HAPPY ROAM - VERY Happy Experience

[Gator 30]

Hi guys

I'm sharing this as a NEW SH prepaid User. I bought this to try out and it was freaking awesome.

Let me share my story. (i'm not marketing for StarHub, but just creating awareness)

I am not new in the Prepaid Market as I have tried M1, SingTel, StarHub.

I travel very very often, so whenever i visit a country, i would get prepaids in the countries which i visited (e.g. Malaysia Digi, Hong Kong China HK Mobile, Taiwan DaGeDa/ChungHwa, Philippines SmartBro, etc..)

But the main problem with these prepaids is that you only get ONE Telco. You won't know which is the BEST coverage, and usually we use it for DATA only. Malaysia and Taiwan has a lot of jungles, mountains, islands, so some telcos are preferred in rural areas.

I was in KL last weekend, and i decided to try SH Prepaid out.

OK, so i read the terms and condition and stuff, just to share as well:

Requirement:

1. Must have activated DATA ROAMING
2. Must already have already activated data pack before going to Malaysia <usually $5 for 1GB 3days, or $7 for 1GB 7 days> Heavy users may opt for $5 since it's cheaper and your data may not even last 3 days.
3. After Data pack activation, Need to have minimum of $8 in your main wallet.

So here’s the thing. Most people are ignorant. I see a lot of posts of noobs asking why my wallet kena deducted for no reasons. Why my credit balance $17 all gone after i just topped up. Here's why:

Whenever you top up, your SMARTPHONES have running apps on the background, be it iOS or Android or even Windows Phone. You will start getting charged by the KByte and it's VERY costly. So probably one Whatsapp message and facebook notification will wipe out your whole entire wallet already. 

So here's what I always do whenever i put my SIM card into my phone/tablet. DEACTIVATE MOBILE DATA before you TOP UP or if you have $8 remaining, JUST FRIGGIN DEACTIVATE your MOBILE DATA.

I have tried out last weekend when I went to Malaysia with SH Prepaid:

First thing I did was:

• Deactivate MOBILE DATA <very important step if not once you top up your credit will be gone in seconds>
• Top Up $20 on my Prepaid Mobile
• Once confirmed, ensure that I have activated DATA ROAMING <Dial *123*5*2#> followed by instructions to activate. Then an SMS will be sent, or notification will tell you that you have activated DATA ROAMING.
• After that, Dial *123*3*1*1*7# if you want to purchase $5 pack for 3 days 1GB. To monitor remaining data, Dial *123*1*3# ( I would recommend saving all these options on your phonebook and save on speed dial. You may check this anytime to monitor. It’s quite updated.
• Here's a SAMPLE i saved in my SPEED DIAL. SO SIMPLE that i just tap on the command i want, i can check data balance, top up $5 immediately, etc.

 

Things that will eat up your data VERY VERY FAST

1. Google maps. I used this for 30 minutes in KL, BOOM, 700MB gone. If you are a driver like myself, download HERE Maps (by Nokia) --> I got this when I was using NOKIA LUMIA previously. Download Malaysia Maps about 700MB and you may operate OFFLINE. Google maps planning to have OFFLINE maps but still in the works for certain countries. <UPDATE: it's already available in most countries>
2. Don’t use YOUTUBE to watch video happily until you forget. Especially you have a bigger screen, clearer retina display, GOOD LUCK. HD videos means higher resolution. Means MORE data usage.
3. If you are nice enough to TETHER or HOTSPOT, tell your friend to turn off WIFI updates for their APPS. Coz your phone will act as a WIFI. Once your Data Runs out, again it will FEAST ON YOUR MAIN WALLET. Monitor til about 200MB. If you have another 10 hours to go, or a day or two, just top up. It will roll over. E.g. 200MB + 1GB = 1.2GB. New 3 days will be given.

If you cannot finish the data, you have 2 more days to go on your data pack, just come back to Singapore and use in Singapore. It will expire within the 3 days activation or 7 days activation, whichever you choose. If you are in Singapore and having problem limiting yourself within your Data Bundle, you can use this as spare, rather than DATA upsize (1GB $8 per month), or getting charged per GB block @ $10/GB.

Hope these tips will help you control your data usage, at home and abroad.

P/S: I just realized that they have added few more countries, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, UK and US.

• Malaysia – applicable to ALL operators 
• Indonesia – XL Axiata, Three (3)
• Taiwan – Chunghwa Telecom (so far this is the best i used in TW)
• Hong Kong – Three (3) (Hong Kong everywhere is good and very much connected. No issues on this
• Thailand – TrueMove
• Australia – Telstra 
• UK - Vodafone
• US - T-Mobile

However, only Malaysia has No limit on Telcos. But other countries are not too bad for the partnered telcos.

Source:

http://www.starhub.com/personal/mobile/prepaid-plans/happy-roam.html

[Santosh Rai]

Great sharing tips @Gator 30 on Happy Roam. 

We appreciate your contribution to StarHub Community. 

[Shoryuke]

Hi, the steps you mentioned looks easy enough. However, I was told by a Starhub staff that you don't even need to dial to activate. You can download the HappyPrepaid app from the Playstore and activate from there. Having said that, I wanted to share my experience here. I was able to use the HappyRoam service 2 weeks ago when I was in New York. I still have remaining 2 weeks in the data plan (3.6GB for 30days) I activated then. Today when I went to Johor Bahru, I was not able to use any data service from any operators I manually connected ( DIGI, MYCELCOM, MAXIS ). May I know do I have to do anything before going to JB ? Thanks in advance. My prepaid account is ,snipped>

Edit: Mobile number removed for protecting customer privacy. 

[Gator 30]

I believe you can contribute usage, just need to maintain $8 in your main
wallet. You may cross different countries within a day to use the same data
bundle because technically you are using"local data"

[Santosh Rai]

Thanks @Gator 30 for helping @Shoryuke out

@Shoryuke let us know if you need any further clarification? 

[Shoryuke]

Hi Gator,

Thanks for replying, but the problem i am reporting here is tha I wasn't able to use data service when I was in Johor Bahru yesterday. My wallet has $9.15 and roaming service was turned on, APN settings were set to 'shppd'. Any idea what could be the problem here ?

[Santosh Rai]

Hi @Shoryuke, 

Noted. Let us escalate to our Support team to check and advise you further. 

Thanks 

[smokey_cwl]

You are still new to Starhub. I am sure you will soon experience your main wallet amount deducted mysteriously even when you have local and roaming data still active. And you also didn’t sms or call. Don’t get me wrong this is still the best for people who travel often but just losing a bit of faith with these unexplained deductions since it does not provide itemized deduction history

[jamzy]

the minimum balance is $3 now per FAQ... but there is no way you can top up $3 or even $5.... so you are "forced" to top up at least $10 as "buffer" and u either watch it dwindle down to $0 due to accidental/incidental usage (most of the time ...data) or watch it magically disappear like mine from $10.09 to $1.09!....

there's no guessing why i had $0.09 in the first place...

[Amy_Law]

Hi jamzy

I understand you've been attended.