Phone plan/SIM that lasts longer than 30 days without ARC

Life Technology
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Not sure if right category and I can’t find exsct answer and the company websites are confusing and don’t explicitly say whether ARC would be needed.

Chunghwa, whom I was with, tells me I can only buy 30 days at a time SIM plans that expire and can’t be renewed or topped up or even to keep the same number. They said without an ARC, I cannot get anything else. I am not going to pay into such a provider again.

Since I am here longer term, where can I get a prepaid plan that lasts longer than 30 days without an alien resident card? It is kind of dumb they only let you get a SIM that can never be used longer than 30 days, and I can’t keep switching my number as it is problematic.

Any advice?

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That seems stupid. I bought it back in 2016 using only my passport, but I had a Chunghwa prepaid SIM for like four years before getting an ARC (maybe longer — I don’t remember when I bothered updating Chunghwa with my ARC details). I guess it’s changed since then.

I still have the same SIM now, and I just buy data for NT$300 per 3.2 GB every one or two months when the data or 60 days of validity runs out, whichever comes first. The details are here:

I guess the problem might be the lack of an accepted second form of ID besides your passport. Maybe you could go to a different store and try blagging them with a driving license or ID card from your own country, or the record of ID number from immigration, though I’m not confident either would work.

You could also try going to one of the Southeast Asian stores selling SIM cards aimed at migrant workers — it might be that they’re more relaxed with such things (not sure).

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I offered up my ID number from Taiwan immigration but man gave me a hard no without ARC. Could have been the location but you would think a passport would be sufficient. Canada you don’t need any ID for prepaid whatsoever. UK asked me for passport, it seems like small countries worried of external threats practice this habit the most haha. ChatGPT said try FarEast or Taiwan mobile lol but not sure how reliable that info is, it’s known to be wrong. Other nonsense is my SIM expired today and in my area Chunghwa is the only store open before 12pm and i’m switching Airbnb’s today and I didn’t realize the terrible Saturday hours of these 2 telecom companies around here. Seems like cell providers everywhere in the world are trash. AND surprisingly, my prepaid back home is only CAD$35+tax for 4G, 50GB and unlimited calling/text North American, so Taiwan foreigner plan I got is even worse than back home and we have like the worst prices in the world almost. I’m disappointed, phone prices are like the same when I was here a few years back smh :frowning:

I guess i’ll probably just go to Chunghwa again out of necessity and thug it out 1 more month and then inquire at those location. I’m going to petition Canada to do like the Brits do and make Taiwan give work holiday visa holders ARCs too because I’m realizing it puts us at a disadvantage in many ways. Taiwan “trade office” in Toronto was kind of problematic too, very unclear and different people and the website giving different/wrong information. Won’t impact my journey here bjt at least the next foreigners won’t have to have these issues hopefully.

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Pls let me know how you solved this problem as i will be moving there soon too

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I’ll update once I talk to people from the other telecom companies. :slight_smile:

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There are 3 months plan I forget with which company. Bought for my father at airport when he was visiting last year. Btw if you just need data plan and your phone has esim, there are so many online providers selling esim data plans.

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You can definitely purchase a single prepaid plan lasting more than one month without an ARC. Includes a +886 taiwan phone number.

However, they will not sell you a plan with duration longer than your visa or visa-exempt duration.

Here are the prices as of last week.

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IMG_66782680×1431 857 KB

Post-paid plans (12+ months) need ARC.

Perhaps try a different retail location?

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Rant incoming… :slight_smile:

I went to Far Eastern Telecom earlier in the day, and they do have up to a year if you have status, which they seemed to accept mine there and were going to allow me that as mentioned. But then you have to pay a year straight in advance and I wasn’t ready to because who knows what a year holds lol and I already killed a month too. It was like CAD$500 or something upfront too, no monthly paying/cancelling or top up style allowed. Apparently this 30/90/180 etc. is a government rule they said? If true, that’s even more foul and just nonsense. I’ve seen a few kind of discriminating (not extremely, but sort of) like policies playouts similar thus far. Anyway, I said just give me a month then, whatever. Then they wanted to take a picture of passport and me. Some might not care, but I don’t like weird and unneccessary things like that so I said it’s OK and left. They were understanding and nice.

I ended up walking into a Chungwha again because half the day no data was wearing thin and I stopped caring about number refresh at this point (price is kind of trash too but not really my issue) and at least I know they work. At the airport, they scan the main page of passport, that’s it. This Chunghwa location guy takes a picture of main page, stamps page, visa, asking me address, taking sweet time too lol and also being not so nice with the passport, which I actually hate (I always say “be gentle with it” when I hand to someone out of a sealed plastic ziploc), so i’m like whoah bro lol what are you doing? He’s even running a ruler across the plastic face to keep it straight open too like scratching level just odd smh. Anyway, then he puts 3 pages of Chinese text in front of me to sign each page. I said I don’t know what that says, i’m not signing that. He said no SIM then (after all passport info etc. already). So I signed “I do not agree to any contract” as my signature lmao. This guy is visibly upset at this point. We had to call his boss somewhere else because they didn’t like that and nobody’s English was too good there and I could not translate without data. They’re all assuring me it’s not a contract or agreement which whatever not really a concern just again, why? Also why not English or translations for the “tourist” plans. Since he took a picture of my work visa which basically says 1 year (6 months if you ignore what it says after) and then says I can only get 30 days max tourist plan because that’s all i’m “allowed”, I say, well am I a tourist or do I have a work visa, since you just copied that for apparently no reason then (technically it’s both I guess, but at the very least visa says 6 months to a year clearly right on it), so it’s like why also copy my work visa if you’re treating me the same as any other tourist regardless? It was a shit show. I ended up scribbing a stupid looking line on the papers and they accepted and I left after taking the agent’s name down.

Not having data is the worst with language barriers, but also you get to see how nice most Taiwanese are otherwise. People seeing i’m lost, asking if I need help, people translating for me etc. This cell issue though, and others, can be an actual barrier to progress for foreign nationals, and given some of us are here on legitimate and reciprocal status, not visiting casually, it made me resolved to raise some issues with my government. Canada needs to push for ARC allowance same as UK and then remove some senseless issues. Location may matter, but i’m not trying to explore that lol

Let’s see when I try to go get a bank account lmao

Anyway, while hanging out later that night I stopped into Taiwan Mobile. I already had my phone active now so didn’t go through with anything, but the rep (after consulting with another rep) said I could keep the same number and pay monthly not like the other two so far. Now this could be miscommunication, but I guess we’ll see next month when I go back and see if it’s true. At least easiest experience so far. Will keep you updated what happens there.

Long story short, prepaid cell service is convoluted here. :slight_smile:

Unfortunately, with regard to suggestion, no eSIM device for me right now, but this could potentially be the best option if it’s straight forward. Not sure how calling would work, but that also seems like some countries where different phone companies aren’t integrated overall on network so calling one company to another is like different? It was like that in Philippines and some European countries I remember but I think it’s mostly changed, but I could be wrong.

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Honestly, I think this was a big mistake on your part. Obviously it’s not ideal to sign contracts in a language you don’t understand, but you’re in a Chinese-speaking country and it’s not realistic to expect everything you sign to be in English.

If you can’t read Chinese, for a standard contract by a reputable company sometimes you just have to suck it up, sign, and assume everything will pan out okay. You could also take the contract away for someone else to translate for you, but the way you handled it was quite entitled IMO. I can see why the guy got upset.

From memory, most or all of the bank accounts I’ve opened have had bilingual forms for the most part, but if you’re going to get flustered over the odd form only in Chinese or things not being made 100% clear to you in English I would expect to encounter problems there too.

It might be worth taking a Taiwanese friend or translator along with you in future if you can’t accept this reality.

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No mistake, no difference in outcome. The issue to me was only that no previous times with this same company did it occur. Also that he kept saying it’s basically law, which I know to be untrue. I’m not expecting anything, nevermind everything, to be in English. But seeing how the service is targeted to foreigners, you think affording the person the means or opportunity to understand it better would be in everyone’s best interest. Further problem bere was that I couldn’t use phone to translate the document like I normally would, so I was making it clear on my end i’m not agreeing to any contract and it was more the way this agent was behaving, so yeah I was pushing back more at this point lol I know when i’m being slighted, the 2 other Taiwanese he let jump the queue with no number in front of me didn’t help.

I don’t view any telecom company as reputable lol and no, advising others to just sign documents they don’t understand is just bad advice. If you routinely sign documents without understanding them or would, that’s on you. And this is the same guy who said it was government law to limit to 30 days, so he was already not to be trusted in my eyes. Entitled in your eyes maybe, I advocate for myself and interests and have never been scammed in my life. I will continue to be like that, especially if I believe someone is behaving untoward me, take it how you will.

You’re making a few reaching conclusions throughout your post, i’ve travelled the world extensively, people very often try to take advantage of foreigners and I just don’t let that happen. Taiwan or otherwise.

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Data point: I went to Chunghwa Telecom (non-airport location) a couple weeks ago and they were very nice.

They explained all the e-SIM steps in English, from prices to phone calls to renewal.

Worst case, you could connect to their WiFi, take a photo of the legal document, and translate it. You need WiFi to activate the e-SIM anyway (physical sim is another story).

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