GiffGaff.....seems TOO cheap!

Author
Discussion

Tiggsy

Original Poster:

10,261 posts

251 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
My kid has my old iphone 3g - she needs a sim only deal for around £15pm. She texts like a 15 year old girl (because she is) and will easily do 1500+ in a month, calls less so and data is low useage but must be on as i use "find my iphone" to track her.

Giffgaff's £15 pm deal is unlimited txts and internet and 400mins - is that too good to be true?

In comparison, O2 want 50p more for 200 extra calls but 100mb of data and a 12 month tie in.

Giffgaff....good call?

MorrisCRX

638 posts

192 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
I've been on the £10 goody bag for 4 months now... no problems as of yet (internet is spot on). No contract is a big plus for me.

rpguk

4,458 posts

283 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
They are basically o2 under a different brand (same owners, same network etc) and are bloody brilliant.

I was rarely spending more then £15 a month which was less than half what I was paying before. The net is very fast in my experience and I even used it for tethering without issue.

Couple of things to consider though, their support is all by way of email and help forums. I find that's generally a much easier then dealing with some poor bloke reading a script from Bangalore anyway.

And their deals seem to be 'experimental' and changing all the time. I suspect that they are building up a user base at a loss now and those constantly changing prices will gradually rise as time goes on. There is no tie in though so that shouldn't be a problem if you keep an eye on things.

Overall big thumbs up from me though.

Edited by rpguk on Monday 13th June 12:31

Pints

18,444 posts

193 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
Tiggsy said:
...will easily do 1500+ in a month...
I've worked in the telecoms industry for several years, and it still never ceases to amaze me that people are able to send this many texts on an ongoing, regular basis.

Not complaining though. smile

Tiggsy

Original Poster:

10,261 posts

251 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
Pints said:
I've worked in the telecoms industry for several years, and it still never ceases to amaze me that people are able to send this many texts on an ongoing, regular basis.

Not complaining though. smile
Tell me about it - she went over her 3k limit a few times in the last 12 months....thats over 100 a day average. How is that even possible???

You can see why some networks dont like apples messenger app coming in ios5 - all her mates have iphones (as do we and her siblings), thats a huge number of txts that wont be going via SMS anymore.

Fetchez la vache

5,568 posts

213 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
Tiggsy said:
....thats over 100 a day average. How is that even possible???
Something tells me her school allow phones in the classroom!

LawrenceOfArabia

1,222 posts

160 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
Giffgaff has been fine for me, seems to go down a fair bit though.

As for tracking her..... rolleyes

Pints

18,444 posts

193 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
LawrenceOfArabia said:
Giffgaff has been fine for me, seems to go down a fair bit though.

As for tracking her..... rolleyes
What issue do you have with the tracking tool?

nice1two

328 posts

198 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
Looking on the site the free internet expires 30th June, or does this change every month?

Viper_Larry

4,319 posts

255 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
nice1two said:
Looking on the site the free internet expires 30th June, or does this change every month?
"Mobile Internet: Mobile Internet is free until 30 JUN (with a fair use of 100MB a day). After that date it will be charged at 20p a day. If you use less than 1MB/day you'll pay less than 20p and if you go over 20MB you'll be charged extra at 20p/MB."

oldcynic

2,166 posts

160 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
Viper_Larry said:
"Mobile Internet: Mobile Internet is free until 30 JUN (with a fair use of 100MB a day). After that date it will be charged at 20p a day. If you use less than 1MB/day you'll pay less than 20p and if you go over 20MB you'll be charged extra at 20p/MB."
fk me! £200/GB?!

The penalty clause on my Vodafone 3G contract is £10/GB across the month. I think my O2 contract is capped at £1/day or something equally sensible.

I suspect there will be some very unhappy customers when the first bills roll in at the new rate!

rpguk

4,458 posts

283 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
It's all prepay though, so you can't really accrue huge bills. Wasn't aware they were changing the internet charges. I should probably look into it.

tim2100

6,279 posts

256 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
Viper_Larry said:
nice1two said:
Looking on the site the free internet expires 30th June, or does this change every month?
"Mobile Internet: Mobile Internet is free until 30 JUN (with a fair use of 100MB a day). After that date it will be charged at 20p a day. If you use less than 1MB/day you'll pay less than 20p and if you go over 20MB you'll be charged extra at 20p/MB."
They have been saying this since last year, it keeps getting extended every quarter.

As it has zero tie in, if you exceed the data then you can easily go eleswhere.

oldcynic

2,166 posts

160 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
rpguk said:
It's all prepay though, so you can't really accrue huge bills. Wasn't aware they were changing the internet charges. I should probably look into it.
Sorry - didn't realise it was prepay.

Tiggsy

Original Poster:

10,261 posts

251 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
LawrenceOfArabia said:
Giffgaff has been fine for me, seems to go down a fair bit though.

As for tracking her..... rolleyes
Tracking is superb. When your 15 year old goes off to town with her mates is nice to be able to see that she's sat in the cinema/dinner/mall that she says she's going to be in and not somewhere else.

If she were in trouble she could text and I could get within sight of her within minutes.

The other day she was late back from school and not answering calls - 30 secs later I can see she's stopped at a mates house. She gets told off when she gets home but i dont need to worry in the mean time.

I also use it for my wife when she's off to the pub with friends....if she's walking home late at night it's reassuring to see where she is - likewise she'll check how far from home I am when I'm traveling back from clients.

Best part of iPhones is being able to follow all the devices around - I give my kids a lot more freedom knowing I can see where they are (what parent WOULDNT want to know where their kid was?)

s99ane

1,262 posts

233 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
rpguk said:
They are basically o2 under a different brand (same owners, same network etc) and are bloody brilliant.

I was rarely spending more then £15 a month which was less than half what I was paying before. The net is very fast in my experience and I even used it for tethering without issue.

Couple of things to consider though, their support is all by way of email and help forums. I find that's generally a much easier then dealing with some poor bloke reading a script from Bangalore anyway.

And their deals seem to be 'experimental' and changing all the time. I suspect that they are building up a user base at a loss now and those constantly changing prices will gradually rise as time goes on. There is no tie in though so that shouldn't be a problem if you keep an eye on things.

Overall big thumbs up from me though.

Edited by rpguk on Monday 13th June 12:31
Hi how are you managing to tether with giffgaff? Are you using iPhone or other handset?

PF62

3,575 posts

172 months

Monday 13th June 2011
quotequote all
tim2100 said:
Viper_Larry said:
nice1two said:
Looking on the site the free internet expires 30th June, or does this change every month?
"Mobile Internet: Mobile Internet is free until 30 JUN (with a fair use of 100MB a day). After that date it will be charged at 20p a day. If you use less than 1MB/day you'll pay less than 20p and if you go over 20MB you'll be charged extra at 20p/MB."
They have been saying this since last year, it keeps getting extended every quarter.
They did actually implement the charges in April and bill people for using the internet.

However the billing software caused a massive slowdown in access speeds, so after a couple of weeks of being shouted at by their customers, they turned off the billing software whilst they sorted the problem out. They claim to now know what the problem is and have fixed the software, and will be turning the billing back on from 1st July.

rpguk

4,458 posts

283 months

Tuesday 14th June 2011
quotequote all
s99ane said:
Hi how are you managing to tether with giffgaff? Are you using iPhone or other handset?
I'm using Android with PDAnet - note the newer Android phones will share their 3g signal via WIFI so that's another option.

bobr

1,031 posts

163 months

Tuesday 14th June 2011
quotequote all
I've been on giffgaff a month now and bloody love it! (I may have turned a bit preacher-ish about it)

Happy to cut microSIMs for people if they want giffgaff on an iP4, just PM me your address. (Sorry if this breaks the advertising rules, but I don't charge)

nice1two

328 posts

198 months

Tuesday 14th June 2011
quotequote all
bobr said:
I've been on giffgaff a month now and bloody love it! (I may have turned a bit preacher-ish about it)

Happy to cut microSIMs for people if they want giffgaff on an iP4, just PM me your address. (Sorry if this breaks the advertising rules, but I don't charge)
there is a section on their website where you can sign up and they will send you a free micro sim for the iphone 4.

also more information on the their internet plans is available here http://bit.ly/giffgaffice