prepaid phone buy locally in manila?

[satances 5]

hello!

bit of a weird situation here, bear with me. im currently helping a close friend (i'll call him A) leave the philippines (dual citizen, travel stuff is taken care of). a mutual friend of ours is there now, visiting A and leaving with him next week. A has a phone with no SIM card and therefore no phone number or calling ability, in addition to that his phone is quite old and hardly functioning. A lives in mandaluyong and can't drive, but our mutual friend who is visiting the area and helping him can use the grab app. before A leaves the country, we want to get him a working smartphone so that he can complete the necessary COVID forms and requirements to leave the country, many of which require apps and a valid phone number. we're trying to figure out if there is a way we could, within the next week (preferrably ASAP!!), we could get a prepaid phone with a working phone number, no contract or anything. unfortunately, A is in an unhealthy house situation in which he can not frequently leave his home and hasn't had to do this before, so he is unsure of places that would carry such a thing or how it would work. we're having trouble finding solid information online about what stores do and don't carry these kinds of phones, and i don't want to send our mutual friend on a wild goose chase for no reason. any tips on what to do would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

[hunny&me 272]

Hello.  First, you can have no cellphone and still leave the country.  No online forms to fill-out.  But for assurance, you can buy any used phone anywhere, everywhere - open line..  These stores also sell prepaid sim card.  TM for one.  Then just load it up with prepaid money, the store can load it too.  When you leave the store (a tiangge or a mall, anything that has phone displays!), you have a working prepaid phone line.  You then use your load to buy services like 3-day internet (so he can use messenger or other internet apps).  There are plenty pkgs that the phone line offers.  Example for TM, just dial *143# and it will show the menu.    Hope this helps!

Edited March 21, 2022 by hunny&me

[satances 5]

For this airline, there are a number of forms that are required to be completed online related to COVID testing and contact tracing. The forms require phones because they require QR codes to be shown at testing and when departing, and they also ask for phone numbers in the forms themselves. I don't want there to be any issues with this...

Apologies for how clueless I am with this, none of us are really familiar with this process, step by step explanations would be very apprciated if possible. Are there any specific stores or malls? 

My mutual friend actually did get a SIM card upon arriving, but was told it would only have internet capabilities and no phone number or calling capability, which is weird and kind of defeated the purpose of why we needed it... sorry, I know this is a rather confusing game of telephone. Thank you for being patient with me ^_^;

Edited March 21, 2022 by satances

[hunny&me 272]

Hello.  Anywhere, everywhere.  All malls. SM, Ayala Malls, etc. Just ask for cellphone section.  Even tiangge (flea markets) have them. It is very common in Philippines for bargains, and electronic/cellphone sections are hard to miss. Pic is sample of stores found in flea markets.  If you want no bargaining prices, malls have them, including sim.   They will even guide you how to use it, load it with money to use for calls/data.  What data/calls to subscribe.  Your friend will be alright and will be successful in getting one.

Edited March 21, 2022 by hunny&me

[seekingthetruth 1,240]

10 hours ago, satances said:

a mutual friend of ours is there now, visiting A and leaving with him next week.

The mutual friend is traveling with him and does not have a smartphone either?

 

Can I assume that A is a senior and not very literate on phone technology?  If so, even if you get him a phone, he might not understand how to use it, with such a short time to learn.    Can't the mutual friend cover the phone needs?  Is the mutual friend also a senior?

 

As others alluded, in the Philippines everyone has smartphones and they are sold everywhere.  And the pre-paid SIM cards are available everywhere including tiny mom and pop Sari Sari stores every 10 feet.  The vast majority of Filipinos use pre-paid SIMS.  As far as I know, they all have a phone number.

[MarryMe987654 244]

12 hours ago, satances said:

hello!

bit of a weird situation here, bear with me. im currently helping a close friend (i'll call him A) leave the philippines (dual citizen, travel stuff is taken care of). a mutual friend of ours is there now, visiting A and leaving with him next week. A has a phone with no SIM card and therefore no phone number or calling ability, in addition to that his phone is quite old and hardly functioning. A lives in mandaluyong and can't drive, but our mutual friend who is visiting the area and helping him can use the grab app. before A leaves the country, we want to get him a working smartphone so that he can complete the necessary COVID forms and requirements to leave the country, many of which require apps and a valid phone number. we're trying to figure out if there is a way we could, within the next week (preferrably ASAP!!), we could get a prepaid phone with a working phone number, no contract or anything. unfortunately, A is in an unhealthy house situation in which he can not frequently leave his home and hasn't had to do this before, so he is unsure of places that would carry such a thing or how it would work. we're having trouble finding solid information online about what stores do and don't carry these kinds of phones, and i don't want to send our mutual friend on a wild goose chase for no reason. any tips on what to do would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

Hello,

If A can't leave the house, you might want to consider buying the phone,  sim card, and load (peso amount used for sms, minutes and data) online. Lazada and Shopee has plenty of smart phone available and they deliver. Just be mindful on the delivery dates.. but some might be able to deliver in 2-3 days. Hope this helps!

[top_secret 2,284]

If the issue is simply filling the relevant online forms and getting some QR codes needed for departure, one could just drop by an internet café and print whatever they need for a few pesos.  The Philippines does indeed seen to have some strange fixation with QR codes lately but they can just as easily be on paper as on a phone.

[satances 5]

11 hours ago, seekingthetruth said:

The mutual friend is traveling with him and does not have a smartphone either?

 

Can I assume that A is a senior and not very literate on phone technology?  If so, even if you get him a phone, he might not understand how to use it, with such a short time to learn.    Can't the mutual friend cover the phone needs?  Is the mutual friend also a senior?

 

As others alluded, in the Philippines everyone has smartphones and they are sold everywhere.  And the pre-paid SIM cards are available everywhere including tiny mom and pop Sari Sari stores every 10 feet.  The vast majority of Filipinos use pre-paid SIMS.  As far as I know, they all have a phone number.

A and mutual friend are all young adults who know how to use phones just fine, A just has no experience physically going and buying a phone and everything. i mentioned earlier his unhealthy living situation - he's been forcibly sheltered from leaving his house often since he was a child, and this is one thing he just doesnt have much experience with. mutual friend is going to handle it! we have a week, he's gonna shop around on A's behalf to find one.

 

thank you everyone for your suggestions! fingers crossed that everything works out and my friend is able to leave safely ❤️

[RO_AH 1,648]

Getting a cell phone and a prepaid SIM in the Philippines is about as easy as buying rice, They should have no problem.

[Carpe Vinum 2,327]

On 3/21/2022 at 6:02 PM, top_secret said:

If the issue is simply filling the relevant online forms and getting some QR codes needed for departure, one could just drop by an internet café and print whatever they need for a few pesos.  The Philippines does indeed seen to have some strange fixation with QR codes lately but they can just as easily be on paper as on a phone.

My wife had hers on the phone and I printed them. I don't think she showed her phone to anyone. This was PAL.

[satances 5]

thanks all for your suggestions and help! phone was secured and all went according to plan, both made it to the US with no issues! thanks again!