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Overview of the CTExcel Americas SIM Card

There are many wireless carriers in the US, with the traditional big four—Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint—as the most typical examples. There are also plenty of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) such as Cricket, H2O, Mint, FreedomPOP, Visible, Tello, TracFone, and RedPocket. Most of these carriers are fairly expensive, so if you only need a cheap short-term phone number, many of their plans are not a good value.

By contrast, the CTExcel Americas SIM card costs only $1 for the first month. CTExcel Americas is a telecom provider that uses the T-Mobile network and mainly offers prepaid plans. Its SIM card includes perks such as unlimited US-China calling and unlimited international text messaging.

CTExcel Americas Fall $1 SIM Card Promotion

For the fall back-to-school season, CTExcel Americas launched a $1 SIM card promotion. Key features of this fall $1 offer include:

  • Users can use an .edu email address (in practice, any email address works) to get the first month for $1 on one of four US wireless plans priced at $19, $29, $39, or $49.
  • Includes 22GB of high-speed data and a dual-number feature on one SIM. You can call China for free anytime, and the Chinese virtual number can be used to receive SMS verification codes and phone calls from China for free. Friends and family in China calling that number are charged only standard local Chinese calling rates.
  • After the high-speed data is used up, unlimited basic-speed data remains available. WeChat text messaging and Google Maps navigation can still be used normally.
  • At checkout, select the “free one-month gift package.” By paying the $1 first month plus 3 months of plan charges upfront (plus taxes and fees), you get 1 additional month free, for a total of 5 months of wireless service.
  • Includes 180 days of number retention during suspension. Users can stop paying while they are back in China. Within 180 days after the plan expires, as long as you repay the plan amount and a $5 suspension/number-retention fee, the SIM card will work normally again once you return to the US.
  • If you pay for the free one-month gift package with a UnionPay single-logo credit card (card number starts with 62), you can get an instant $10 discount.
  • Existing customers can refer friends using a personal referral code or referral link. After the referred user purchases the $1 plan through the referral code or link, both parties receive a $10 account credit.
  • The SIM card must be activated within 90 days after payment.
  • Promotion period: Eastern Time June 11, 2020 00:00am – November 30, 2020 11:59pm (thanks to KUKU for the information)

How to Get the $1 SIM Card

  1. If you do not already have a CTExcel Americas SIM card, you can register with referral code QWHU, or scan the QR code to purchase. For just $1, you can get the first month of unlimited data, and you can also activate a Chinese virtual number so family and friends in China can contact you more easily. After registering and activating through the referral link, you can receive a $10 account credit, which can be used toward purchasing or paying for next month’s plan.
  2. Click the link to enter the promotion page: Any of the $49/$39/$29/$19 plans costs just $1.
  3. Using the $49 plan as an example, click “立即抢购” on the page above, then choose “还未领取.” School information can be filled in arbitrarily, and any email address works (no .edu email verification required). Then fill in your shipping address information.
  4. Click Next to go to the information confirmation page. For “选择入网类型,” check “申请美国新号” (if you want to keep your current number, choose “携号转网”). On the page that says “一次性支付 $1+3 个月套餐费，额外获赠 1 个月免费套餐,” choose “残忍放弃” (if you plan to use it long term, you can choose “立即领取”).
  5. You can see the pre-tax cost is $1, and the checkout page shows $1.01 after tax. One important thing to note is that this card renews automatically by default. After receiving and activating it, remember to turn off auto-renewal in your account. If you only need it for short-term use, it may be a good idea to use a virtual card to place the order. We recommend Privacy here; registering through the referral link earns a $5 bonus.

Many apps such as Uber Eats and DoorDash require a real mobile number when registering a new account (Google Voice does not work). If you plan to do a number port, it is also better to use these lightly used short-term numbers. For more on porting, see our previous post How to Port a Number in the US + Earn Large Rewards (with a real example). For example, recent offers include a $100 gift card for porting to Visible, $250 gift cards for porting to AT&T/T-Mobile/Sprint, and Cricket offering a 128GB iPhone8 for just $49.99 + the first month’s $60 plan. In these deals, Cricket does not support porting in from Google Voice, so using the $1 CTExcel Americas SIM card is the cheapest option. Even when Google Voice can be ported to other carriers, there is still a $3 unlocking fee. Because of that, it can make sense to keep a small stash of cheap SIM cards on hand. After activating the SIM card, contact customer service (online chat) to request the Account number and PIN. You will need to provide three different phone numbers that you recently called. The whole process is simple. Once you have the Account number and PIN, you can participate in other port-in promotions. We will continue updating related porting deals, so stay tuned!