I have a friend from South America visiting in September. They'll stay about a month. I'll be picking them up from the airport. I'm a proud Sim slut. Can I just purchase a 28 day SIM like I would for myself normally and give it to them to slap into their phone? Does it matter if I order online using all my details? Does it matter if their phone is from another country?
Purchasing SIM for Overseas Visitor
Sammywn on 27/07/2025 - 09:02
Comments
Agreed
Its so easy for a visitor to purchase a SIM at the airport on arrival. OP can provide guidance.
And if the phone is used for illegal activities OP will be on the hit list.
And if the auto renew is not turned off, then Op will be up for more expenses than they bargained for.
Lend them a car registered in your name, and you'll be the one who is responsible if they do anything naughty with it. Lend them a SIM registered in your name and its the same.
A phone from overseas may or may not be blocked from access to the Australian phone networks.
https://amta.org.au/3g-closure-old/check-my-device/The phone would also need to not be locked to the overseas network to work with a local SIM. It is apparently illegal to network-lock phones in South Africa, but they still do it.
If I order in my name can they register it in theirs though?
Depends where you buy it. If you buy it online, most likely you will need to enter your details and the simcard is tied down to your name.
If you buy it from a shop, eg. Coles, you're just buying the simcard deal then you go online and activate it with their passport details.
My nephew from South Korea came as a student a month ago. He got a Kogan eSIM on his first day under his name, paid with his Korean card. Other than pointing to the website I didn't do anything.
Yes you can pre-purchase a sim card for them using your details.
This is no different if someone is purchasing 4 sim cards under one name for the family to use.
Just make sure their phone is unlocked and compatible to use in Australia.
Coles SIM https://colesmobile.com.au
You can just buy them at Coles supermarkets
22GB 28 days $10
Got one for a relative visiting from the UK three months ago, worked fine.One also has an ability to transfer the phone number (i.e transfer the ownership) by filling out forms at the the providers store. So if you register the sim in your name for an overseas visitor, once they arrive you can visit the providers store to transfer the ownership in their name. For Vodafone it takes ~3 hours to complete the process - https://www.vodafone.com.au/support/sign-up/transfer-ownersh…
I travel from NZ fairly regularly and just get Belong sims from Woolies/Coles.
They will accept Overseas Passport KYC if it does prompt for it.Do they actually need a phone number? Or just data? If just data, then something like Roamless or Saily eSIM will do the trick for $5-$10USD most likely (depending on how much data they will use).
I do this whenever I travel internationally. No expiry, just chunks of data. Works great.
You can use any SIM, just don't use your details and use theirs. You will be in trouble if they do something illegal.
I have had family vising from Asia back in the day where Boost sims were regularly on >100% cashback. Bought 6 or so, activated all in my name, and gave everyone a SIM. No issues at all.
Why wouldn't your fiend from South America get a SIM at home and then use it?
There are many ways to do it cheaply with their home/local SIM and use it all over the world.
Again, any reason at all?
Yes it matters if their phone is from another country. Since 3G turned off, it might be useless here
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/917048 Have a read of this recent thread