Things you need to know before porting over/Signing up to Simba

 

Note: All the information shared in this post is to the best of my knowledge and experience. If you wish to know more, it's best to contact Simba.

I have been a Simba user from the time they're known as TPG. I must admit that TPG is quite bad initially, with very limited coverage and no connection in undergrounds. But it has improved very much and I have no problem staying connected where ever I go, within Singapore, of course. And the best part is, Simba's plans are really cheap and comes with free roaming data, free Incoming Calls and free Caller ID.

However, nothing is perfect and Simba do have some "tradeoffs".

1) Limited Talk Time and SMS

While Simba plans comes with lots of data, most of their plans doesn't comes with a lot of Talk time or SMS. For example, although their SIM ONLY 100GB plan comes unlimited Talk time and SMS to MOBILE lines, there are only 30 free local SMS and 300 minutes of free Talk time if you call/SMS to fix local lines.

fix local lines =  traditional phone services that use cables, rather than mobile phone services. AKA Landlines. 

300 minutes means you can only can use 10 minutes per day. That's not a lot, really, especially if you're calling to people without mobile or companies that only provided landlines. Sometimes the transferring time will eat up a lot of the talk time already. 

2) Simba plans are prepaid, cut off when exceeded

  

You really need to understand your usage before porting to Simba. Ask yourself if you need data or talk time/SMS more. Because once you exhausted the provided talk time/SMS, you won't be able to use that service anymore. 

Unless, of course if you have cash in your Simba account. They'll deduct your exceeded usage accordingly from your account (charges as per chart below). OR you can choose to renew your plan, but take note that there will be some waiting time for processing payment and reactivation of service. (If I am not wrong, they will only renew plans during business days)

3) Termination

I'm glad they get rid of the immediate termination rule if you miss a payment! They now allow a grace period.

There will be a 30-day grace period (21 days for some plans) to renew your Prepaid plan before Simba terminate the unpaid plan. During this grace period, you will continue to receive incoming calls and SMS. All data usage, outgoing calls and SMS will be blocked until you renew your plan. 

(Do check out the CRITICAL INFORMATION SUMMARY PDFs for your particular plan here)

Your plan will be terminated for non-payment after the 30 days grace period. All payments made are non-refundable or exchangeable for cash. (Which means, all the cash in your account wallet will be gone if your account get terminated)

So you have to be very careful if you didn't choose GIRO or auto payment as your payment method because your service will be limited until your plan is renewed.

4) Porting Out and Switching Plans

There will be an activation fee of $30 for port-out within 30 days (21 days for some plans) of plan activation. (Do check out the CRITICAL INFORMATION SUMMARY PDFs for your particular plans here)

If you intend to port-out, try to do so at least 7 business days before your next renewal cycle to avoid further charges. Your account will automatically be terminated upon successful port out from Simba. The same goes for termination of your line, it's best to give them at least 7 business days.

As for switching plans, you're only allow to do so between 1st - 25th days of your billing cycle. I emailed them about my wish to switch plan and was provided with a link to a webpage. There I can choose the plan I wish to switch to and then make payment. The switch is almost immediate and hassle free.

*5) Switching Plans 

(Updated 20 December 2023)

I do want to highlight one thing which I discovered in December 2023. Is that you CANNOT downgrade to a lower plan. So let's say I started with "50GB SIM only plan" and I upgraded to "SuperRoam MY plan", I cannot downgrade back to "50GB SIM only plan", I can only upgrade to a higher (more expensive) plan. 

I think the only way to "downgrade" is to signup for a new line, which means you'll have to get a new number. I don't think Simba allow you to "port back". Alternatively, if you're a senior, you can switch to their senior plan, that is the only "downgrading" allowed.

 

I discover this when I was thinking of downgrading from SuperRoam MY plan because I realised that we're not going into Malaysia as often. It was fortunate I haven't made the upgrade to "SuperRoam Max" plan for my Europe trip. 

Well, that's all I can share about Simba from my own experience. I do feel Simba's plans are cheap and connectivity and coverage are good. It comes with free roaming data too, which most other plans out there doesn't!

The downside is too little Talk time and SMS.

Topping up ONEXOX account is soo confusing

 

My ONEXOX welcome deal have expired (long ago) and now that my family is going into Malacca again, I have to top-up the card and subscribe to another plan.

I opened up my XOX Black app. Honestly, it's super confusing.

You see, there are 2 wallets in your account balance - Dedicated Account (DA) and Main Account (MA). 

According to the ONEXOX website, 

"MA calls are normal rate: 12 cents for 30 seconds, DA calls are cheap rate: 7 sen for 30 seconds.

When making a phone call, the DA credit is deducted first, and the MA credit is deducted after the DA credit is used up. DA Call rate is cheaper than MA.

So this is to encourage users to topup more money (because the more topups, the more Top up will be transferred to DA proportionally).

However, the current Season Pass is cheaper, calling all telco, only 9 cents per 60 seconds. So DA and MA don’t have much effect."

Basically, DA will cost lesser than MA when making calls and will be deducted first. And when you top up your acount, the more money will go into MA than DA, UNLESS you top up RM50, all the RM50 will go into DA.

I topped up RM20 because I wanted to subscribe to a RM19 weekly plan - 5GB for a week. I was shocked to see my money spilt into 2 wallets and when I navigated to the subscription page, only DA shows up there.

So I tried to find out from the website and virtual assistant about how do I pay for subscriptions (is it via DA or MA) but they're not very helpful. I have to turn to online forums to find out. Apparently, they will deduct from both accounts if one isn't enough, however I have no idea, which account will be the main one to be deducted from first.

Update: DA + MA = Air time and it can be use to buy Season Pass. But do note that an OTP will be send to you when you use Air Time as payment. That SMS will cost you. (If you receive the SMS in Singapore it's considered roaming and each SMS is about RM2+)

Honestly, it's all very confusing for me and I felt very frustrated while trying to figure things out. The official website in mainly in Malay and I have to hope onto a authorised dealer website for info in English.

I have contemplated for a long time if I should top up my Season Pass (SP) (all data and talk time in Season Pass will last till the card expires if not used) or I just get the weekly plan.

I am looking at 10GB in SP for RM50 or a 5GB weekly plan for RM19. I decided to go for the weekly plan because I realised that:

To "draw" data from SP, I will need to sign up for a monthly or weekly plan. They do have daily plan but you can't use the data from your SP for daily plans, you'll need to pay with cash on your account.

The monthly plans comes with:

500GB/month - RM12 (Auto renewal unless turned off.)

1GB/month - RM15 (Auto renewal unless turned off.)

2GB/month - RM25 (Auto renewal unless turned off.)

5GB/month - RM30 (Auto renewal unless turned off.)

6GB/month - RM30

10GB/month - RM50 (Auto renewal unless turned off.)

13GB/month - RM50

*Steps to "OFF" Auto Data Renewal (EVERYTIME you withdraw data from season pass)

1) Dial *150*2# OR *150# to go to USER MENU

2) Select 3 "Internet"

3) Select 2 "Subscribe from Season Pass"

3) Select 66 " More"

4) Select 1 "Stop Plan Renewal"

OR

When in Malaysia,

SMS to 23388

DATA AR OFF

Out of all the monthly plans, the 6GB and 13GB plan won't draw from the SP and you'll have to pay for them. 

The weekly plans are as follow:

2GB for a week - RM10

5GB for a week - RM19

out of which, you can't use SP for the 5GB plan.

I wanted the 5GB weekly plan because I think 5GB is a safer option (since Mom can finish 1GB on a one day trip. LOL). Well, I told her, she can do whatever she wants and she did (send lots of videos + gaming). LOL.

However, you can't draw data from the SP for the 5GB weekly plan so ... yeah. And I feel, with or without SP, you're limited by the plans available. You can't draw only 3GB because there isn't a plan for that, also if you ran out of data for your subscription plan and wants to addon extra data, you can't draw from your SP too. (Anyways, the addons are not very worth it except maybe for the ESP addons which will expire at 11:59PM on the day of purchase. Probably worth it if you purchase in the wee hours.)  

I really wish ONEXOX will have more flexible plans or allow non-black users to draw directly from SP too. Currently, only Black users can draw directly from SP, but XOX Black plans are postpaid.

I used to regret not selecting a Welcome deal with data in SP, but now I feel that it's not such a big deal anymore. But I did wasted about 10GB on my previous trip because I simply couldn't finish using the data despite 'hotspotting' and gaming a lot towards the end of the trip.

Update: I managed to get a Happy Hour Deal - 28GB SP data for RM50. Initially, you can get only 10GB with RM50. I feel Happy Deals are what keep the SP worth buying. Unless you're travelling  to Malaysia frequently OR that you plan to go there for a long trip (> 7days) OR you are a heavy user, the 5GB weekly plan should be enough. The daily plans of 1GB for RM3 or 2GB for RM5 are worth considering too but those can't be drawn from SP.  

So change of plan, I will probably draw 5GB from my SP and get the 5GB monthly plan. I just have to remember to cancel Auto renewal or 5GB will be drawn monthly from my SP.