Best SIM card options for data?

[FrankPintor]

You can get lots of data cheap, from Claro, or fast data (including 5G in the centre of major cities) more expensively from Personal. Those are the two basic options here. Movistar / Tuenti isn't investing in its network anymore.

You can get Personal SIM cards at the airport (including eSIMs, I believe), or at the shop on Honduras in Palermo. There are possibly other locations, but those have experience and were recommended for dealing with foreigners.

@skyway, people here have reported buying 40GB data packs with Claro, how on earth did you burn through all of that for work?

 

[arvest]

You can get lots of data cheap, from Claro, or fast data (including 5G in the centre of major cities) more expensively from Personal. Those are the two basic options here. Movistar / Tuenti isn't investing in its network anymore.

You can get Personal SIM cards at the airport (including eSIMs, I believe), or at the shop on Honduras in Palermo. There are possibly other locations, but those have experience and were recommended for dealing with foreigners.

@skyway, people here have reported buying 40GB data packs with Claro, how on earth did you burn through all of that for work?

One more thing, do not leave the shop before you've made sure your sim card is working right. If the shop just sells you the card and tells you to go find a kiosco to add money make sure you come back. The remote activation service by calling their service number requires you to have a DNI to go through the prompts. Add your load at the kiosco then go back to the store and have the attendant put your passport in the system to turn on your sim card

 

[skyway]

You can get lots of data cheap, from Claro, or fast data (including 5G in the centre of major cities) more expensively from Personal. Those are the two basic options here. Movistar / Tuenti isn't investing in its network anymore.

You can get Personal SIM cards at the airport (including eSIMs, I believe), or at the shop on Honduras in Palermo. There are possibly other locations, but those have experience and were recommended for dealing with foreigners.

@skyway, people here have reported buying 40GB data packs with Claro, how on earth did you burn through all of that for work?

There's something a bit odd about the Claro app/website in that it will often prevent you from buying data packs - it will state "Saldo insuficiente para activar Packs. Hacé clic acá y recargá!". So, I would then go and recharge. However, no recharge amount (even the max. of 4000 pesos) would allow me to buy packs (the same message would continue to appear). So, I just use the data is bundled with the recharge amount (2GB and then whatever you have left in your saldo) and that usually suffices. Claro will though constantly spam me via text messages as my saldo decreases as they adjust the rate that I am paying for data.

All in all, it works out okay for me. I don't burn through the data that quickly unless I do something stupid like stream IPTV...

 

[skyway]

One more thing, do not leave the shop before you've made sure your sim card is working right. If the shop just sells you the card and tells you to go find a kiosco to add money make sure you come back. The remote activation service by calling their service number requires you to have a DNI to go through the prompts. Add your load at the kiosco then go back to the store and have the attendant put your passport in the system to turn on your sim card

I did not have this issue with either of my Claro SIMs. I just bought them in one of their stores, loaded them up in a kiosco and then signed up via the Claro app/website so that I could monitor balances/recharge from there...

 

[arvest]

I did not have this issue with either of my Claro SIMs. I just bought them in one of their stores, loaded them up in a kiosco and then signed up via the Claro app/website so that I could monitor balances/recharge from there...

I had this issue with Personal. The app didn't let me sign up either at the time or set a personal pin without going to the shop to activate my SIM. Now I can add load and purchase packs through the app without an issue. Disclaimer - my Spanish was pretty shaky when I was navigating the phone system and the app. Maybe there is some way to do the setup remotely for Personal, but the way that worked for me was just to talk to the attendant at the store and they put my passport in the system. I don't have a DNI

 

[lunar]

There's something a bit odd about the Claro app/website in that it will often prevent you from buying data packs - it will state "Saldo insuficiente para activar Packs. Hacé clic acá y recargá!". So, I would then go and recharge. However, no recharge amount (even the max. of 4000 pesos) would allow me to buy packs (the same message would continue to appear).

Do you go to a kiosco to recharge? Do you receive a confirmation that your payment was applied?

 

[skyway]

Do you go to a kiosco to recharge? Do you receive a confirmation that your payment was applied?

No, I always recharge via the app with my credit card.

 

[Redpossum]

There's a limit to how much you can recharge online with a credit/debit card in a given month. But you can always go to a kiosk and recharge there with cash. If there's a Claro store handy to your house, you can go in there and use a machine to recharge as much as you want, again with cash.

I have been using my phone in USB tether mode to connect my desktop PC to the internet for years now.

The 60-day 40 gig data pack for 4210 pesos is the best deal at ~105 pesos per gig, except for the pack noche, which gets you 10 gigs for 180, around 18 pesos a gig. The limits are that it expires in 24 hours and is only usable from midnight to 6am. Still, at that price, if you're a night owl and want to late night binge watch your favorite series, it's one hell of a bargain.

I have learned the hard way that HBO Max is a major league bandwidth pig, consuming ridiculous amounts of data compared to, say, downloading a movie with Popcorn Time.

 

[duggie]

If you don't want to deal with humans, national identity documents, Spanish, or physical SIM cards and your phone is equipped for eSIM, you can use Airalo: https://www.airalo.com/es/argentina-esim

 

[lunar]

If you don't want to deal with humans, national identity documents, Spanish, or physical SIM cards and your phone is equipped for eSIM, you can use Airalo: https://www.airalo.com/es/argentina-esim

It is 12 times more expensive than Claro.