You can get a prepaid Movistar / Claro / Personal SIM card for a few pesos / free at phone shops , all you pay is about 20 Pesos (about 5 US-Dollars) for your initial credits. Inserting the SIM card into your unlocked American or European mobile phone should work, although to register the SIM you have to enter your passport (or any 9 digit) number - you then have your personal Argentinean phone number, which is very useful to keep in touch with other travellers, either by calling or by writing text messages. Calls cost around 1 Peso per minute.
Receiving calls is usually free, except for international calls, and some cross network / inter-city calls - hence buying a SIM card purely to keep in touch with people overseas may not be worth it.
To reload you can buy small cards with secret numbers at many kiosks. Dialing *444, pressing 2 followed by 1, and entering the secret number does the trick.
Not related to mobile phones, there are similar cards with credits for international calls. You get them at so called 'locutorios', where you can also use the phone booths. You dial a free number to connect to the service, then your secret number for the credits, and then the international phone number you want to call. Using these cards, a one-hour call to Europe will cost about 10 Pesos (3 US-Dollars). Don't call without such cards or even from your hotel - it will be way more expensive.
The phone numbering plan in Argentina is hopelessly complicated for unexpecting foreigners. Do check out the Wikipedia article about it to find out more.
Directory Listing (The White Pages): 110
International Operator: 000
National Operator: 19
Collect National Calls: 19 from regular phones, *19 from public phones
Mobile phone numbers start with 15
Regional code for Buenos Aires: 11
Other useful phone numbers include:
Official Time: 113
Consumer Defense: (011) 5382-6216/17
All 2 and 3-digit numbers are free, except the official time service (113). All 0800 numbers are toll-free numbers.
Long Distance Calls From Argentina:
You may use calling card, 0.18 Peso/min or 5.90 ¢/min for calling from Argentina to USA.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Argentina
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Argentina - updated Apr 2024
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Argentina Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
