Indonesian Sim Cards - Telkomsel and How To Top Up As A Backpacker
Data and sim cards are essential to the modern backpacker. Read our handy guide to getting an Indonesian sim card and the tricky business of topping one up!
Like many of the south east Asian countries, it’s super easy and extremely cheap to pick up a sim card in Indonesia. Telkomsel is one of the largest operators in Indonesia, and we picked up two of their sims when we landed in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
We bought a 28 day package with 35 GB of data for 175,000 IDR each (£9.10 or $11.37).
If you’re buying a sim card in Indonesia, you will need your passport.
This was all fine but when the 28 days had run down, we found there was an issue. Telkomsel and its app only allow you to top up credit via an Indonesian debit or credit card!
We’ve had this issue before in India and have found a new solution in Indonesia.
To top up your Telkomsel sim package, with a foreign debit/credit card you will need GoPay.
Part of the GoJek ecosystem, GoPay is an app that acts as a wallet on your phone. You’ll see in lots of shops little QR codes for payments, this is where you can use GoPay. GoPay is also accepted as a payment method on the Telkomsel app, you can see where we’re going with this!
To use GoPay you will need to have already have an account with GoJek.
It’s not quite as simple as downloading GoPay and topping up with your card as GoPay doesn’t allow non-Indonesian banks either! You will need to go to an Indomaret or Alfamart (Indonesia’s equivalent of 7/11’s - they are literally everywhere) and top up there.
On the app, press the little plus button next to your balance, enter the required top up amount and then at the bottom of the screen use the select method menu to choose “Indomaret or Alfamart”.
This will generate a barcode on the app. Depending on the store, you will either just show the barcode to the cashier and pay them to top up, or you will be directed to a kiosk machine within the store. Either way, follow the cashier’s instructions and pay the required amount. Payment needs to be made in cash. Once paid, the top up will show instantly on your GoPay account.
There is a small fee of 1500 IDR to top up this way, unfortunately there is no way around this if you want to top up this way!
With your now loaded GoPay wallet, you can open the Telkomsel app. Select the package you want, and pay with the payment method of “GoPay”.
Result!
Happy browsing all!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie