Category: Life

For decades now, mobile phone top up has been incredibly painful in Madagascar.
This is now over as Supermarche.mg launched their online top up service which is a good thing if you plan to have your next holidays here 🙂

What it takes to top up your Telma, Orange, Airtel or Bip prepaid sims

As simple as 5 steps:

1. Goto the “Top Up” category page of Supermarche.mg
2. Select your operator (Telma, Orange, Airtel or Bip)
3. type in your phone number and the amount you want to top up
4. click on “Acheter maintenant” (buy now)
5. proceed to payment with PayPal

Why does it matter ?

It does matter because mobile phone Airtime in Madagascar is bloody expensive. You will find yourself out of airtime quickly.
The other ways to top up have their limitations:

• prepaid cards sold by small shops : three issues here, they have business hours which exclude night and sundays, they won’t accept your credit card and won’t have big amounts like 25.000 Ar or 50.000 Ar
• Mobile money : this is possible but you have to deposit money in advance and the sign-up process is definitely complicated

Can I do it from abroad ?

The Airtime Top Up service of Supermarché.mg works no matter where you presently live. However there are small things to note :

The Top Ups using codes work even if you don’t have a SIM card yet because you just keep the code somewhere and use it the day you land in Madagascar.

The Express Top Ups sends the Airtime to a working phone number instantly. So, you can’t buy it in advance. Anyway, you still can use it while you’re in Madagascar if you have few megabytes remaining in your data plan.

By the way, if you plan to travel inside Madagascar, you’re in luck as our national airline company finally set up their online flight booking system.

Shortcuts

You read until the bottom, thank you. Here are your take aways

• Telma Madagascar Express Top Up (permanent link)
• Orange Madagascar Express Top Up (permanent link)
• Airtel Madagascar Express Top Up (not yet available)
  
• Bip Madagascar Express Top Up (not yet available)

You can bookmark the appropriate link so you can quickly Top Up with style 😉