Prepaid cell phones in Brazil - Brazilian Experience

Today we will compare prepaid plans of four major mobile operators in Brazil: Claro, TIM, Oi and Vivo.

You will learn the main advantages and disadvantages of each prepaid sim card, so you can make a safe choice when buying your sim card in Brazil. Enjoy!

Claro

Let’s start with Claro. The price of the sim costs R$ 10,00 and can be purchased easily in any Claro’s store or newspaper shops. Prepaid customers of Claro can access Facebook for free, works on apps for Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Java versions.

TIM

The best prepaid plan from TIM Pré 500, you have to call the operator dialling *144 and ask for the plan. You may need help from someone that speaks good Portuguese, if this is not your case, since you will have to go through electronic options on their income call system. With this plan, you have to recharge your phone with R$10 per week, if for some reason you don’t, you’re plan won’t be cancelled. You will have 100 minutes to call to any operator, free WhatsApp and 500MB per week. Its sim card can be purchased easily in any Tim’s store or newspaper shops, it costs R$10.

Oi operator offers 20 days with 1GB of 4G, 600 SMS and 600 minutes of calls to any operator for R$20. For those that use a lot of internet, it’s not a worth plan.

VIVO

You can buy a sim for R$ 10,00 in any Vivo’s store, newspaper shops, among others. There are a few plans options, you will have to see which one fits you better. Vivo Turbo 1,5GB, 50 minutes to any operator, SMS and calls to other Vivo’s number for free per R$39,99 per month. Vivo Turbo 600MB, free calls and SMS to other Vivo’s per R$9,99 per week. Vivo 1,2GB, SMS and calls to other Vivo’s for free per R$19,99 per week. You will also may need help from someone that speaks good Portuguese to call the operator.

Let’s check below the comparison between them without an operator plan:

	CLARO	TIM	OI	VIVO
Calls to other operators	1,07 per minute	2,00 per minute	1,60 per minute	1,41 (during the day) 0,89 (at night)
Calls to the same operator	0,21 per call	0,25 per call	0,12 per call	0,50 per call
Texts different operators	0,50 per day used	0,50 per day used	0,50 per day used	0,50 per day used
Texts to same operators	0,50 per day used	0,50 per day used	0,50 per day used	0,50 per day used
International texts	0,55 per message *National and International messages received are not tariffed	0,99 per message	0,75 per message	0,85 per message
Internet access	0,50 per day (300MB)	0,50 per day (10MB)	0,50 per day (100MB)	9,90 per month (200MB)
DDD calls to the same operator	0,21 per minute	0,25 per minute	0,12 per minute	1,55 per minute
DDD calls to others operators	2,33 per minute	2,10 per minute	2,25 per minute	1,55 per minute
DDI calls	5,99 per minute	4,49 per minute	5,60 per minute	4,50 per minute
Activate international roaming	*468 or website	*144	144 or 1057	*8486
Roaming calls	2,67 per minute	2,10 per minute	1,67 per minute	1,55 per minute
Receive roaming calls:	2,67 per minute	2,10 per minute	1,67 per minute	1,55 per minute
Minimum recharge	13,00	13,00	1,00 (Every month)	13,00
Expiring period of the credit	Don’t expire	Don’t expire	Don’t expire	Don’t expire
Operator number to make a DDD call	021	041	014	015
Number to check your balance	*544#	*144#	804 or 805	*8000
Number to check your own number	*511#	*846#	Not available	Not available

As you can check each company works with different plans, prices and discounts. All fees shown in this article are based on tariffs in Curitiba, Paraná on December 2016. It is subject to change at any time. There may be a price difference between operators depending on the state.

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