mobile phones in Vietnam

u should press *101# to check the validity of ur Mobicard. Bue i think its maybe not work now. Let buy a new simcard, it's very cheap here

yep. it will have expired if not used for six months

could you tell me where i could buy a mobile phone in Ho Chi Minh City, and is there a pay as you go service available

@flipmysoul: if u had a mobile phone already, u could unlock ur phone and just need to buy a Simcard There have many places where sell Simcard (Mobicard or Vinacard is good) in 'foreign town' in Bui Vien - Pham Ngu Lao . Enjoy ur trip here :p

Basic mobile phone handsets are very cheap here. Any phone shop should have models from about 150,000 VND ($8 USD) through to $500,000 VND (25 USD). Obviously you can pay a lot more for the latest models with all the bells and whistles. Typically a new SIM card sets you back about $8-$10. I bought mine for 180,000 VND ($9 USD) and that included 150,000 pre-paid calls. Actual calls can be expensive depends on what mobile system you are on. SMS is cheap though. Also, end of 2009 Vietnam changed some of the pre-paid plans. Often, if you buy call cards for 50,000 or 100,000 VND it has a use-by date, usually 1 month or 3 mth respectively. One thing the phone companies dont tell you is that you can dial *900# and register your phone for 365 days plan and only takes seconds to do, this gives you a year to use your call credits provided you make at least one call every 3 months! This bypasses any use by dates.