www.CostaRicaTicas.com

After I purchase my SIM card at the airport what are the options for refilling it? For instance can I do it by telephone and credit card, or maybe the internet and credit card, or go to the nearest ICE office? If it is the ICE office, what is the nearest location to the SL? Is it walkable in the morning?

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Play Safe

I don't know if you can recharge by phone, but you can definitely buy a recharge card at any ICE office. The closest one to SL would be Sabana Park.

ICE office one block from Gran Hotel off the walking avenue. Walk from Presidente towards Gran Hotel and go left at hotel right at end of square. Cross 2nd Avenue and it is on the left about 100 feet down. Don't wait in line, walk in to the right and there is a desk and you can buy them for 2,500, 5,000 pr 10,000 colones

I refill mine at the airport at least 3 little shops in the san jose airport !!!

Green Giant, it's very simple. I went to the Mas por Menos DT, went to the utilities payment booth, paid 10.000 and recieved a reciept with a 14digit code. I dialed 150, press 1, entered the code and presto, my cell phone was recharged.

You can access customer service via 150 by pressing, "5" and a live, English-speaking person will help you.

NOTE: the time period for renewal goes from the day you input the code, not from the original expiration date. For example,

If you renew on the 1st, and your expiration date is th 15th, the new renewal with either be 30,45 or 60 days from the 1st, not the 15th.

Hope this helps,

David

You can recharge witha cc by dialing 150 or, another in-person option, you can pay for a top-up at any Musmani bakery. There is one of those on Ave Central near the Hotel Presidente.

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

I'll be back on Tuesday to prove the following:

Left a few weeks ago & talked with the little gal at the airport. Here's the answers I got:

Arrive with a quad-band UNlocked phone.

Pay c5000 for about 37 minutes of talk time to the US (don't know how much in CR)

Recharge at mas x menos, ICE OR via internet at www.masterpago.com (you will only need to enter your newly-assigned phone number)

As I understood her, you can also give them a cc & it automatically recharges (I'll confirm next Tuesday)

If you don't pay your bill you'll lose your number. HOWEVER, you have TWO months to take care of it & since you can manage it by internet it shouldn't be an issue.


This appears to be much better than getting a phone in San Jose for a couple of reasons. In San Jose you must prove you bought the cell phone in Costa Rica & paid the taxes (for my little novia, I brought her a new phone from the US & ultimately wound up buying a black-market receipt to get it turned on).

The Motorola flip phone is available at Newegg for $79 with no shipping charges & I got it three days later.

ICE now has a 3g network. Note that my Motorola phone (on AT&T in the US) quit working in August in CR. I got a new iPhone with 3g & it does not work in CR (no service) either. The iPhone guy at Mall San Pedro told me he could jailbreak the phone to make it work. There's lots of pros & cons relative to jailbreaking the Iphones, loss of apps, etc. I ultimately decided to just buy a 2nd phone for CR, call my US/AT&T voicemail every day & return the calls on my new ICE phone. For me it's the K.I.S.S. approach. I will, however, miss a few of the apps I've come to like like the GPS features.

On the other hand, I won't have a $700 cell phone in my pocket, but rather a cheaper, throw-away.

Any questions, let me know before Monday & I'll ask on Tuesday.

/dddick

Thanks, good info. I didn't know you can recharge online. No need to leave the SIM in CR for somebody to recharge every 2 months.

Here's a direct link (the site is all Spanish): http://www.masterpago.com/productos/ind ... roducto=40

That's correct. They recently changed it. You can buy any recharge amount over ¢2500 and it expires in 60 days. The ¢2500 SIM/recharge still expires in 30 days.

For ¢5000 SIM, you get about 150 local minutes (peak), a little more if you talk off-peak. And texts are like ¢1 each off your balance.

Thanks for posting the link. I didn't know that you could recharge over the internet. That is a nice option that I know will come in handy for me!

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

According to this site, you can recharge any amount ¢50 and up, it doesn't have to be in multiples of ¢2500, like when you first buy a SIM.

All recharges over ¢2500, give you 60 days before they expire. Under ¢2500, expire in 30 days.

So technically, it sounds like you can recharge for ¢2501 (less than $5), and and keep your SIM active for another 2 months.

If you have need an iphone jailbroken and unlocked I will be happy to do it for you provided it can be done. I will be in CR till March 3.

What ever you do don't upgrade the firmware to 3.1.3

Bill

I was hoping I'd now be able to recharge online from the States, but by the following post it sounds like recharging online gives you a numerical code (like the scratch off cards) that would have to be entered into the phone while in CR?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32815

If that thread is correct (and they are only selling the prepaids to tourists), then there is really no need to recharge phone while in the states. When you get there, just get a new SIM card.

The upside to getting a new SIM each trip is that only chicas you give the number to will call you. No nagging chicas from past trips will be able to annoy you.

So when you get your first sim card at the airport kiosk, do you have to tell them you want a refillable one vs. a prepaid one that cannot be refilled?

Also, I assume that when you purchase a sim card, they give you the tel # associated with it at point of purchase?

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Man I'm living life like a great white shark swimming with minnows! It's all about panocha, great scotch, fine cigars, loud-ass rock music and speed, speed, speed - plus spending as much time as possible in paradise on earth, Costa Rica!

All the prepaid sims are refillable provided they have not expired for too long.

They will give you some paperwork with the SIM, The number will be on it. Also most phones will read and display the number on the SIM.

Bill