Re: Where to buy a telcel amiga card

by oatsie Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:04 am

CanuckBob wrote:No.

There are several apps in the Play Store.

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=mobile+recharge+app&c=apps

Which one (exactly) do you use?

by CanuckBob Wed Sep 28, 2022 7:42 am

OK, when I go into the Playstore it does say it is by "Miron Enterprises". When you open the app itself it says a different corporation....go figure? Anyhoo, you have found the right one. Once setup with your payment info it takes just a few seconds to recharge your phone. It will even send reminders when it is time to recharge.

by ferret Wed Sep 28, 2022 7:56 am

Not to add to the confusion but this is what I found out yesterday. IF you choose to go with purchasing a Mexican Telcel plan online from another country so you can have service immediately on arrival, you do NOT have to renew with them. You can either trot into an Oxxo store, give them the number and pay for whatever plan you want (see telcel.com for Amigo plans and duration) or use the app provided by CBob. Either way is MUCH cheaper than renewal... unless, of course, you've got money to spend unwisely.

by mudgirl Wed Sep 28, 2022 11:55 am

I don't understand what you are saying here, Ferret. As l mentioned before, I was in Canada last year and this for more than 30 days, which is the maximum a Sin Limites plan is good for. I bought that original paquete at an OXO before leaving Mexico, so of course it had to be renewed while I was in Canada. Last summer I was easily able to do that simply by dialing *133#, choosing the paquete I wanted, and charging it to my Canadian credit card.

This summer it was rejecting my card number, I don't know why (haven't had a chance to go into the Telcel office and find out yet). So I just called a friend in Mexico and asked them to go to OXO and put another 150 peso paquete on my phone and paid them back on my return. It's really not all that complicated.

by ferret Wed Sep 28, 2022 12:41 pm

It is NOT information for ME or other people that have access to Telcel availability in Mexico. I was informing the person who contacted me via private messenger who does not have that access. They wanted to know how to have instant Telcel service on their cell phone when they arrived late at night for a VISIT from Canada. I provided the web site.
That information came from a person who drove down from Canada recently and is now Temporal but made the mistake of renewing through the same website at the exorbitant price of $150 Canadian dollars for three months. I was trying to point out that just because you bought the sim card through a website does not mean that you have to renew with them (and continue to pay through the nose).

by mudgirl Wed Sep 28, 2022 1:49 pm

Ah, I get it. But I will point out that someone arriving in Mexico late at night and therefore not going to an OXO to put time on their phone only has to use the *133# number to buy a paquete or do it through the Telcel website. Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't see any reason at all to buy or renew through a third party app.

by CanuckBob Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:56 am

How does the *133# work? Are you connected to a live operator who take your CC info? Is it in English?

by mudgirl Thu Sep 29, 2022 9:59 am

No, it's just options displayed on a screen. The first screen that pops up has options as to what you want- to know your saldo, to buy an Amigo paquete, etc. You enter the number of the option (1-4). Then it takes you to another screen, with options of time and $, then another screen that asks how you are paying, you hit "tarjeta" and then you'll get a phone call, but it's just a recording asking you to input your card number. At no time do you talk to anyone, it's all automated, and yes, it's all in Spanish, but easy to figure out, unless you don't understand Spanish at all.
In any case, just dial *133# yourself and walk yourself through it, just hang up after you listen to the recorded message asking you for your CC number. It's easy.

by ferret Thu Sep 29, 2022 10:03 am

I think that only works if you already have a Telcel sim card installed in your phone?

by mudgirl Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:32 pm

I would assume so. I don't know how else they would apply the credit to your phone. And without a Telcel SIM card, the *133# dialing probably wouldn't even go through.
So for the person who arrived at night and needed Telcel time, if they didn't already have a Telcel SIM card, they wouldn't be able to do that. But they could have just used their US or Canadian provider if they needed to make a call before getting a Telcel SIM, no?

by CanuckBob Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:37 pm

And there is an OXXO in the parking lot just on the other side of domestic arrivals where you can usually get a sim card and minutes.

by ferret Thu Sep 29, 2022 12:44 pm

Yes, they could have. In both cases, they should have waited but they didn't know any better. Now, anyone reading this thread does know better. I think it comes down to not understanding or speaking Spanish... and, compared to cellphone rates in Canada, they were not put off by the cost and rolled along merrily with the convenience of arriving in Mexico with a functioning Telcel phone number and all achieved in English.
I really LOL when I remember having to buy Telcel Ladatel cards to be able to use at the occasionally working Telmex phone booths in Mexico when we first arrived. They were always located at the noisiest intersections as well.
Convenience is convenience anyway you look at it.
Mexico has come a LOOOONNNNGGGG way in that department in the last 26 years.

by mudgirl Thu Sep 29, 2022 1:07 pm

Haha, yes, I well remember the Ladatel cards and you're so right, the phone booths always seemed to be in the noisiest places. And when I first started living here, you had to go to the local caseta to make a long distance call, waiting your turn, and the connection was often bad.

Many travelers just don't understand how to deal with having phone service in another country and don't do much research about it before traveling. My very first Airbnb guest, back in 2016, had paid her phone provider in Denver $40 to be able to have her phone work in Mexico. But despite changing settings to what they had told her to do, it wouldn't work. I asked to see the instructions they had given, which were on a small card, and right away saw the problem- her provider was partnered with Movistar, which doesn't get reception here in Sayulita.
Now I send non-Mexican guests info re having a phone connection here.

These days so many people use whatsapp that travelling really doesn't need to be a phone issue. But I found that my Canadian friends who never travel internationally don't use whatsapp and don't even know what it is.

by ferret Thu Sep 29, 2022 1:42 pm

Whatsapp is only the BEST way to communicate via either telephone OR message from anywhere in the world! I found out about it from my stepson who used it to communicate from Toronto to Thailand with his daughter when she was travelling there about six years ago. I use it to call all my stepsons and granddaughters in Canada and find that the clarity of the call is way better than using either a regular landline or a cell phone to call from Mexico.
Both parties must have the app installed on their cell phone for it to work.
Free, you can't beat free.

by mudgirl Thu Sep 29, 2022 2:19 pm

Well, nothing is really free- they mine your data. And it's owned by Facebook, which I don't really like giving any business to. But it sure is a useful thing. I can call my 91 year old stepmom (who is totally tech-savvy) in England, which I couldn't do before, we just had to email or Skype, which cut out a lot.

While I normally find the whatsapp calls to have really clear reception, they don't work very well for my daughter in Baja for some reason. She just doesn't get good reception on them like she does if I call her on Telcel.

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