Damaged Sim Card

[LurganIeUk]

When activating an account one enters the 19 digit Sim Card number. You can also see the last 4 digits of the Sim Card  number when you go into My Account and use the “Change Sim” option. You usually can see the Sim Card number in the settings of the phone as well. The Sim is inserted into phone and all works ok. Let’s say it is in an iPhone. 

Once this is done let’s say the Sim Card is physically damaged. 

Will the phone itself show some kind of error in regards to the now defective Sim Card?

Will My Account show that the Sim Card is not working. 

[Korth]

Phone service won't work if the SIM IDs on the account and in the phone are mismatched.

A SIM card fault in the phone won't affect Self-Serve in any way. It will prevent the phone itself from being validated on the network. It will likely cause problems with smartphone (or at least iPhone) software which involves the SIM ID and IMEI (as unique hardware authentication tokens) when accessing cloud stuff.

If the SIM card becomes faulty or damaged then you'll have to buy a replacement SIM card.

Most SIM card faults are actually just bad electrical connection (the SIM card and/or the SIM card slot in the phone) which can be easily remedied. But SIM cards can die when their cheap low-longevity nvflash dies, when too much (gold) conductor has been scraped off the contact pads, when too much shock force has disconnected the internal solder points, when out-of-spec electrical surges or liquids or temperatures have zapped their active circuitry or broken their physical substrate.

[esjliv]

Hello @LurganIeUk ,

Yes, you may receive a "no service" message or something like that. But nothing confirming the SIM is damaged.

I would say the best way to check issues with a SIM is to try it in different PM compatible phones. And check with the moderators to see if there is an account issue as well.

[computergeek541 · Accepted solution]

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@LurganIeUk wrote:

When activating an account one enters the 19 digit Sim Card number. You can also see the last 4 digits of the Sim Card  number when you go into My Account and use the “Change Sim” option. You usually can see the Sim Card number in the settings of the phone as well. The Sim is inserted into phone and all works ok. Let’s say it is in an iPhone. 

Once this is done let’s say the Sim Card is physically damaged. 

Will the phone itself show some kind of error in regards to the now defective Sim Card?

Will My Account show that the Sim Card is not working. 

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If the SIM card doesn't work, the most likely error message that I can imagine would be No SIM card.  Your self serve account would have no way of knowing about any physical damage to the SIM card.