Cell phone Sim cards for use in Brazil and the CPF etc:

[HiThereAll]

Brazil cell phone Sim cards and the CPF etc:

Huge topic that I cannot resolve here. Any assistance more than appreciated. There are many posting for recent advice via:

How to Buy a Brazilian SIM Card & Stay Connected • I Heart Brazil

www.iheartbrazil.com/brazil-sim-card/

This website seems to have the best information as of now (late 2022).

Combined with my lack of full success, here is what I know:

Buy a SIM card from some place: kiosk, drugstore (if they sell them) or an official office of one of the big companies. Perhaps, kiosk guy will offer to add the CPF, if so, pay him immediately !!! Well worth most any cost !!! My kiosk guy thought I was BR and did make the offer. When the SIM card of 12GB for 29.99 R$ stopped working after 48-72 hours another guy was working the kiosk and sort of said tough luck buddy. The official company office will add your passport information, so yes, bring your PP. Needed as foreigners likely do not have a CPF number or official ID card with this information. (The CPF also provides many discounts when shopping, again, not available to those without it. Yes, it is very difficult for a foreigner to get a CPF on a short visit  – would require another topic set of postings). And yes, seems only one of the very few true company offices can do this. In Rio, for Claro, there is one at Rio Sul Shopping Center. I went to the actual company HQ on Pres Vargas in centro, adjacent to a M stop. What a cluster – after 2 hours only thing resolved was the addition of my docs to my sim based new Rio phone number – and only so long as the phone number is active ! Briefly, I was told in PT that my 30R$ only bought a SIM and absolutely nothing else, despite me showing them the packaging re 12 GB of data. They then said the balance was 0 GB. I accepted being ripped off for 30 R$. After watching them sell many SIM cards at this office, they told me there was a “problem” that could not be resolved at their own HQ store and they could not sell me a new sim card to add data to my cell phone (this alone took them about 20 minutes). Have you ever had a bad experience with a government agency in your home country? That is what happened here. They said I should buy the original card at the official company store along with providing PP at same time. Then at various times told me to buy original sim card at kiosk 10 meters away or a nearby drug store, bring the sim in with my PP and have them activate it. Each person gave me a different story and even the same people gave me different replies minutes apart. Two people spoke some English and tried in their own way to be helpful, but in the end they were not helpful. Surprisingly, even with Her Majesty’s passport which has lots of English and French, the woman who spent 15 full minutes typing in all of my information (also insane) insisted that every word we spoke be in PT. Insanity to the max.

The sim seemed to function fine for another 48-72 hours, then stopped and I received some messages via text in PT with non functional links from Claro.

Went to a drugstore to “top up” or buy data GB - but they did not sell the data plan cards, etc. No one had any clue as to what 10 or 20 etc R$ would actually provide for me, besides 30 days of service. I paid 10 R$ at the register and in minutes data worked. But no idea how much data was available to me. I had 3 calls with an old friend, perhaps the 10 R$ covers calls at 2.68 R$ per call. But not sure. As for data, I have used 500+ MB in over a week and only about 100 MB (not GB) since going to the Claro office. Mostly used for google maps or a fast email check.

I realize this has been a lengthy post and without full resolution. But this is all I know and I suspect many others have had cell issues in BR. 

Anyone with additional helpful hints? If so, please post.  Obrigado

[belkinDC]

On a recent trip (Sept 2022) in Rio, I took the advice found on a Google review of the TIM store at Shopping Rio Sol and it worked flawlessly:

https://goo.gl/maps/mDRGDEKmKn2oDq4x7

"* TRAVELER ADVICE * Avoid the TIM store on the ground floor (they try to sell you something extremely expensive) and straightly head to the 3rd floor! Buy a SIM card for R$ 10 at the C&A (yes, it sounds weird but just ask for “chip”) and head back to the TIM store (3rd floor!!). Tell the people you want to charge it with data and they firstly help you activate your SIM card and secondly sell you data against a fair price. We took 5GB (valid for 180 days) for R$ 50 and they helped us charging it on the phone. Super friendly people and we were lucky not experiencing what the other reviews are describing. Good luck!"

The C&A store where I bought the chip is on the same level (3rd) as the TIM store. There was a friendly employee there who spoke great English who helped me get it activated over the phone with my passport info, and then they topped me up with BRL 50 for the 6 month plan. I'll be back in a few weeks and see if the plan is still active, but it worked throughout the duration of my 2 weeks in Brazil for that trip.

From what I can gather, someone who speaks Portuguese or has a friend who does could probably replicate this process just by buying a TIM chip from a street vendor and then "recharging" at one of the many places that offer this service after you have activated it. The TIM store employee helped me to navigate the activation phone tree menu (which was in Portuguese naturally) to get to an English speaking activation agent who took down my passport info. That being done, they took my payment for the 50 BRL top-up but I think that can be done at many locations throughout Brazil and not just at TIM stores.

Edit: Looks like the recharge can be done online with Xoom, PayPal's money transfer service: https://www.xoom.com/brazil/mobile-reloads/tim

[babybear2]

I got my CPF from online application, but CPF is not of much use in reality

I got my SIM card (Tim) from a Tim store in a shopping mall, I can top credits online by myself using credit card, 30R can have 15G data, enough for one trip  

 

[Brak]

I was planning to get a data-only eSIM when I go to Brazil: https://www.phonetravelwiz.com/best-esims-for-brazil-guide/

You can install it on your phone before you get there and not have to deal with a store. I did this on my last trip to Europe and it worked great.

[scott456]

Don't you know you can buy international sim card online at website store such as Ebay? No cpf required.

[endlessdream]

I used Airalo esim card