Mobiles - Anyone on Giffgaff?

DiscoStu

It's upgrade time, but to get the latest tech on O2 (HTC One / Galaxy S4 etc) I'm looking at £30+ per month and an outlay for the handset itself upfront on a 24 month contract.

I've just been looking at Giffgaff SIM deals...

£12 per month gets 250 mins, unlimited texts AND unlimited data!

Or £15 per month gets 400 mins, unlimited texts AND unlimited data.

There are cheaper deals than that but unlimited data for £12 is ridiculous!

No contract, it runs on the O2 network I'm already using and you can change your package month to month to suit if need be.

Add in the cost of a handset which is under £500 it's still cheaper over 24 months than a contract.

Too good to be true?

ChrisMusic

My misses is on GiffGaff, and they have been great.  We both looked around for a good deal, and ideally contract free.

(rant warning) The mobile companies get away with practices which would be outlawed in any other industry, I guess that's their payback for paying for 3G & 4G licences.  Not that you asked that, but it is one factor in avoiding the 24 month contract tie-in (rip off).

So I was pleasantly surprised at GiffGaff's pricing, their terms seem OK and when she has had the odd problem (iOS upgrade caused a few issues) they responded quickly through the forum type system they use, and spot on with the answer.  You also get credit for getting involved with being helpful to others on there, which is nice.

You can get a fiver credit on the initial SIM depending how you sign up too.

The biggest surprise for me was when they suggested she took a smaller package after a couple of months, as she wasn't using over 1gb.  Saved her some money, good call from a commercial company, I am impressed by that.

One word of warning though, they don't allow tethering on phone data, and have banned some people for abusing that. Fair enough though IMO, at that price.

We each bought an iPhone 4 off our friends who upgraded to the 5, and they went through hell with O2 sorting that out.  Mine is just sitting here as I barely use the phone at all. I am out of contract on a cheap old one so I just continue using my old "Black Borry", yes, cheap Chinese copy.  But she gets great value out of hers, good service from GiffGaff too.  So will I when the time is right.

No need to get a new phone either as there are plenty of recent models around, especially around upgrade / new product launch time.

Good Luck, hope that helps.   

ddlooping

Stu, have you checked Virgin? They do an unlimited everything for £15!!

http://store.virginmedia.com/virgin-media-mobile/sim-only/pay-monthly-sim.html

I haven't read the small print though.

Dodge

I'm with Giffgaff and have no complaints.  The Virgin deal looks great, apart from Virgin using Orange's network which has crap coverage where I am.  Giffgaff uses O2.

ddlooping

Dodge said:

I'm with Giffgaff and have no complaints.  The Virgin deal looks great, apart from Virgin using Orange's network which has crap coverage where I am.  Giffgaff uses O2.

Not sure if it makes any difference but Virgin uses the T-Mobile network and switches to Orange's when there's no signal.

hywelg

Whose network do Gif Gaff piggy back onto? Or are they just a middle man like Carphone Warehouse?

EDIT: just saw Dodge's comment above. O2...

ChrisMusic said:

One word of warning though, they don't allow tethering on phone data, and have banned some people for abusing that. Fair enough though IMO, at that price.

How do they know though? If you run a wifi hotspot on your mobile, how would the network know?

ChrisMusic

hywelg said:

ChrisMusic said:

One word of warning though, they don't allow tethering on phone data, and have banned some people for abusing that. Fair enough though IMO, at that price.

How do they know though? If you run a wifi hotspot on your mobile, how would the network know?

I'm not completely sure, but I believe that the signature of each device connected is trackable, and that would include tethered ones.

( If you have ever driven into London you know what a "Big Brother" society we are living in (in the Orwellian sense).  You leave a fingerprint and traceability ever where you go, street cameras, license plate recognition, mobiles, proposed 'black boxes' in cars, internet use, (remember the GCHQ storing our phone conversations and internet traffic for a month, recently in the news) and so it goes. )

There is also the issue of how much data is used, probably more for each upward device, ie phone > tablet > laptop, due to the nature of use, etc.

I suspect that they don't penalise occasional light use, but if you start tethering 40gb a month they will probably notice.  Easier to do that stuff on a public or private wi-fi network, and probably quicker too.  They (GiffGaff) do offer data packages too.

3 mobile specifically forbid tethering without a seperately bought upgrade, unless you were on their One Plan.  I may be a little out of date with this as it was last year that I did the research, so best to trawl the T&Cs of which ever operator you are considering.

(abdication of responsibility clause) Don't quote me on any of this, it is just my opinion. Always check through the T&Cs, they all hide lots of stuff away in the small print.  But then we are in the music business here, and we all know what contracts can do !!!

DiscoStu

Cheers guys.

Virgin use T-Mobile, which is why I have avoided their offers over the years as the signal up here is shit.
O2 works best for me, I've been with them for over a decade (with an 18 spell with vodafone a couple of years ago which was utter hell signal wise) so Giffgaff is ideal.

I read that you could tether with GG? Not that I have any need for that option so it doesn't bother me either way.

They used to offer tethering on their £10 Goodybag mobile SIM but now you need to use one of their data-only Gigabag SIMs. Because there's no contract, if you knew you needed to tether for something in particular (long trip, holiday etc) then just buy their £5 Gigabag SIM, pop it in your phone and away you go. Put your mobile SIM back in when you're finished.
Not perfect I grant you, but the option IS there and at a crazy low price! Can't tether to iPhones though. 

http://giffgaff.com/goodybags/500mb-mobile-broadband

Hmmm. I'm sorely tempted by GG now... I've got a Galaxy S2 which is working fine so I could go SIM only for a wee while longer until phone prices come down or something even better comes along.

digitalscream

Even if, say, you bought a Nexus 4 (£240 for 8GB, £280 for 16GB), you'd still be £200 to the good over the usual 24 month contract.

It's the way I'm going...however, the tethering is a worry. If I'm out and about, I'll tend to use my Chromebook through my phone's wireless connection. It's a strange restriction.

EDIT: Actually, it's not totally limited - it's only on packages with unlimited data:

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Using-giffgaff/Tethering-policy/ta-p/7816336

Phew.

monquixote

Tesco Mobile are also O2 they have some good deals.

DiscoStu

Spoke to some pals last night so have tried gift gaff and they moved to Three because GG stopped the tethering option and actually froze the account when they tried. 

Three do a SIM only with tethering (up to 5 devices) for £18 month only, or £15 of you go for a contract.