these sims can be recharge online. That's rocks!!

all of the providers should be able to top up online.  I did it with my One2Free card over the last year here:
http://www.one2free.com/jsp/prep ... recharge_method.jsp

make sure you do it before it expires (6 months, as mentioned above).

Here in the USA, T-Mobile has a pretty sweet deal - buy a 1000 minute card for $100, then once a year you simply need to top up for only $10 (adds 100 minutes) to retain your phone number.  This is off topic, but will be of use to some of you:  to make myself totally anonymous, 1) I bought the T-Moble prepaid SIM by cash at a Chinatown in Chicago.  You can also do this on EBay, or even at the T-Mobile store but it will be more expensive.   2) paid for the 1000 minute option, by cash, at the T-Mobile store.  When you set up, they don't need any of your personal info - just a name and a PIN code and a birthday date for secondary verification.  3) My top ups are by cash at the T-Mobile store as well.  4) if you don't have a lot of contacts, or any contacts, you can and should switch phone numbers every 6 months or so.  You can even use different area codes around the country.   T-Mobile is the way to go, since they and AT&T are the two main national providers that are on a GSM network.  (Sprint, Verizon and Nextel are not).

Does anyone konw where to buy an adaptor for the micor SIM card being used for the new iphone/ipad
the adaptor to make the micro SIM into a reg SIM ? ...

You can get it in Sin Tat in Mong Kok for a few bucks. It looks something like this - http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2 ... rosim-card-adapter/

I want to get one as I plan to get Three's pocket wifi device - in Golden Computer Centre in Sham Shui Po - which only accepts normal sim cards as I'm going to add an extra service to my mobile account to have unlimited 3G access via my iPhone 4G contact - pay an extra $98 for a micro sim card for the iPad.

Tmobile prepay is the bomb when you are in the USA.  You even have the option of having unlimited nights if you pay 1 dollar a day, and you only pay when you use it for that day otherwise no charge.  Very convenient when I had a mistress and I needed to call her at night to chat for hours for 1 dollar.

i didnt know you could do it online!!! great info guys.

so i went and checked out PCCW, where my SIM is from, and found that not only can you recharge online, their recharge vouchers allow you to recharge from "outside" HK. you can also link up a credit card with the prepaid card so it will recharge anytime the balance falls below a limit or 5 days before expiry.

cool stuff!

http://www.pccwmobile.com/portal ... xt.jsp?fldr_id=8119

[ Last edited by  DaBestHK at 2-8-2010 08:02 ]

6 months seems to be standard - I got an Orange sim in the UK and was told it would expire after 6-months of non-use - eg. not making any calls.

I am assuming by this thread that recharging qualifies as use? Can anyone confirm that?

in HKG, recharging means putting value into the SIM card (or topping up, using the local HK term).

Yeah, I get that. What I meant was, does recharging qualify as using the phone - I got the impression, albeit with a different company in a different country, that to keep the contract alive you actually had to use the phone - eg. make calls or send texts...

It would really suck if you spend money to recharge a card and they close it anyway!