How to buy a 4G sim card in Vietnam (updated Feb2020)

TOTAL COST FOR A PREPAID 4G SIM CARD IN VIETNAM

• The cheapest prepaid 4G sim card           : 37,000VND ~  1.6 USD
• Top up sim card                                                 : 100,000 vnd ~ 4.31 USD
• Total a prepaid 4G sim card                       :                          ~6 USD
• From a credit of 100,000 vnd in your sim card, you can register a data package of at least 3GB which costs 70,000 VND depending on which data package you choose, then there are still 30,000 VND = 1.3 USD to make calls in Vietnam.

Do you want to buy a prepaid 4G sim card in Vietnam with a reasonable price and high data coverage adapting your demand of surfing internet and your limited vacation time in Vietnam?

Don’t you know where to buy a sim card with the cheapest price? The answer is here.

Below is a list of different 3G/4G data packages that three major internet mobile providers in Vietnam provide now. Let’s choose one which suits your data plan.

Mobile network operators 

In Vietnam, there are currently 6 mobile network operators including: Viettel, Vinaphone, Mobiphone, Vietnamobile, G-Tel and iTelecome (just launch in April 2019). Among them, accounting for nearly 95% of market segment is Viettel, Vinaphone, Mobiphone, 3 big service providers in Viet Nam with good services. 4G/LTE coverage is available throughout the country.

Where to buy a sim card in Vietnam?

There are many choices for you to buy a 4G sim card easily in Vietnam. The sim cards are sold

mostly everywhere in the big cities but different prices.

• At the airport from the time you enter Vietnam
• At the kiosk with 3G/4G signboard
• At the mobile shops as The Gioi Di Dong store
• At the tourist agency with 3G/4G sim card signboard
• Buying online through online e-commerce websites such as Tiki.vn, Lazada.vn,..
• At the internet service provider ‘s stores such as Vinaphone, Mobiphone, Viettel official stores

As a Vietnamese local, I often choose to buy one sim card at one of Vinaphone official stores because of a fixed price, surely cheaper than any store. However, there is a small requirement before purchase. a copy of passport is required for foreigners while an ID card for Vietnamese people. If you don’t have its copy, don’t worry, they will scan your passport or ID card. Currently I am using Vinaphone 4G sim card for making call, send messages, surfing the internet and video call. I choose 4G data package per month BIG70 and VINAXTRA data sim card which allows very long 2-months usable period. It costs 70,000 VND = 3 USD and the quality of video call is perfect as I often make video calls by Viber/ Skype to my family and friends.

Here is the address of Vinaphone store where I often go to to buy a 4G sim card in Ho Chi Minh city.

• 80 Nguyen Du, dist 1, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam
•  website:
• Tel: +84 28 3827 7713
• Opening – closing time:  8AM–6PM

Mobiphone store is located at the same address of this Vinaphone store. Its office is next to Vinaphone office.

Its opening – closing time: 7:30 -21:00 (on Saturday, Sunday: 7:30-19:00)

You can easily find these stores when you visit Post Office of Ho Chi Minh city. It’s just located closely on the right side of Post Office in distrist 1 if you stand in front of Post Office. Please note that on the left side of Post Office is Han Thuyen bookstores.  

How much for a prepaid sim card?

A sim card costs average 50,000 VND (that’s less than 3 USD, no credit in the sim card), to which you can add one of a variety of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly data plans.

My statistics below based on information posted on official websites of Vinaphone, Mobiphone and Viettel will facilitate you choose which mobile provider you want to register. From these statistics, Vinaphone provides much more choice for you. Not only the cheapest 4G sim card (no credit) compared to the others, but also its quality and a variety of 4G data coverage packages per hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly to adapt your demand and save your money.

It’s clearly that Vinaphone sim card is the cheapest one. Overall, the average price of a 4G sim card is 50,000vnd=2.16 usd. 

How to top -up a sim card?

First let’s choose an amount that you want you to top-up: 20,000 vnd, 50,000 vnd, 100,000 vnd, 200,000 vnd, 300,000 vnd, 500,000 vnd. Then you can top-up a sim card as one of the following ways:

• Buy a scratch card to top-up at one of Vinaphone, Mobiphone, Viettel stores and can ask them to top-up your sim card
• Buy a scratch card at 24/7 convenience stores which have Vinaphone/ Mobiphone/VietTel symbols in front of its doors.
• Buy directly at ATM machines (maybe this way is convenient for local people)
• At any street kiosks with 3G/4G signboard

For top up by a scratch card, some steps are as follows:

• First scratch the card, you will see 14 digits
• Then, dial *100*(14 digits)# on your phone where (14 digits) is the code you see above and then press call button.
• To check new balance, please dial *101#and then press Call button to do this action.

Dial *101# on a phone to check sim card account balance

Then, the phone screen will show all details related to this sim card such as credit balance, usage expiry date, additional account balance.

A message shows the credit balance, additional account balance, usage expiry date

Data packages per daily/weekly/monthly

Depending on your demand of using internet data while traveling in Vietnam, you know best how much data you need and which period you need. Luckily, one of the following big internet service providers in Vietnam provides you with a variety of internet data packages per off-peak hours (this data pack removed in 2020), daily, per 3 days, weekly, monthly plan, …

Here is the price of prepaid 3G/4G/LTE mobile internet services

VINAPHONE

Details of 4G Vinaphone products can be seen in Vietnamese here

Data package per hours, daily, weekly 

Monthly data packages

Buying added data coverage for BIG monthly pack

There are 4 ways to register more data coverage for data package when primary internet data coverage runs out before usage expiry date.

The photo below is an example to buy more added data coverage of X15.

Check data coverage balance by sending sms message DATA and buy added data coverage for 4G Vinaphone buy creating sms message X15

The 4th way is to cancel that data package and register new one. However, before registering a new data pack, we need to check balance data in order not to waste data coverage balance available in your sim card.

• First, check balance data: DATA => sent 888
• Then, cancel data pack: HUY {Name of data pack you want to cancel} => sent 888

     Ex: HUY BIG70 => sent 888

Buying added data coverage for daily packs

(Usable period: 24 hours from the registration time)

Note: Added data package can be automatically renewed. So, let’s cancel this added package before the usable expiry time if we don’t want to continue this service by:

HUY {Name of added data pack you want to cancel} => sent 888

Ex: HUY D5 => sent 888

Guides related to Vinaphone data package registration by SMS

The photo below is an example to check data coverage balance by sms DATA sent to 888.

Check data coverage balance

NOTE:

• All Vinaphone data packages are automatically renewed, so you should cancel the data package before usage expiry date if you don’t have demand of using it. 
• Don’t top up too much your sim card when you registered 3G/4G data packages because if you don’t often check data coverage balance, the system will automatically debit the amount of money in this sim card for data coverage that you would overuse. This happened to me when I used all of my data package BIG70 before its usage expiry date 

Besides the data packages mentioned above, Vinaphone still provides other data packages monthly (like MAX data packs), 6-months-pack and yearly. But it’s not common. By the way, if you want to know more about that, please feel free contact me, I’ll write it in another post.

MOBIPHONE

Details of 4G Mobiphone products can be seen here

Data package per hours, daily, weekly 

MONTHLY basic 4G Mobiphone data packages

MONTHLY 4G Mobiphone data packages + CALL (DATA PLUS)

MONTHLY 4G Mobiphone data package for watching movies

Buying added data coverage for BIG monthly pack

There are 4 ways to register more data coverage for data package when primary internet data coverage runs out before usable expiry date

Guides for registering 3G/4G Mobiphone data package

NOTE: 4G data package will be automatically renewed. So you should cancel this function if there is no demand for next period.

MONTHLY basic 3G Mobiphone data packages

MONTHLY 3G FAST CONNECT Mobiphone data packages

(For sim 3G used on the laptop, Ipad)

VIETTEL

Monthly 4G Viettel data packages

Daily data packages

Guides related to data package registration by SMS

In summary, I hope this article is helpful for you to choose the suitable data plan during your vacation in Vietnam.