Singtel prepaid runs under the hi! brand, and it splits cleanly into two jobs: a no-contract 30-day plan for residents, and a tourist SIM for a week or a month of heavy use plus roaming. A hi! plan costs S$15 every 30 days (S$7 for seniors aged 60 and up) and renews itself, and a tourist SIM is S$10 to S$30. The traps are not the prices. They are the rules: a SIM registered on a passport is suspended after 30 days with no refund, the law caps you at three prepaid SIMs across all telcos, and pay-per-use data is a brutal 6.4 cents per 10KB if you forget to buy a bundle. This guide lays out every plan, every top-up channel, and the exact moment a tourist SIM is the smarter buy.
Singtel sells prepaid under the hi! name. There is no monthly bill, no contract, and no credit check. You pay upfront, the credit and data sit on the card, and when validity runs out the line goes dormant until you top up. That makes it the default choice for short stays, second lines, kids' phones, and anyone who hates surprise bills.
Two product lines matter. The hi! plans are for residents: 30-day, no-contract plans with 500GB or more of local data, renewed automatically. The hi! Tourist SIMs are 7- or 30-day cards stuffed with local data and roaming, and Singtel now sells them to foreign passport holders only. Singtel also runs a roaming layer (hi!DataRoam packs and ReadyRoam) that you bolt on before a trip.
Prepaid is no longer the dear way to get a lot of local data: the S$15 hi! plan carries 500GB every 30 days. A SIM-only plan can still cost less each month, so we compare the two later, and our GOMO vs Circles.Life vs giga breakdown shows where the line sits.
Update, 14 October 2026: Singtel's pages no longer list the S$8 and S$15 hi! cards or the S$12 tourist SIM. Residents now get 30-day hi! plans from S$15, or S$7 for seniors, and tourist SIMs run from a S$10 seven-day card to S$30, for foreign passport holders only. Prepaid prices and bundled perks shift often, so treat the figures below as prices from Singtel's own pages as of October 2026, and confirm the live allowance in the hi!App before you buy.
The resident plans are now about volume. Every hi! plan runs 30 days and renews automatically, with 500GB or more of local 5G+ data, unlimited local calls and SMS, roaming data and IDD minutes, and on most plans unused data, roaming and IDD roll over for up to 6 months. The S$7 senior plan is for citizens, PRs, and Employment and long-term pass holders aged 60 and above. The tourist cards carry similar local data for a fixed 7 or 30 days, and their calls and SMS work only once a hi! retailer switches them on with your passport.
| Card | Price | Validity | Local data | Roaming / IDD | Calls & SMS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hi! Senior plan (60+) | S$7 | 30 days, auto-renews | 500GB 5G+ | 6GB APAC + 6GB worldwide, 100 IDD min | Unlimited |
| hi! S$15 plan | S$15 | 30 days, auto-renews | 500GB 5G+ | 18GB APAC + 8GB worldwide, 600 IDD min | Unlimited |
| hi! S$20 plan | S$20 | 30 days, auto-renews | 700GB 5G+ | 36GB APAC + 10GB worldwide, 1,000 IDD min | Unlimited |
| hi! S$25 plan | S$25 | 30 days, auto-renews | 850GB 5G+ | 60GB APAC + 14GB worldwide, 1,000 IDD min | Unlimited |
| hi! S$30 plan | S$30 | 30 days, auto-renews | 1,000GB 5G+ Enhanced | 100GB Asia + 18GB worldwide, 1,000 IDD min | Unlimited |
| hi! S$35 plan | S$35 | 30 days, auto-renews | Unlimited (1,200GB fair use) | 120GB Asia + 22GB worldwide, 1,200 IDD min | Unlimited |
| hi! Tourist S$10 | S$10 | 7 days | 500GB 5G+ | None | Unlimited, once enabled |
| hi! Tourist S$15 | S$15 | 30 days | 500GB 5G+ | 18GB APAC + 8GB worldwide, 600 IDD min | Unlimited, once enabled |
| hi! Tourist S$18 with EZ-Link card | S$18 | 30 days | 500GB | 12GB APAC + 3GB worldwide, 500 IDD min | Unlimited, once enabled |
| hi! Tourist S$30 | S$30 | 30 days | 1,000GB 5G+ Enhanced | 100GB Asia + 18GB worldwide, 1,000 IDD min | Unlimited, once enabled |
Most complaints about Singtel prepaid are not about price. They are about rules people did not know existed. Three of them bite hardest.
Since 15 July 2024, any SIM registered on a foreign passport is valid for only 30 days. After that the line is suspended without notice and there is no refund on the card. To keep it, you must re-register at a Singtel Shop, a Singtel Exclusive Retailer, or the mRemit counter at Lucky Plaza using a Singapore-issued IC or work pass within those 30 days.
This is an IMDA rule, not a Singtel quirk, so it applies across every telco. A tourist on a two-week trip never notices. A new arrival who buys a SIM on day one and only gets their FIN card three weeks later can lose the line right when they need it.
Under IMDA rules effective 1 April 2014, one person can register a maximum of three prepaid SIMs in total, counted by your ID across all telcos combined, not three per operator. If you already hold a couple of dormant prepaid lines on M1 or StarHub, you may be turned away at the Singtel counter until you cancel one.
If your bundled data runs out and you keep browsing, Singtel charges pay-per-use at 6.4 cents per 10KB. That works out to roughly S$6.40 per megabyte, so a single forgotten YouTube clip can drain your main balance in minutes. Always carry an active data bundle, and use the hi!App to watch the meter. Building a buffer for this kind of slip is exactly what a small emergency fund is for.
Registration is compulsory and done at the point of sale with an original ID. Singaporeans use the pink IC, PRs the blue IC, national servicemen their SAF/SPF/SCDF 11B, foreign workers and students their work-pass card, and visitors their passport (subject to the 30-day rule above). Singtel stopped supporting 2G in November 2016, so you need a 4G or 5G phone.
You can buy a hi! SIM at any Singtel Shop or Exclusive Retailer, online at singtel.com/prepaid, and at 7-Eleven, Cheers, Sentosa FUN Shops, and currency-exchange counters at Changi Airport. Topping up is the easy part, with the hi!App being the fastest route.
For a resident who uses real data every month, the price gap is now small. A S$15 hi! plan carries 500GB of local data with no contract, against a SIM-only plan that hands you 100GB-plus for around S$10. Prepaid wins on data and on roaming in the price; SIM-only still wins on the monthly bill.
Use a hi! plan when you want roaming data and IDD minutes in the price; use SIM-only when the lowest monthly bill is the goal. Run the numbers against your own usage in our personal budget calculator before you decide, and treat the monthly difference as money you can redirect.
| Your situation | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tourist or short trip (under 30 days) | hi! Tourist SIM | Huge local data + roaming, no contract, no IC needed |
| New arrival waiting on a work pass | hi! SIM, then re-register | Bridges the gap before you get an IC/FIN |
| Light user, mostly WiFi | hi! S$15 plan (S$7 if 60+) | No contract, 500GB there if you need it |
| Daily heavy data user | SIM-only or hi! S$15 plan | ~S$10 a month SIM-only vs S$15 for 500GB plus roaming |
| Second line / kid's phone | hi! SIM | No bill, hard spending cap, easy to top up |
The hi! Tourist cards already include roaming, which is why visitors rarely need anything extra. If you hold a hi! plan, it already carries roaming data, and you can add a hi!DataRoam pack in the hi!App when you need more; packs activate instantly and expire on their own validity. Singtel's wider ReadyRoam layer starts from a few dollars and covers more than 150 destinations, though availability and pricing for prepaid lines change regularly, so confirm in-app before you fly.
Receiving SMS while roaming is free. Receiving calls and sending messages are not, so a data pack plus a messaging app is usually cheaper than voice roaming. Our GST guide is a reminder that the sticker prices here already include the 9% tax, so what you see is what you pay.
A hi! plan runs 30 days and renews automatically, and a tourist SIM runs 7 or 30 days from purchase. Once validity lapses the line goes dormant until you top up, and a card registered on a foreign passport is suspended after 30 days regardless of credit.
Yes, and Singtel now sells its hi! Tourist SIMs to foreign passport holders only. Visitors register a hi! SIM at the point of sale using their passport, available at Singtel Shops, 7-Eleven, Cheers and Changi Airport counters. Note the IMDA rule that passport-registered SIMs are valid for only 30 days unless you re-register with a Singapore IC or work pass.
IMDA caps prepaid SIMs at three per person in total, counted by your ID across all telcos combined rather than three per operator. If you already hold prepaid lines on other networks, you may need to cancel one before registering a new Singtel hi! card.
Not on the monthly bill. A hi! plan costs S$15 every 30 days for 500GB of local data plus roaming and IDD minutes, while SIM-only plans offer 100GB or more for around S$10 a month. Prepaid wins if you want roaming in the price; SIM-only wins on cost.
Singtel charges pay-per-use local data at 6.4 cents per 10KB, roughly S$6.40 per megabyte, which can drain your balance fast. Always keep an active data bundle and watch usage in the hi!App, or buy a data add-on before you run dry.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change, so verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).