Shipping a US sim to Thailand

[ChiFlyer]

I live in Thailand most of the year, but (unfortunately) have to make a trip to the US in September. I have a dual sim iPhone. The primary esim is set to AIS. I want to put a low cost US sim in the secondary slot. I also want to have this ready to go as I exit US customs.

I have settled on Red Pocket as a good low cost (no contract) wireless provider. I will have them ship the sim to my US mail forwarding address and I will send it on to Thailand. Red Pocket says that there should be no problems activating the sim from here in Thailand. They also say that I should not have any problems shipping a US sim to Thailand.

I realize that Thai Customs is a crap shoot at any time, and that they have gotten worse during the pandemic (a need to supplement revenue I suspect). Has anyone ever shipped a US sim to Thailand from the US?

tia,

CF

[pasta man]

I don’t know about shipping sims, but if you need an alternative, you can get a short term international roaming package from AIS and then you have Internet when your feet hit the ground and then pickup a local SIM card at your convenience. 15 days with 7GB costs 962 baht (+tax?). Oddly, the Internet is routed through Thailand which might or might not be be a concern for you.

[ChiFlyer]

21 hours ago, pasta man said:

I don’t know about shipping sims, but if you need an alternative, you can get a short term international roaming package from AIS and then you have Internet when your feet hit the ground and then pickup a local SIM card at your convenience. 15 days with 7GB costs 962 baht (+tax?). Oddly, the Internet is routed through Thailand which might or might not be be a concern for you.

Good backup plan.

[Buddy Edgewood]

Would Google Voice be a better (and even cheaper) option for you?

[ChiFlyer]

32 minutes ago, Buddy Edgewood said:

Would Google Voice be a better (and even cheaper) option for you?

I use Skype. I suspect that Google Voice, like Skype, requires that one is on a wireless connection. I am looking for a cellular service that I can use when not connected to the internet.

[ChiFlyer]

I received a Red Pocket US sim via DHL the other day. I put it into my dual sim slot on my iPhone XS this morning. It turned up without incident. Red Pocket has a sim initiation via the web process that is used to activate the sim. I will not do that until July. My plan is to initiate it at their lowest rate ($10 a month) and then just before my trip to the US in September upgrade to the $30 a month rate.

I found Red Pocket support excellent to deal with. They promptly answered all of my questions with well focused email replies. I shipped the sim to my Texas based mail forwarding service and then forwarded that to myself here in Thailand. No problems with customs.

The sim is free, but there is a $10 shipping fee. My mail forwarding fee was an additional $15 and that was using my once a month reduced charge. So far, there was no import fee from Thai Customs.

I do not begin paying a monthly charge until after I activate the sim. There is no time period as to how quickly the sim has to be activated.

 

[ChiFlyer]

I activated the Red Pocket sim tonight. I will pay $10 USD a month just to keep a heart beat going with it. After some light testing here in Thailand, I plan to turn the sim off in Settings until just before I travel to the US in September.

The activation process was straight forward enough, but I did have some problems with the post-activation setup. One is required to make a phone call and to send a text. Both failed. After a while I realized that wifi was turned off for this sim. I turned it on and both worked.

There is also an APN configuration step that is required. This is not working and I have an email into their support group, who tend to be pretty good.

 

[Roadglide]

Yo can always swing by a T-Mobile store and pick up a prepaid sim for about $20, and then chuck it once you return to Thailand.

They have great plans for prepaid and over 50 folks

[ChiFlyer]

14 minutes ago, Roadglide said:

Yo can always swing by a T-Mobile store and pick up a prepaid sim for about $20, and then chuck it once you return to Thailand.

They have great plans for prepaid and over 50 folks

A good backup plan for sure, but I want to step off the plane and flick a switch. We shall see.