A SIM card, or Subscriber Identity Module, is a tiny memory card that saves your cell phone account information and allows your phone to access your account.

You can remove the SIM card tray that holds your phone’s SIM card with any common household objects, such as a small paper clip, earring stud, or a small staple.

Most newer smartphones are sold with a SIM card removal tool included in the packaging of their phones. Sadly, few people are adept at keeping track of the useful device.

How to Remove a SIM Card Without the Removal Tool

The SIM card removal tool is just a small key-like tool with a small end that juts out that looks remarkably similar to the end of a small paper clip.

Here’s a video on how we use different household objects to remove the SIM cards:

You want to avoid using any objects that are pointy or sharp, like a tack or needle, as they could cause damage to your device or your SIM card.

How to Use Household Objects to Access your SIM Card

SIM cards on both iPhone and Android phones are usually held in a small, unassuming tray located on the side of the device. 

You can find the SIM tray easily because it is a round tray with a small hole. Normally, if you insert a SIM card removal tool into this hole, it presses a small eject button.

Once the eject button has been depressed, the SIM card tray pops out automatically and gives the user access to the device’s SIM card. A SIM card looks similar to an SD card.

Here are instructions for using a small paper clip, earring stud, or a small staple to open the SIM card tray when you don’t have a SIM card removal tool

  • Take your small paper clip, earring stud, or staple and place one end into the hole on the SIM card tray.
  • Some phone brands don’t have the tray that automatically pops out, so you may have to use a small paper clip, earring stud, or staple to pull the plastic tray out.
  • Once the tray is released from the phone, you can remove the small SIM card from the tray.
  • The SIM card looks similar to a small SD card with a brass-colored chip, similar to a credit or debit card.

Once you have the card removed, you can replace it with another, or if you are getting errors, try cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol and trying it again once it dries.

Reasons People Want to Remove Their SIM Card

You may be asking yourself why you would even want to remove your SIM card once you have had it installed by your cell provider or carrier.

Well, the reasons can be varied:

  • Lost or Stolen phone
  • SIM card is damaged or worn
  • SIM card becomes blocked by your cell carrier
  • A simple, unrecoverable SIM card error
  • Someone wants to swap their SIM card for another and use the same device

It is important to recognize that SIM card swapping scams are prevalent, and people lose their identities, data, money, and more.

What is a SIM Card Swapping Scam?

Many people use their phones as Two-Factor Authentication devices to get into their email, bank, or sensitive accounts. 

A SIM card swap attempts to steal this information.

A SIM card scammer will call your cell carrier and pretend to be you to get them to create a new SIM card for them. 

They will then put this copied SIM card into a device they control.

Now, any one-time sent code for two-factor authentication will be sent to them, and they can use their swapped SIM card to gain access to all your accounts and information.

How Can You Prevent a SIM Card Swapper From Taking your SIM Card?

The two main things you can do to protect yourself from SIM card swapping scams is to set all of your social media profiles to private. 

It makes it harder for the scammer to gain information to social engineer their way to a copy of your SIM card from your cell carrier.

The second thing you can do is use different PINs and passwords for all your accounts. 

Especially your email account. It can be used to reset all your other passwords.

You should also use random, strong passwords, preferably generated by a password manager program.

 A strong password manager program will save you lots of heartache from scammers.

Conclusion

Any small, blunt-ended object inserted into the SIM card tray hole will give you access to the SIM card. 

Common household items like small paper clips, earrings, and staples can be easily found in most homes and get you access to the SIM tray just as quickly as the SIM card tool.