Giffgaff
Giffgaff is a virtual mobile network that was launched on 25 November 2009. Giffgaff is an old Scottish Gaelic word which means “mutual giving” and the name was chosen to fit with the principles outlined in the manifesto such as being member run, always listening to members and rewarding them in kind. This is a unique aspect of Giffgaff – its users also help out in operating the company in areas such as customer service, sales and marketing. They are rewarded with offers and cashback for this work.
Giffgaff was founded by Gav Thompson, who came up with the idea after studying Web 2.0 businesses in San Francisco in 2008. During the first year of operation in 2010, Giffgaff won two industry awards, the Forrester Groundswell Award and the Most Innovative Community Award. It was also nominated for the Marketing Society’s Brand of the Year.
Giffgaff’s community-driven concept allows it to keep its costs down while still providing a superior service. It only employs 16 people but is already exceeding its targets. Giffgaff runs on the O2 network, has a strong ethics policy and gives away part of its profits to charities.
Free SIM
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Giffgaff review
Giffgaff is probably the UK’s cheapest and best mobile network. It offers far better value than the main networks such as Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2 and 3 and is also cheaper than other virtual networks. In fact, Giffgaff’s prices show that it’s the cheapest mobile network in the UK. Part of this is due to it being partly member-run but this aspect also ensures that it has some of the best customer service in the industry due to its responsive customer forums and online help system.
One of the most amazing thing about Giffgaff is the incredible value offered by its goodbag deals. These offer unlimited texts for only £5/month and unlimited data for just £10/month (you get free minutes and texts too). And don’t forget, what makes them even cheaper is the fact that all calls and texts to other Giffgaff numbers are completely free too.
As Giffgaff runs on the O2 network it has a solid backbone for 2G and fast 3G communications and no sacrifices have been made for its low cost. However, perhaps the best thing about it is Giffgaff’s “payback”. Just by participating in the community forums by posting questions or answers, you can get rewarded in cash or phone credit. Many users earn as much as £20 every month from Giffgaff which can be much more than they spend on their phone especially as the prices are so cheap.
Many many people now fancy Giffgaff as the standout mobile network in the UK. When you consider its broad coverage, unbeatable prices and payback scheme, it’s clearly the best of all mobile networks.
PAYG Pricing
At a glance
Details
Giffgaff is a virtual network and therefore it’s much cheaper on PAYG than other mobile networks. In fact, it manages to be cheaper than all the other networks. Calls are only 10p per minute while texts are a bargain at 6p each. Even better, all Giffgaff-to-Giffgaff calls are completely free at all times and all 0800 calls are always free too. What’s more, internet is only 20p for 20MB which is many many times less expensive than other networks and its international rates are rock bottom too. Texting EU or North American countries is only 8p and it’s also only 8p/min to call. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Except it does. Giffgaff also offers several “goodybags” that offer PAYG customers contract-style value (or better) without any expensive and restrictive tie-in. These range from just £5 to £25 and offer everything from unlimited calls to unlimited data and up to 1500 free minutes.
Deals
Giffgaff’s goodybags start with their £5 offering that provides truly unlimited texts. Calls to other Giffgaff users are also always free.
The £10 goodybag gives all users not only unlimited texts but also a massive 250 voice minutes and unlimited internet. And that’s unlimited data with no fair usage restrictions either.
The £15 goodybag gives all the above but with 400 minutes instead of 250 and it continues all the way up until the £25 offer which provides you with 1500 minutes as well as unlimited texts, unlimited internet and, like all the others, free calls to Giffgaff users. These are the best deals available.
A really interesting goodybag is the Hokey Cokey goodybag. This was an experimental offering from Giffgaff for several months but eventually got added to the permanent line-up. It costs just £5 and comes with 300 texts and 60 minutes of calltime but has a fantastic twist – for every minute you get called, you get an additional minute of credit absolutely free. This means that if you ever run out of minutes, you just need to get a friend to call you and you’ll be able to make free calls again. In trying this out, we were amazed at how quickly the bonus minutes added up. Just using our phone normally for a month we usually found we ended up with more minutes than we started off with when using the Hokey Cokey goodybag. It was effectively unlimited calls and all for just £5/month.
The latest goodybag to be introduced is the data-only goodybag or Gigabag. As you can’t tether or use non-mobile phone devices for data with a normal goodybag, this is a special product designed especially for tethering to a computer and for use in tablets such as the iPad. It comes in various sizes and offers the best value data packages in the UK with 3GB costing just £12.50. If you need to use a micro-SIM with Giffgaff (for example on an iPad), you will have to get it specially through our Giffgaff micro-SIM order page as they don’t offer them directly.
Price comparison
To compare Giffgaff’s latest pricing with that of other networks to show just how much cheaper it is, please check out our conclusive mobile price comparison table.
Coverage
Summary
Coverage map
Giffgaff uses the O2 network. Please see our Giffgaff coverage page to learn the network coverage in your area. For more information, compare it with other mobile phone networks’ coverage.
Rating
Give your own rating to Giffgaff below:
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Giff Gaff is a great network with brilliant cheap calls and texts for just 4p a text and 8p a minute. It has great O2 reception and a excellent customer service. There is a great feature when you recommend a friend where you both get a £5 free credit for helping Giff Gaff.
Over all Giff Gaff in my opinion is the best network in the uk and boasts great prices which it always stands up to. They are very transparent and clear about what they are offering. I gave Giff gaff and overall 20 out of 20 so a great score from me and other Giff Gaffers agree.
Giff gaff! What a nightmare I would never recommend them to anyone.
I brought my iPhone 4s , my friend recommended giff gaff, I have had the phone for 3 weeks endless sim cards and still it does work. They won’t answer my questions just refer me to the community , who are very helpful but this is obviously an internal giff gaff problem which needs to be solved by giff gaff.
They have taken 30 quid from me and I still don’t have a phone that works and they won’t refund my money or connect me.
There is no customer service.
They even deleted my questions because they were negative, simply asking them to help.
Tilly
Is your phone unlocked,
i’d wager that you’re an idiot.
hahahah
Sounds like it. Its not rocket science!
I BET a million ££££ your phone is not unlocked. Heard this from SO many people, shouting that their sim’s don’t ‘work’…… UNLOCK your phone! (NOTE: that doesn’t mean unlock it using the slide unlock on the touchscreen – it means paying a few quid to have the network unlocked!)
You don’t even need to pay someone. There’s instructions on the giffgaff site.
The £10 goody bag gives 250 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited data. A £7.50 per month contract with Tesco mobile gives 250 mins, 5000 texts (which to me = unlimited as I’d never get close to texting that much) and 500Mb data. AND you get a free phone.
This seems a better deal to me than the £10 goody bag
You would be right except for a) You get unlimited giffgaff-to-giffgaff, b) the phone is next to useless and c) 500MB is barely 15MB/day and the overage charges are extortionate.
Not to mention being locked in for 2 years!
Just the one caveat. A lot of smartphones offer the ability to act as mobile WiFi hotspots these days, others use a USB connection. Like 02 giffgaff will get quite snotty if you try to tether a PC/Mac to your phone in this way. At least 02 will let you pay extra for this, giffgaff won’t apparently.
Actually they do let you pay extra – all the gigabags allow you to pay for tethering.
Purchase the right package and you can do what you want. It is all actually rather reasonable.
Now if you’re going to be downloading 3Gb of data a day, then you should really get a broadband connection >_> or wait until you get home.
will i need to unlock my o2 phone to use this sim
Philip is correct – as Giffgaff runs on the O2 network, you can use phones that are locked to O2 on it. The same also applies to (some phones on) Tesco Mobile as it uses the O2 network too.
If you are switching, don’t forget that if you order your Giffgaff SIM through us, you get £5 free credit.
o2 phones dont need unlocking as giffgaff works on the same network
NO you will not have to unlock as giff gaff uses O2′s signal.
Will I get a FREE phone if i sign up? And what type/model of phones do I get?
No – this is a PAYG network, not a contract network. Not only does this give you massively increased flexibility but if you actually run the figures, you’ll see you’ll save money even if you have to buy a new phone at the beginning of your contract. That way you can get any type/model of phone that you want and you’re not tied into a lengthy contract. Let us know if you have any further queries.
hi i don’t understand about what you said (you’ll see you’ll save money even if you have to buy a new phone at the beginning of your contract) i thought you said it is not a contract network…
That should have read “contract” in inverted commas.
For example, imagine that you get a 24 month contract for £35 a month with a free phone worth £400. That equates to a total cost of ownership over two years of £840. With Giffgaff, even if you buy the phone brand new and unlocked for £300 at the beginning of the contract and pay £10 every month for a goodybag with more minutes, texts and data, your total cost of ownership is only £640. Over two years, you save £200 versus getting a contract. And your phone is unlocked and you’re not tied into anything – you’re free to change at any time.
Make sense?
I have been using Giffgaff for the last 4 months and Im quite happy with it. I found the Giffgaff pricing to be the lowest amongst mobile providers and service is reliable(O2 network). Most packages offer unlimited texts and unlimited web access without the need to be tied into a contract. So it has the flexibility of pay-as-you-go, but with prices you would get only on some contracts. The £10 goodybag that I use, gives me 250 UK mins, unlimited UK texts and unlimited web access for a month.
here is what i get when i type unlimited in wordweb pro..i dont believe my interpretation of the word is wrong
1 Having no limits in range or scope
2 Without reservation or exception
3 That cannot be entirely consumed or used up
giff gaff DO NOT offer unlimited web….unlimited is unlimited…..its not unlimited…..BUT!
are the unlimited texts for anywhere, or only in the uk ?
The text and call allowances are only for UK numbers (but obviously the person using the number can be outside the UK). If you have any other questions, please just ask us.
A lot of my texts and a few calls are to Morocco, Australia and NZ. What are the charges for these countries?
Also I have come to the end of my 2 year contract with my iphone 3G and thinking of buying a iphone 4s and cutting my cost and getting a gif gaf sim, as I’m about to stop work and have a baby. Will the 4S run fine on the gif gaf sim – is there anything I need to consider?
Thanks,
All texts to Australia and New Zealand would be just 8p each and calls are only 8p to landlines and 16p to mobiles. However, texts to Morocco would be 20p each but you could send much longer MMS and include pictures too for just 24p each. Calls to Morocco are £1/minute for landlines and mobiles.
The iPhone 4S works perfectly with Giffgaff and you can save a lot of money compared to a contract.
Lyca mobile is cheep for calling abroad.
Or you can just facetime them or imessage if the person recieving the text also has an iphone and thats free over wifi
Other minor’ish caveats of gg I’ve found are: 1) lack of sms delivery notifications; 2) no data roaming at all. Nonetheless, I’m switching to gg from TMUK, which apparently reckons 350kbps speed limit for their internet booster is just fine. Bollocks.
You’re completely right about both of those. While 1) is completely O2′s fault for having out-of-date hardware, Giffgaff have shown a complete disinterest in getting it fixed. As for 2) I really hope they get it prioritised over useless crap like Blackberry support especially as it also means that MMS is unavailable when roaming.
Hmm, right. I didn’t think of that MMS side effect. That’s less minor’ish caveat then, I’d say.
We’re actually looking into this a bit more right now – there are conflicting reports on the Giffgaff forums about whether they work while roaming or not.
Have you ever tried to use data or MMS while roaming from Giffgaff?
O2 do have delivery reports, but you don’t enable them in the standard way.
You’ve got to start a text with *0# and you’ll get a text back once it’s received.
I don’t know if this applies for giffgaff though.
You’re right about that – they do have them, they just aren’t properly implemented. The *0# kludge also works on Giffgaff though.
Could ‘O#’ just be set as a template so we don’t always have to remember to type ‘o#’ and so get delivery reports kinda automatically??
Great idea!
No, I haven’t.
Type *0# before a message and send it to receive a delivery report. Remember i told you so.
Do giffgaff work with blackberry messenger?
Not yet. Blackberrys work fine for everything that doesn’t require BIS but they will announce full Blackberry support very soon. We’ll be sure to post about it as soon as we hear.
Mobile data is fine – just make sure your handset settings are right.
I’d give giffgaff full marks & have signed my whole family up. Although some other contracts may seem good value, in my experience you get overcharged – for receiving texts sent by the network etc – so my £15 monthly contract often came to nearer £60. Then you can’t prove you haven’t been on the internet/received calls etc so it’s near enough impossible to get your money back.
The best things about giffgaff are that you know exactly what you are spending, it’s much better value than other networks and the forum is easy if you need help. Also you can have all the benefits of a monthly package without being tied into a contract
An easy way to ensure that you have the correct settings to use mobile data is to text “SETTINGS” to 2020 and you’ll get an SMS reply which will automatically install the data and MMS settings.
If you have an Android handset it’s even easier as you can just download the giffgaffAPN app.
It is good, but you have to have actual credit on your phone if you want to use the internet. So iv paid for a £10 goodybag and iv also had to put £10 on my phone as well.
Cheers
Sorry but that’s not correct. As long as you have an active goodybag that includes data, you can use the internet even if your credit balance is only £0.
If I get a £15 goody bag do I get the 400 mins,unlimited texts and internet and still have £15 credit like on o2 or am I paying £15 for the calls,texts and internet?
You’re buying the goodybag so the credit is spent on it. It’s still a much better deal than O2.
Er no, the goodybags last for a month.
There are two ways of topping up, regular talk time, which last until you run out of credit and goodybags, which last a month. Calls & texts between giffgaff users are free, calls made without goodybags are really cheap.
my heads in bits looking for the best deal. im on vodafone payg but want a new phone and better deal. ive come across giffgaff and it looks great but the only query i have is it says truly unlimited data then you read the “small print” and it says Data: 20p/day (20MB)!? whats that about? i want to spend £10-£15 a month on these goodybags and for the whole month be able to text and use internet for facebook etc without worrying about it running out after 1 or 2 weeks!
Unlimited data is only if you buy a goodybag for £10 or more. PAYG data is 20p/day. You’ll only have to pay the £10-£15 goodybag charge so it will work fine for you
can i use gg on my iphone 3gs
Yes – Giffgaff works beautifully on all iPhones.
Hi all
I have just read about gifffaff and really pleased as my Tesco 1 year contract expires in Sept 4. So I will get a sim and practice before porting my number across. However, I use a mac, Safari and when I click on any link I can’t get into the website. Pain in the proberbial. I had a quick glance through forums and this appears to be an issue – ‘lifting some bar or other may solve’??? Is this a one-off problem or do all mac/safari users experience this? It will infuriate me if so.
Any comments appreciated and thank you.
We sent you an email if you want us to post you a SIM with £5 free credit. Otherwise, just try using another browser…
Watz da international rates
Go to http://giffgaff.com/index/pricing and check “International Tariffs”. EU texts and calls are only 8p.
I’m planning to get a Blackberry for very light email use (less than 10 pop3 emails sent and received a week and no attachments). Voice calls would also be light and ususally to fixed lines. Would Giffgaff be a good choice and roughly what would the data component cost per month?
Also would I be OK with a Blackberry bought on Tesco’s network as I can use their vouchers until end of month.
With Giffgaff the main data cost on PAYG depends on how many days a month you use it. It could be as little as about £1/month but can easily go up to £5/month just for data charges. What would your other usage be?
A Blackberry on Tesco would be fine but bear in mind full BIS is not going to be ready until next year. Do you need a Blackberry over other smartphones anyway?
Thanks for this. What is full BIS and what extra does it provide? Presumably I dont need it for email. My choice of Blackberry over other smartphones is just that I’m used to it from work and the battery life seems to be better than many other smartphones.
It basically provides RIM’s proprietary data services such as Blackberry Messenger. You should be able to use all other aspects of the internet such as email without it.
It’s definitely worth considering changing to Android though.
Is the signal good? as im on 3 and the signal is really bad so i want to know before i purchase this sim.
Thanks
The 2G coverage is excellent and there is strong 3G coverage in cities. Check our coverage comparison to compare with 3′s coverage in your area.
Will I be able to use my mobile in Europe and USA?
Yes – Giffgaff are able to use O2s roaming deals pretty much anywhere in the world.
hi
im currently on o2 payg and so far its been pretty good to me im thinking of going over to giffgaff but im still unsure
What’s keeping you back and what’s your rough monthly usage? You’ll save a huge amount if you switch to Giffgaff (plus there’s the £5 free credit we can get you).
So far they have been awesome, my phone bill is just £10 a month. The only warning though is that 0845 numbers are not included. I think thats pretty standard practice but you will need a bit of credit if you ever have to call them numbers.
There are always landline numbers behind every 0845 number and saynoto0870 -dot- com keeps a database of them all. Worth a look as it can save quite a few £ if calling from your mobile
The saynoto0870 tip is great but be warned they don’t have alternatives for every number, just most of them….
I currently have a Vodaphone PAYG chip. How easy is it to transfer things like address book etc. And do I retain my existing number?
It’s really easy to switch to Giffgaff. If you make sure your address book and texts are on your phone rather than your SIM you don’t need to transfer anything. In any case, most phones make it very simple to back up your data.
As for keeping your number, read our guide to porting your phone number when switching networks.
Last question. I only use my Blackberry PAYG phone for texting and phone calls. Wnat is tne Giffgaff for these two functions compared with Vodaphone.
As per our PAYG comparison table, calls are 25p/minute on Vodafone and only 8p/minute on Giffgaff while texts are 12p each on Vodafone but just 4p each on Giffgaff.
Also, if you get a Giffgaff SIM for your family and friends too (just go back and order another one from us) all calls and texts to them are completely free.
Am I correct in thinking that I will lose all my credit on my Vodaphone SIM if I transfer? Anyway of getting around this?
Unfortunately yes although there may be some options available. How much credit do you have left?
About £15.
You might have to just spend it or write it off as a necessary expense to enjoy the savings with Giffgaff. If you have slightly more than £15 left, you could get about a fiver for it on eBay too.
It would be a nice idea to donate the credit to charity via SMS.
Im thinking about getting giffgaff, but i was wondering how good the signal is? If i use up my minutes can i run over? And do you keep the money youve put on it aswell as the things you recive from the goody bags?
1. The signal is as good as O2‘s. You can learn more by looking at our Giffgaff coverage map.
2. Overage is charged at the standard low PAYG rates.
3. Of course not, otherwise you’d never need to spend any credit.
can any body tell me if giff gaff calls to 02 numbers are free
No – all calls to landlines are currently charged at 8p/minute.
Giffgaff are messing up as of recently. My phone, in congested areas, will refuse to connect calls, will drop them as soon as they’re connected, will connect but not be able to hear me speak, ALL of which are symptoms of not enough network capacity – and they don’t happen everywhere, so it’s not the handset (tried a few different ones). I lost a job interview due to this, what a bunch of cheapskates to not have call-centres when they don’t put the money into capacity, and of course O2 will prioritise for their own customers if it has to drop one or the other’s call. I had this happen many times this month, and couldn’t use the minutes I paid for due to this (txts SEEM unaffected, although it’s harder to test).
They also put their prices UP (in English, that’s called a ‘price increase’) but didn’t admit it in the correct words, spinning it as a ‘change’. No, a ‘change’ implies multiple possibilities, not just a steady, gradual linear price increase. Whether you think so or not, this is LYING, and not to be respected, trusted OR encouraged with your hard-earned money. So don’t give them any, I hate liars and people who use SPIN, because it doesn’t change the MATHS and the amount of money in your bank account at the end of the day, so having to decipher the truth out of the spin is a waste of time. People tolerate it all the time, why? Time’s precious, and just because some idiots fall for the lying, why should intelligent people have to waste their time on it? We truly serve the companies these days, not the other way round.
so far there are really only 2 interesting comments here – and so far these have gone unanswered – this seem to be telling… a company that says it will respond… does respond to the easy comments, and forgetts about the tricky ones – I was almost in GG, now I’m OUT!
The comments in question are… the one above about droppping calls and the fact that 02 will drop GG calls first and the fact that you hide your price increases in spin.
The second comment was a lot higher up, and concerned a loss of service between top-ups for between 5 and 15 hours…
Any answers to these not so simple questions?!
We are not a Giffgaff-affiliated website. If you want these questions answered, please pop over to their forums where someone will definitely get back to you
Looking over this site i could not beleave all the glowingly good comments on gifgaf as I, my wife, my son, and three mates Having all used gifgaf for about 2 or 3 months got totally fed-up of constantly dropped calls often only getting only 30 seconds before it will drop then drop and drop etc etc but the worst was just never getting many calls at all, and making calls that seem to do nothing,
Yes they have a forum but if you say anything that puts gif gaf in a bad light you get your posts removed!! both i and one of my mates had posts deleted when we was trying to find out what was happening.
This was not a local thing as two of my mates live 140 mails from me, we have all gone to other networks mostly to 3 except my son who is still on gifgaf but as is phone has a flat battery 50% of the time he wont notice how bad gifgaf is or was.
I dont know if things have improved in the last 2 months but i will not be finding out
Dave
Where are you based? Are you sure it’s not a signal/coverage issue? There are definitely no problems like you describe with the network as a whole.
with the £10 goodybag tariff do you still have £10 credit plus the free texts and web and 250minutes??
No – that wouldn’t make any sense. The goodybag costs £10.
Do I have to buy a Goodybag or can I just buy £10 top up credit? if the latter is there a time limit on how long the top up lasts? I understand I need to top up every 3 months to benefit from free giffgaff to giffgaff calls.
You aren’t obliged to get goodybags at all. Plenty of people just use normal PAYG credit. Credit lasts indefinitely as long as you make or receive a call/text every 6 months.
Ive just activated my giffgaff SIM and tried to use it with a new Samsung phone on Tesco Mobile and it says invalid SIM. From looking at the giffgaff community forum it seems that many phones on Tesco Mobile need to be unlocked to work on giffgaff in spite of what it says on this forum (and both operators using the O2 network). I believe Tesco Mobile will unlock phones for free when you’ve been with them for 12 months but as this is a new phone I’ll need to pay for an unlock code if I want to use giffgaff. Others might want to note this.
Thanks for letting us know – it seems it depends on which model of phone you have.
Can I bring my current phone number to giffgaff?
Yes, it’s really easy. The first step is to get your PAC code. Thankfully we’ve written a full guides explaining everything you have to do to port your number and change mobile network to Giffgaff.
I want to publicly express my dissatisfaction with this company. After long promises, problems with the line and a endless promise to sort out my issue, I’m still without line after activate it since 9/8/11.
This Situation Is getting ridiculous.
The very unprofessional performance of its technical team and customer service please make a disservice to the company and its public image.
It is interesting to recall at this point that a good word of mouth helped a lot Giffgaff to grow, but also, I want to Giffgaff to remember that a bad review also helps to lose very unhappy costumers that will open the black box that every company wants to hide.
I wish I knew how to make an official complaint in the UK (as I am not British I am not familiar with the system) as I have the right as consumer: I will also would like to know if I can take my number to another company even if my line still barred and of course get 9,41 pound worth credit (which I can not use).
In a nutshell: worst network suplier ever! Just want my number and money back and walk away to never go back and hear from this crap mobile network!
Did you ever get this sorted out? A good place to start with issues like this is the agents or the online community forums.
If you still want to make a complaint, you should contact Ofcom.
if i get a giffgaff sim card for my nokia e7, will it still work on my phone ???????
im on o2 PAYG right now on my nokia e7, i was woundering if i change to giffgaff, could i still keep my numeber what i have on my o2 one ??
Eki – yes, it will work fine. And it’s really easy to keep your O2 number. Just read our guide to changing mobile network and porting your mobile number for simple instructions.
i have gone through a few of your pages about changing network but keeping the same number, and on on page it says that “some networks such as Giffgaff give you free credit when you activate” (http://mobilenetworkcomparison.co.uk/change/) i havent got the free credit and plus i havnt been able to keep my number just yet, could you give me giffgaff’s customer service number so i can sort all this out.
Did you order your SIM through our link for £5 free credit? Also, we have information about easily porting your number.
If you have any other questions, we’ll try to help
I got a giffgaff sim and it worked in my phone so decided to try and keep my old number. The number transfer was supposed to take place on Friday 13th – this did not happen and now my old o2 sim and new giffgaff sim do not work. I’ve messaged the agents several times through the giffgaff website but nothing has happened. Does anyone know how i can get my initial £10 top up returned to me
Good signal most places but I can’t get a signal from my house. So I’m going to have to find a new supplier
Where do you live and what does the Giffgaff coverage map say?
Ive been with giffgaff since February.
So far their network has gone down 3 times, MMS went down twice, ‘Goodybags’ have not carried over when you have pre-purchased the next one meaning no way of phoning/texting from your phone for around 18hours during the first of the month (has happened the past two months in a row.)
Such a shame. I love the idea (No need to phone India all the time, just pop on the forum) but them fixing technical faults takes at least 12hours a time and The ‘Agents’ are pretty rubbish and just seem to send canned responses. Meaning your only hope for a fix is the community, people just like you ,who also don’t have the means to actually fix it and just adds to the confusion during times of network failure.
Ive removed my referral links from my social media pages and forum signatures as I dont want my friends in the same position as me a few weeks after they activate their sims.
If you are planning on joining giffgaff I would recommend looking in the ‘community’ forums and discover some of the downtime issues and bugs you will come across.
When the network is fine and the goodbag systems work its an outstanding network. When (not if) the network falls on its arse and your goodybag/credit goes missing every month or so for anywhere between 5hours and a day, its a real pain in the arse.
Terrible terrible network. Problems nearly every day, internet is at a snails pace, 50% success rate for incoming calls/texts.
Customer service agents don’t read questions but give standard cut/paste responses.
Online forum ran by a bunch of idiotic school children.
How do i get the free £5 link before i order my sim?
As long as you order through our Giffgaff SIM page you’ll automatically get £5 free credit when you activate it.
I am with Virgin Mobile which has a personalized and free Answerphone when the phone is switched off . Do GG provide this service to.
Giffgaff operate a voicemail service too.
Hi
just wondering if the minutes in the goodybag are anytime and are they to uk landlines and mobiles?
Thinking of getting unlocked iphone 4s and ipad 2 would these sims work in both?
Thanks
Yes, the goodybag minutes are any time and any network and can also be used for UK landlines too.
If you want to get a Giffgaff SIM for an iPhone 4S or an iPad 2 you’ll have to get a micro-SIM through us. Just head over to our page for Giffgaff SIM cards for iPhone and iPad and order a couple.
Cheers
? In an earlier comment it was said that landlines cost 8p/min.
Can you confirm whether 02 numbers(landlines) and voicemail are included in minutes (i.e in £10 goody bag with 250 mins). Thanks
Prices have risen since then – landlines are now 10p/minute. All UK landlines (01, 02, 03 numbers) are the same price and they are all included in goodybag minutes.
Thanks and voicemail too?
Voicemail is only 8p per call – this means it costs a flat fee of 8p even if you take several minutes to check your voicemail.
Is voicemail incl. in goodie bag mins ?
Yes and it only costs 1 minute of your allowance no matter how long the voicemail call lasts.
There’s a huge thread on their website of this guy who downloaded 20gb in 2 weeks and got disconnected. He wasn’t tethering, but downloaded straight to his phone.
Now I could easily download 20gb of legal things, such as podcasts, lovefilm, bbc iplayer, and such. As well as any file I could get my hands on (big Linux Distros?). Really make use of their service, which they have the cheek to call it “abuse”.
WTF is the point of advertising as a carrier who has no Fair Usage Policy, that you provide “Truly Unlimited” internet, and then argue against people for downloading too much saying they “abuse” the service.
It’s BS. It’s not about being fair to other users on the network, if that’s the case, then you should have a fair usage policy. No it’s all about advertising something as “truly unlimited” when it’s not.
If you’re going to do that, my 500MB plan with Vodafone is enough, I never go over, because I wouldn’t use my phone for downloading, only surfing.
However if you are telling me I can download as much as I want, no fair usage policy, no catch, then I will start downloading large things on my phone, because that’s what I’m paying you for, a “truly unlimited” internet! Otherwise I would have never switched over from my previous provider.
Lying corporations like the rest of them. Hypocrites. “Truly unlimited”, we don’t have a fair usage policy, there’s no catch, oh but be fair to other users, and don’t abuse it. WTF!?!
Rant over, I hope people understand this point.
That sounds strange and troubling. They’ve always claimed it was truly unlimited. Got a link to the thread?
Took me a couple of minutes to find it again: http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Ask-the-community-got-stuck/UNLIMITED-DATA-ON-10-GOODY-BAG-MY-EYE/m-p/517023/highlight/true#M199097
BTW, I just read this by “itsonlyme” on page 11 of that thread, which makes me think 3 would be better to use than giff gaff for unlimited interner:
“I must admit that i agree that there is a 20gb hidden alert on giffgaff and unlimited should mean unlimited. to test this theory on the new three deal i have deliberatly tethered a payg sim to the pc and hammered it! as of now its done 65 gig and not one email and is still going plus its speed is very good. I do have one question for the origanal poster which is how the hell did you manage to download that much coz the rest of us are getting crap speeds lol!!! whats your secret?”
And from what I understand 3 has the best 3g coverage out of all the networks, while giff gaff uses the O2 network.
BTW I’m not associated with 3 either, I’m just trying to find the best of the best out there. And want to say thanks to the blogger for approving my message, it just goes to show that he wants the share the best out there for all of us too, and isn’t doing it just for points.
We’ve read through the link – the person who got cut off was breaking the T&Cs by tethering to a PC. Data is still completely unlimited for use in mobile phones thankfully
Hi i have a iphone 3g,but will have a iphone 4 soon,is it worth waiting tilli get the iphone 4 to then order a giffgaff sim, and if i ordered a giff gaff sim for my blackberry will get blackberry messenger services with giffgaff?
No – you might as well order your Giffgaff micro-SIM now as it will take a few days to arrive and you won’t lose anything by having it early. Make sure you get the micro-SIM for your iPhone.
If you get another normal SIM for your BlackBerry you can’t use BBM yet but it will be introduced very soon.
i bought a goodybag(£10),registered and still cant get it to work.HTC wildfire ?cant find any phone numbers for help,which concerns me?
If you need customer support go on their website forums or contact an agent through My Giffgaff.
Hello, If i get a Blackberry and use a Giffgaff sim, would I be able to use all the Blackkberry facilities? Any suggestion on how to get an unlocked Blackberry.
Thanks,
William
As mentioned above, you can use the BlackBerry for all normal smartphone functions but for BBM you will have to wait for Giffgaff to activate BIS.
Unlocked BlackBerrys can be bought online and from second-hand phone shops or you can just get a new one and get it unlocked.
Am
Thinking of getting the iPhone 4s Do they do micro sim.and is it really unlimited data or can u upgrade for more? Thanks
Giffgaff don’t do their own micro-SIMs but we cut them ourselves and you can get a micro-SIM with £5 free credit from us.
The unlimited data deal is truly unlimited as long as you don’t tether.
‘The unlimited data deal is truly unlimited as long as you don’t tether’
Could you explaine what you mean with regards to ‘tether’?
Regards,
Tethering is usually when you use a SIM not in a mobile but rather to connect to the internet with a PC or a tablet. You can often tether mobile phones to computers to give them internet access either wirelessly or with a cable.
In short, Giffgaff give truly unlimited internet as long as you only use the SIM in a mobile phone.
Can you stream videos on giffgaff network
Yes – the internet access is completely uncensored and very fast.
I have been using Giffgaff for a long time and have not experienced any problems with it, Unfortunally they have no real customer service and giffgaff rely on the customers to help each other out, apart from that, giffgaffs have outstanding goodybags, for example, top up £5 a month you get 250mins, or a £10 a month for unlimited internet,250mins and free texts, goodybags go up to £25. OVerall i am please with the serveice i have been receiving! They do lack in 3G coverage but im sure that will improve over the years.
Glad you’ve been enjoying it. Just a small correction though – there is no £5 goodybag that gives 250 minutes. The only non-data goodybags for £5 are unlimited texts and Hokey Cokey which gives 300 texts, 60 minutes and bonus minutes.
what is giffgaff’s customer service number please, i need it asap
Giffgaff offer customer support through their website where you can contact an agent online or ask questions on their forum.
Total rubish
Paid for a first time Top Up and am still waiting for activation six days after GiffGaff took my money
What have they said about this? Activation usually takes less than an hour…
Hello, I am looking for a cheaper way to stay in contact through mobiles, My partner and I have vodafone sims. I am currently in the UK and my parner is working overseas on a ship, I am using too much money to send txt messages and to call him, although vodafone have the free international calls when you top up £10 or more but this is not enough. If I had to get a GiffGaff sim can you tell me if this would be better? and would it be useful also if my partner had 1?
It depends where your partner is based – is the ship docked or does it sail around? It also depends whether you can survive with just texts or if you need a certain number of minutes each month.
Hi, I want to buy a goody bag for daily use but also send texts abroad. How do I do this with GG? Do I buy a goodybag as well as top-up? If yes, will GG charge my UK calls against the goodybag first?
Yeah, it’s as simple as having an active goodybag as well as top-up credit. Giffgaff will always take UK calls and texts off your goodybag allowance first
I seem to note that on my phone the credit balance goes down along with the giffgaff goody bag at the same time, does this mean that I am paying twice for calls?
What sort of numbers are you calling?
The ship sails around from the caribbean to miami and to europe. They are in different port everyday. Idealy both would be great but at the moment im topping up £80 per month and my partner spends around 100 euros thats not including the ships internet and phone bills worth $600 per week!! but that is from the ships service provider which cant be helped as you have to use this service when the ship is at seas which is evernight!
Giffgaff would be a good choice that would probably save you money but unfortunately there really are no genuinely cheap options for doing this. Calls would still be very expensive (we’re not sure how much you actually manage to save with Vodafone) but the good thing is that communicating by text would be very cheap – if you’re both on Giffgaff it’s free for you to send him texts and he can send back picture messages of unlimited length for only 16p each.
Another thought – you might be best off buying a local SIM for each country your partner regularly visits. He would have to switch it out each time he arrives in a new port but that would mean he would get cheaper local rates. He might even be able to buy SIMs with cheap data plans meaning he could use Skype (or another VoIP solution) to call you for very low rates. Definitely worth looking into.
And we really really hope that satellite telephony will one day not be so exorbitantly expensive. It seems it’s cost the same amount for internet and phone at sea for years and year while everything else has got cheaper…
Sorry $600 per month not week lol
I want to recommend Giffgaff to a deaf friend who doesn’t want to pay for inclusive call minutes he will never use. Is there a text/data only tarrif?
Thanks..
There’s a text only tariff – unlimited texts for just £5.
All data tariffs come with unlimited texts too for just £5 more. Although there will also be a few minutes included in this deal.
Alternatively, both texts and data are very cheap PAYG with data just 20p/day and texts only 6p each. Although if he uses data every day, it’s usually good value to get the £10 goodybag with unlimited data and unlimited texts.
Hope this helps.
Does giff gaff sim work with
Galaxy s2?
Yes – it works perfectly with that phone.
Hi I was wondering whether the unlimited data tariff included unlimited WiFi?
As long as your ISP gives you unlimited bandwidth (almost all give more than enough). Giffgaff place no restrictions whatsoever on wifi use (nor could they) – as wifi is nothing to do with your mobile network you can obviously use it as much as you want as long as your handset supports it.
If i top up £15 goody bag in a month for 400mins and i don’t get use up the whole mins for that month, will the remaining minutes overlap to the next month since this is PAYG SIM.
No – all goodybags only last for one month.
You have won me over.
Just two questions:
Can I keep my number & is there a data stick I can buy on giffgaff?
Yes, keeping your number is easy. As for data sticks – could you please clarify exactly what you mean? All goodybags costing £10 and more come with unlimited data if that’s what you’re after…
1) Excellent
2) I mean a USB stick I can use with my laptop.
Also, is there an auto top up option online so I don’t have to come online each month ..or is that the point lol
Do you mean a 3G dongle? You can buy one to use with Giffgaff but you then need to buy a data goodybag.
As for auto-top up – yes you can set that up easily… Or top-up with e-vouchers.
How much are the 3G dongles & what are the prices for the data plans?
You can buy any O2 or unlocked dongle you want – there are dozens to choose from at various prices. As for the data plans for dongles, we have all the information here.
Is one compelled to top up every month even when one don’t want to top up due to one reason or the other.
No – you are never forced to top-up even if you’ve run out of credit. It’s completely up to you if and when you want to add more credit or buy goodybags.
Must one top up every month
Thanks for your help, I might try the sim out in the uk as it does sound good
does bbm work on gifgaff? or do you need to pay extra?
also for goodybags do they take the credit off you? (e.g o2 simplicity takes five pound, well now its seven pounds fifty) but does the goodybags take your credit?
They either use up your credit or you can buy them directly with a credit card or top-up voucher.
Not yet – it’s due at the end of the month and you’ll need to buy a BlackBerry goodybag.
how much is the blackberry goodybag?
It will probably be about £3/month.
rubbish network should be called niff naff !!!!!!!!!!!
Why do you think that?
I’m trying to find out why I’ve not received a monthly email statement yet I’ve been with giffgaff for over two months and have purchased two £10 top ups. I tried to get an answer via the support on the login page but this is useless, I waited 3 days to get an automated response which bore no relation to my question. Can anyone help?
Log in to My Giffgaff and make sure you have turned on the setting that allows you to receive emails.
is it always this hard
to activate the sim?
I’ve been trying for over 10 times
but it keep saying
“We’re temporarily unable to activate your SIM.
Please try again later”
Have you got it working yet? If not, try ordering another one.
Nope the same message appeared
for like the nth time.
I’ll try to order another one.
Hope that works.
Activations accross all sims are happening slower than normal at the moment (due to a technical issue). However, it should currently be possible to activate, it will just take longer (around 4 minutes). Let us know if you get it to work.
After more than a year being a “member”, I have wanted to keep quiet until I got this far.
Ideas have changed, people have changed, and the forum is a bloody disgrace.
Sure the cost is still effectively the same, apart from the PAYG (idiocy) increase by 25-50%!
As I said, the forums are a disgrace. Children, trolls, rude foreigners, ill-educated people and power-mad idiots, oh and did why don’t people use search? it just makes them look like an imbecile!. Its a farce, and I for sure wont be putting in my Wordsworth. But check out my site, its got lots of hidden news and views by myself and many others. you’ll have to know how to use the format and search! whistle-blowing rules!
I am looking for a payg sim card for my Nokia mobile phone, but also want to be able to take the sim card out and put it in my new Viewsonic 7 Viewpad powered by Android so I can surf the net and make calls from it. Does Giffgaff allow this?
Yes you can with the new Gigabags. Although it might be better value to just get two free SIMs and not have to switch them around.
Does giff-gaff do bbm for blackberrys?
Check out our latest post – BBM is due to come on 24th November.
I was very happy with giffgaff until recently. Having lost my phone (and sim), I received a replacement sim from giffgaff which I then activated and had my balance transferred on to this new sim. However, on trying to use this new sim, I keep getting a call barred message. Having contacted giffgaff through their online agents facility (you can’t talk to any person on giffgaff) I have now been waiting about 2 weeks whilst their “technical” team unbar my phone.
It seems that, whilst giffgaff is excellent provided everything is running smoothly, when a problem occurs they are totally understaffed and are unable to cope with this increasing demand on their agents/technical staff/educators.
Unless giffgaff improve their technical/administrative support, I can see them losing a number of customers and failing to win new customers who might read these negative comments.
Giffgaff claim that they are having an unusual number of support requests at the moment so that their customer service agents have a greater workload and backlog. Apparently they are hiring new staff to fix this so hopefully things will be better soon.
giffgaff have been having huge issues over the past few weeks. There is a blog on their site currently running to 10 pages. It’s only after you need help that you realise that you cannot actually speak to anyone. I’ve given up after a week of having no phone, but have still failed to get it ported out due to ongoing issues internal to giffgaff. If you’re planning to use this network, I suggest verify that they’ve got over their current issues first.
giffgaff sounds good on paper, but I’m planning to give it a year or so to let the support model mature. I’m off to three.
Hi,
Does anyobe know if I can I keep my phone number?
Thanks,
A
Yes, keeping your number is really simple with Giffgaff.
GIFF gaff is so shif y would u lot Reccomend it. NO CUSTOMER SERVICES
sounds like giff gash!
How can i get a phone on giffgaff? Do i have to buy it sim free and then put a giffgaff sim card in it?
First order your free SIM from here. Then either buy an unlocked (SIM free) phone or any phone on O2 will also work.
I have tried 3 times to join GiffGaffvia you site answering all question – I keep getting the same page back – and I am still not registered via yourselves, Can you PLEASE AVDISE?
What exactly is the problem you are experiencing? Is there any error message?
Hi, I live in Guernsey but have an O2 contract at the moment. I would like to change to Pay as you Go and keep my number and I gather I can do that with GiffGaff. Will I be paying high charges for calls to & from Guernsey?
Well, I got a Giffgaff SIM and have spent a day failing to activate it – or even to register. All I get is ‘we have gremlins’ messages. Looking at their forums, it seems I’m not the only one.
Unimpressed so far – it looks like they are too cheap to afford a backend system that works.
They have had temporary problems recently due to a huge influx of new customers. Have you managed to get it to work yet?
I currently have a blackberry on a 02 contract. Carphone Warehouse rang me offering me a new deal on blackberry 9300. I really love the blackberry but have read above that blackberry messenger can’t be used yet. I was wondering if you have an estimate on how soon in the new year giff gaff will have the blackberry sim ready? Or if you could recommend any other smart phones that the giff gaff sim works best on? I am useless when it comes to phones…just really want the giff gaff sim card now as I’ve worked out it will save me £10 a month (instead of getting the new contract for 24 months I have just been offered)
Thanks
You might as well order your SIM now – it’s completely free. And Giffgaff should announce the BlackBerry date today so it’s very likely to be before January that it’s released. But don’t bother with BBM it’s completely useless…
As for other phones, Giffgaff works great with any Android phone and even any iPhone.
They have no customer service. O2 are bad as they say it’s false advertising when they say unlimited texts it’s actually only 2000 but at least they have someone to talk to to sort sh*t out with. GIFF GAFF HAVE NO CUSTOMER SERVICES. WTF. I TOPPED UP ££30 n Ive still got the credit but with no free minutes or text. Truth is all phone network tarrifs will b getn worse! GIFF gaff are pathetic tho! Can’t believe this page recommend such a shite network
What made you think you’d get any free minutes or texts other than to other Giffgaff numbers? It’s pretty clear that you need to buy a goodybag with your credit to get allowances. And there is customer support – they have their award-winning community support as well as “ask an agent” through My Giffgaff.
I bought a GiffGaff Sim and I received an email saying Welcome to the GiffGaff Community does this mean I am activated. I don’t want to top up yet or spend any money on the network until I know that I am activated.
Where did you “buy” a SIM from? You can get a free SIM from us and we will give you £5 free credit too.
You’re only fully activated once you’ve topped up £10 or more.
Hello Leann, I would urge caution here, I have tried for the last 5 weeks to ‘register’ – but all I get is re-directed to the ‘regiistory’ page . I have sent numerous E-mails, no reply so far
We aren’t affiliated with Giffgaff so can’t help you with this particular issue but it’s definitely not usual. Sounds like you have a duff SIM but we could send you a working one for free.
I have been recommended this sim but, although I have not seen it mentioned anywhere above, I notice that it really is simply another Telefonica (o2) company. I was surprised to learn this given the adverse comments in regard to connection etc.
I will try a sim but, knowing how Telefonica services operate in Spain, where thay charge up to 38cents/min payg when other sims charge just 7cents, I cant see the quoted rates lasting long and I am looking for the catch.
Of course it’s an O2 company – they mention this multiple times on their own site. The prices have been less than half that of their rivals for over a year and they are beating all their growth targets. It’s pretty safe to say they aren’t going anywhere any time soon…
I see you removed my post I shall therefore have to publicise this subject elswhere
Actually it just takes some time for them to be approved by the moderator.
Thank you for your replies, I note what you say but I have only seen reference to “runs on the O2 network” not, that it is actually a Telefonica (O2) company with the same office address as O2.
You will agree that it does seem very curious, that Telefonica would want to compete with its O2 UK operation, by using the same network with its Giffgaff service, albeit at a lower price.
While Giffgaff “aren’t going anywhere soon” such action seriously undermines Telefonica’s existing O2 subscriber base, so maybe, it is O2 which will soon be going instead, I remain very cautious.
It is really any different from all the other non-owned virtual networks? Everything Everywhere and Vodafone also host other cut-price networks that directly compete with their main business. However this isn’t real competition as the target customer base is massively different. Some people need to go with a recognisable brand with high street stores – they will choose O2. However, others just want the lowest price they can get. All these companies understand that they can corner both ends of the market by running main networks as well as virtual networks.
Industry insiders just see it as O2 covering all bases. It wouldn’t make any business sense for O2 to try to compete with the likes of ASDA Mobile and TalkMobile but with Giffgaff they can do just this. I think O2 saw that the other networks had made huge inroads into the budget market with their virtual networks – T-Mobile has Family Mobile and Vectone while Vodafone have Tru, TalkMobile, Lebara Mobile and ASDA Mobile. O2 saw a way to capture a share of this ever-increasing market and launched Giffgaff. There’s nothing suspicious or requiring caution about this.
Hi, have just discovered GiffGaff but everywhere I see negative comments. Do you know whether they have got their problems sorted out? I’ve ordered a micro SIM as my O2 contract expires just before Xmas. However I’m not even going to go in the GG direction if these problems are continuing.
Many thanks for your continued informative replies.
What problems in particular are you worried about? As far as we are aware everything is running smoothly right now. Remember that, as with all the networks, people are much more likely to leave comments if they have had a problem – they aren’t necessarily representative of the usual experience.
Recently signed up to Giffgaff for my kids phones on the £10/month goodybag deal, with some extra credit should they use all the included minutes. After reading all the comments it’ll be interesting to see if they can connect & call without getting line drops. Really hoping this will be sorted as, in principle, the package is ideal for them and I’m considering using it myself.
Interesting to note that although this is site states that it is not affiliated to Giffgaff it sure looks like it. I have been around the site and Giffgaff offers top most pages. There’s 200 comments on this page but those for the other networks are very slim in comparison.
Thanks for your comment – please do let us know whether you have issues with dropped calls. Looking at the official Giffgaff forums, it definitely doesn’t seem to be a widespread issue.
As for us not being affiliated with Giffgaff – that is assuredly not the case
All our ratings come directly from our users and aren’t influenced by either Giffgaff or us. The same goes for the number of comments on each review – the only reason there are more comments here is because more readers have left comments…
i topped up £15 yesterday on o2 but i want the £10 goodybag by giffgaff, will i have to top up again on giffgaff to use the new giffgaff sim?
There’s no way to transfer credit between different networks. You need to have £10 credit available on Giffgaff to buy the goodybag.
Due to Orange increasing their charges, I have paid to get my Orange iPhone unlocked, and have ordered a giffgaff sim only..
1) Is it really UNLIMITED data?
2) Is it as fast as if you were on o2, in other words do o2 direct customers get priority at peak times when it comes to internet. Also I have heard (rumours possible) that streaming video is not allowed on giffgaff..
Thanks
Simon
1) Yes, it is truly unlimited. Giffgaff are the only company apart from 3 who offer this. As long as you are not tethering, you can use as much data as you want on their goodybags.
2) Giffgaff have confirmed that O2 customers do not get any priority over Giffgaff customers and there is no artificial speed restriction whatsoever. We haven’t heard anything to suggest that video streaming is not allowed – YouTube certainly works fine. If you want to check, ask on their forums.
If you have any other questions, we’ll do our best to answer them.
I trully recommend GIFFGAFF!!!!
There is a £10 pound goodybag in giffgaff, 250min, unlimited txt, and unlimited data. It’s a rollover contract so you are not tied for 1 year.
Hi,
Can you clear up the tethering issue? Can I use my phone to allow my ipad to go onto the internet?
I suspect not with a goody bag but could I use a data giga bag in my iphone to connect and not get cut off?:
Regards
Bernard
As Giffgaff point out on their website, you are not allowed to tether with a normal goodybag, only with the specially-designed gigabags. This means you need a gigabag to use data on an iPad. You also need a pre-cut micro-SIM.
If I activate a new GG sim with £10 topup, can I use the SIM in my mobile phone and use that credit to purchase £5 GigaBag for web-browsing using my mobile phone rather than iPad/tethering etc? I’m not interested in inclusive minutes/texts etc.
Thanks
Yes of course you can. Although the £10 goodybag might be better value for you than the £5 gigabag if you use a lot of data even if the calls and texts would go to waste. Once you run out of your gigabag allowance for the month, you can’t buy another gigabag until the next month and the £10 goodybag gives you truly unlimited data.
I have bought a G/gaff sim card, still not clear as when a goody bagruns out! Can you buy credit which can be used which does not run out on a monthly basis.
All credit will last forever and not run out on a monthly basis. It’s only if you buy a goodybag that it lasts for just a month.
All goodybags last one calendar month from the day you buy it and if you log into your My Giffgaff account it will remind you of the date it runs out. Alternatively, just call *100*7# on your phone.
Hope this helps
Thanks, I am using left over credit on my asda sim will validate giffgaff soon!
The support system is largely based on community support, if you have a problem you post it on the giffgaff blog and the idea is a member solves your problem. This system works great, and all credit to the members who support each other on these forums. However, if you have a problem that requires attention from giffgaff themselves, i.e. a technical problem then they are near enough non-existent. Around 10 days ago my SIM card stopped being recognised by my phone, rendering my phone useless (no service means no texts/calls/internet etc.), I might as well not have had the phone.
Needless to say, I contacted one of giffgaff’s ‘agents’ and was told it was a minor technical issue and to wait a few days. 10 days later, and still nothing has happened, no updates on the situation whatsoever and no information as to what has gone wrong. I am not alone in my troubles either, a quick glance down the giffgaff community blog reveals members without any service for anything between 2 days and a month plus. In one thread alone there are multiple users with no service for up to 12 days and counting: a quick search on the giffgaff community website for ‘no service’ will reveal these issues.
This is only one thread of hundreds and I am far from alone in the problems.
There are literally hundreds of users with the same issues and after close to 2 weeks since I became aware of the problem there is still no solution or any information from the network for that matter. Earlier today I made another effort to get in touch, I sent two more messages to the agent, posted another thread on the community blog, contacted a senior member of the giffgaff comunity and posted on the giffgaff facebook page.
All of this to no avail. It begs the question how much longer I am going to be left stranded with no service, its not funny anymore and becoming a major problem.
Just remember, if you find yourself being lured in by their seemingly great deals, if you run into any trouble you will be talking to a wall. The customer support is quite simply, dire.
I agree that the deals are great, but ‘some of the best customer service in the industry’: the customer service is non-existent.
As another GG member mentioned, its all very well having friendly giffgaff users posting in your forums, but when it comes to technical problems they are powerless
What happens with regards to blackberry messenger? As many networks require you to purchase a blackberry specific plan
Giffgaff will announce the general release date of their new £3 BlackBerry add-on some time this month.
I’ve been using Giffgaff on my iPhone 4s for a few weeks now and am amazed at the excellent value and service. I chose Giffgaff because of it’s low prices and because O2 offers the best coverage in my rural area. I had read a few unfavorable reviews so was prepared for a few glitches. Therefore I wasn’t surprised when after a few days I tried to use the Internet away from my home wireless and received an error message saying I had no data connection. When I got home and back to my wireless connection I contacted the Giffgaff version of customer service (the community) and had half a dozen helpful responses in less than two minutes. My problem was fixed within moments and I have had no issues since then. I would happily recommend Giffgaff to any friends looking to change mobile phone provider.
So… I’m trying to sort out something like this for my mum. It looks like what I’m looking for but.. how easy is it to port or bring her current mobile phone number from Virgin? Any help would be useful.
Thanks.. Adam
Porting the number in is really simple – we have a series of articles and a complete guide on the site.
will putting a GG sim card in an unlocked Iphone 3gs lock it to GG?? I ask because the other option open to me is a £5.00 a month sim from the carphone warehouse which will lock the phone according to the rep there
No – your phone will remain unlocked.
im going to be buying an iphone 4s on PAYG from carphone warehouse, i will not put any sim in it untill my giff gaff sim comes, can i put that sim card in my iphone 4s and still have unlimited internet,txts and 250 mins ? will it work just like putting an o2 sim in it ?
Yes – it will work fine straightaway.
Giffgaff is not worth the tiny savings. There is almost no customer support, you can’t add multiple sims to the same account, the technical issues are very time-consuming and it’s a real pain to not be able to call someone up and make sure any problems are sorted out immediately. Plus, you can’t tether the phone sims.
You can tether as long as you buy a gigabag.
When I looked into this on the GiffGaff boards (quite a hot topic), it seemed clear that you needed a separate SIM to support tethering. If your phone cannot support 2 SIM cards, this could become quite a pain.
That’s not quite accurate. You can have a gigabag on your normal SIM easily. The only thing you can’t do is have a tethering gigabag at the same time as a goodybag. However, there are several converters available that allow most phones to take two SIM cards at once.
hello ,, im wondering exactly what i get with the 15pound goody bag ,, it says unlimited txt and calls and internet , is that only to gg ,, if so when i txt or call or receive calls from other networks how much will i be charged ,, and if i am charged does that mean when i purchace my goody bag must i also buy more credit ontop of my goody bag to start contacting other networks ,,,,
if me and my girlfriend are both on gg , are you saying that 10pounds a month will be all we need to spend for the fact that gg to gg calls are free
No – it’s completely unlimited texts to any UK number on any UK network at any time. You also get unlimited data at any time and unlimited calls to Giffgaff numbers at any time.
In addition to that, you will also have 400 minutes of unlimited calls to other networks with the £15 goodybag. Calls to premium numbers or international numbers are not included and you’ll have to top-up extra credit for that.
If you and your girlfriend are both on Giffgaff you don’t even need to spend £10/month as you’ll have free Giffgaff calls and texts anyway. And don’t forget to order your free SIM though our site for £5 bonus credit.
Im on tesco mobile at the minute on their triple credit deal (i.e pay £10, get £20 free on top) I have been happy with this for years, however have just got a new phone, the Huawei Blaze. One of the reason I bought it was for Wifi access so I could hook up to my home broadband and use twitter etc (first smartphone!) but Ive found out that tesco charge me to connect to my own wifi unless I get a £5 bundle ontop of my credit every month. It said nowhere on the website but still happened anyway (have rung support and confirmed thats whats happening). Its not alot of money but its the principle of it and I’m very annoyed. Looking around at someone to change to and GiffGaff sounds very very appealing (esp as my main usage is text (and hopefully net!)) however I want to know does Giffgaff do the same? Or does the unlimited data use apply to wifi use etc as well?
You definitely don’t get charged extra for using your Wifi on either Tesco Mobile or Giffgaff. It’s physically impossible to do that even if they wanted to. Are you sure you’ve completely disabled mobile data over 3G?
I have yes. I had some call me this morning from their help centre in reply to my ‘what-the-hell-is-going-on’ email last night and they confirmed that wifi is chargeable unless I have the £5 add-on every month even on my own wifi. So either they can or their help centre monkeys do not know what they are talking about! (I know which one I’d put my money on after your response to be fair!)
*someone
Sorry but that’s completely wrong. They might be talking about the free nationwide wifi network but they are definitely not talking about your personal wifi at home as we do it fine ourselves!
so let me get this right if i top up with a £15 goody bag i receive 400 minutes free calls to any mobile network ,,, free txt to any network and unlimited internet
Exactly right. And free calls to any Giffgaff mobile on top of that.
Hi there on the website it says click here for a free giffgaff micro sim with free £5 credit. Do I just activate it online or just put it straight on my iPad and £5is already on the sim.
Once you activate it online you get the bonus £5 credited to your account.
so for me to obtain the free 5.00 credit do i need to top up £10 first to actuate it then free 5.00
Yes – activating with a £10 top-up will result in a total of £15 credit.
Ive got a blackberry, and ive just activated my new GiffGaff sim, with the £10 goodybag. But i was wondering if i was able to use my free internet for my blackberry messenger? and if not, how would i be able to use it?
You need to buy a BlackBerry goodybag which will come out in February.
Hi. Yesterday i got my free sim.. now how to get my free credit???
Once you activate it you’ll get your free credit added automatically
Hi,
I can see the link to where I can order the free sim, but I’m interested in buying the £10 goodybag. What should I do?
Thank you for your help.
Once you order the SIM you just need to activate it. You’ll get £5 free credit and once you have an account with Giffgaff you can buy the goodybag. Let us know how you get on.
Thank you for your answer.
I am just wondering if I want to stop using the sim, do I just stop topping it up in the next month or do I have to call up some customer service centre?
And what are the methods to top up my sim? Can it only be done through the internet?
You don’t need to do anything to stop using it other than to stop topping up. You can top up online or on your phone with an e-voucher.
Hi I am thinking about getting one of these and I a wondering is it good for samsung galaxy mini’s and for a teenager. do you pay over the internet or do you have to go and buy a top up from a shop?
Yes, it works perfectly with the Samsung Galaxy Mini and you can top-up online or in a shop.
Hi. I have 2 questions. The first question is, is the internet unlimited. The second question is if i top up £10 and get 250 minutes, you I only be allowed to use that 250 minutes to call giffgaff numbers and not other networks?
Yes, with any goodybag for £10 or more you get truly unlimited data. When you buy the £10 goodybag the 250 minutes are for any UK mobile or landline. Giffgaff calls are free.
Also can you get a micro sim for iphone 4?
Yes, you can get a micro-SIM with £5 free credit from here.
Can I still keep my existing number? I’m on O2 at the moment. Is there a process like when changing with other networks, or as you use O2 platform, is this not necessary?
Yes, it’s really quick and simple to port your number to Giffgaff.
Thank you for being so patient, you must get fed up of answering the same questions! Realised after I had posted that I would need a code, as the number isn’t tied to the phone! So glad that it all looks straightforward and easy. Will order a sim and see how I get on. Need to sort something soon as I am going to be working away from home and will need to keep in touch with my children and husband. I’m also guessing if I choose the gigabag add on, I will be able to Skype them?
What about texting or calling international, will that consumes the 250 minutes in a faster way or it charges extra on top of the 10 pounds goodybag.
Thanks.
International calls and texts are not included in goodybags and will be charged from your balance.
I want to get this sim and put it in my blackberry but im not sure if it will work well? has anyone else got any problems with giffgaff and blackberrys? and if i top up £13 per month will it automatically give me blackberry services, unlimited texts, internet and some free calls? or do i have to register for a certain sim card programmed to give me those things if i top up £13? thanks
It works perfectly with BlackBerrys. If you buy the £10 goodybag and £3 BlackBerry add-on every month you’ll get 250 any-network minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited data and unlimited free calls to Giffgaff users.
If you get the SIM through this page you get £5 free credit to start you off.
Hi, MNC,
I would like to join GG, I’ve already ordered the sim via your website
.
I have only one question about GG. How do you choose the goodie bag? Only via their website? You can’t activate the 10£ goodie bag only by buying a top up voucher ?
Cheers!
Phil
Phil,
Yes, you can only buy the goodybag via the website at present. But it’s really quick and easy to do and once you’ve done it once you can make it auto-renew every month so it can be set-and-forget if you want. Let us know if you have any other questions…
it’s says that when a goody bag expires your phone reverts to a sort of payg phone if you have any minutes left from you allowance.
if i don’t use all my 250 minutes each month, do these minutes accumulate or do they start afresh with each monthly top up?
there’s also quite a few people complaining of network problems recently if you google for reviews but how can this be is they use the o2 network? do o2 throttle giffgaff (and tesco) users in some way?
That’s right. The minutes don’t accumulate if you don’t manage to use them all. Giffgaff have stated that they get the same service as O2 users. What network problems are you referring to?
Also,
Can I port my Delight Mobile nr to Giff Gaff? I don’t see this network in that list from Giff Gaff community. But being in the same family as Vectone, it should work, isn’t it?
Thank you in advance
Yes – you can port any UK mobile number to Giffgaff.
As long as you get the PUK code…without that you’re pretty screwed
some phone operators *cough*o2,virgin,t-mobile*cough* do get pretty…agitated when you demand the PUK. Vodaphone halve their prices until you stay though XD
You mean PAC not PUK!
Hi,
Am looking to go with giffgaff at the end of the month when my contract expires. Just one question – I have a iphone 3gs that is jailbroken, does this make a difference in setting up with giffgaff?
Thanks
Nope – Giffgaff works fine with the iPhone 3GS. You can get your SIM in advance and make sure you order from here if you want the £5 bonus credit.
GiffGaff cheap calls good o2 coverage BUT when something goes wrong I’m afraid the wheels completely fall off! I’ve been with them for over a year auto-top ups kept on doubling payments (2x single £10.00 at once) they could not resolve that, I stopped auto top ups great. Topped up by credit card 4 days ago money taken from credit card not added to my phone? no response to emails or the community apart from email an agent
went out and bought a £10.00 top up voucher again money taken by GiffGaff but yep no credit on my phone. Just received a poor response from an agent advising me to use another browser clear the cache etc sad. When GiffGaff works its brilliant but…………….
I’m off, going to try and get my money refunded £25.00 in total wish me luck I’m gonna need it!
If you kept your receipts and your recent call history, them refunding you shouldn’t be an issue. However you may need to return your sim-card so that they can see what the problem is.
Are you sure you’re topping up to the right sim card and not an old number or some such nonsense? Are all the numbers matching for instance?
i’m thinking of swithching 2 iphone contracts to giffgaff that are about to come to an end. if i don’t want a goodybag and simply top up, how much would unlimited data cost per day? i don’t really make many phone calls; it’s more texts and messenger etc. so data is key for me.
Thanks.
The best way to get unlimited data is still through a goodybag as it’s very cheap and you get the minutes and texts as a bonus for only £10/month.
On pay as you go it’s only 20p for 20 MB each day which can be about £6 for a month but if you go over that it’s expensive and best to stick with the goodybag.
Hi, I need to be able to access the internet when working away from home. I have just bought a smartphone and have been looking at a ‘Gigabag’ and tethering my phone to achieve this. It mentions a dongle (i do know what they are). Do I have to have a dongle as well as the phone and laptop. Sorry I’ve never done this before.
What model of smartphone do you have? If you have any handset running Android it’s really easy and you won’t need a dongle at all.
I have a galaxy s 2, but haven’t really started using it yet. Just waiting to get this side sorted before I go into ‘full use’
Okay then, you’re lucky as it’s really simple on the Galaxy SII. Just go to Settings > Wireless & networks > Tethering & portable hotspot from there you can enable USB tethering or, even better a portable Wi-fi hotspot which makes your phone like a mini wireless router.
Do let us know how you get on
Have spent the last 3+ hours trying to get this to work! Says connected to computor and internet available, but when clich on my laptop to connect it won’t! Have tried both tethering and wifi, both give same status. Not happy. Any ideas?
I’ve just checked ‘my Giffgaff’ and it says that my gigabag ran out 01/03/12! I only broke it out of the plastic card to put into my phone to try to set it up this morning! Rubbish! They’ve taken my money for doing nothing.
When did you activate the SIM and when did you buy the goodybag? Can you go into your payments and check this out?
Unbelievably bad, the top up system breaks down frequently, you are unable to buy goodybags, the primary reason for using the system, the internet breaks down…if you must use a mobile phone network DO NOT USE GIFFGAFF, there technicians appear unable to resolve simple technical issues added to which there is no customer support so if you have a problem you have no one to contact.
I repeat again UNBELIEVABLY BAD
Shame they have an annoying web proxy that destroys images so much they become unusable, and the entirety of their “technical support” are a deluge of illiterate morons hoping to get 5p of credit if they get in first with the wrong answer.
Already researching where to move to.
Unfortunately the proxy is O2‘s doing but please help support Idea threads campaigning to remove it. If you’re looking for a different network, what are your priorities? And your monthly usage?
Giffgaff are O2. O2 provide another APN without the broken proxy (although admittedly only to contract customers, 1-month rolling or otherwise.)
My normal monthly usage: Minutes: 2. Texts: 15. Data: 2GB.
Yes, that’s what we meant. Didn’t know about the alternative O2 proxy though. Have you searched for community for a Idea thread or, in the absence of that, started your own? It should easily force them to consider it.
As for a different network, how is the data usage spread over the monthly period?
Sure I have. You get the same deluge of illiteracy as you would normally expect from giffgaff’s community forums: a bunch of people eager to get 20p of free credit rather than answering the question.
The consensus is that no, there’s no way around the broken proxy. It’s basically impossible to get an official answer out of giffgaff: they don’t appear to read community posts and their twitter account ignores difficult questions.
Bandwidth usage is spread equally throughout the month. Some months, I might use 3GB.
Really? Ideas threads are usually much better than the rest of the forums. Can you link to it please?
The data is obviously your main expense but unfortunately (due to the unrealistic price gouging by UK networks), if price is your main concern, you won’t do better than Giffgaff‘s £10 goodybag as far as we can tell…
Excellent value, but like most people are saying.. as soon as you have a problem its a nightmare!!
I tried to get the adult bar removed, it asked for my driving licence number so I entered it, but just got a message saying “appears you have gremlins” Or something like that, I tried a few times incase I had entered it wrong, but no luck. I then tried using my passport instead but got the same message. I then Emailed the question to an agent who replied saying they have to escolate the problem and I will hear back by text within 7 days, they never did. They then closed the case and said I cant reopen it, I need to submit a new question, so I did… and exactly the same!! This started on 14th Jan, and still nothing has been done about it.
Try bugging the agents twice a day until they fix it and PMing all the staff on the site. Annoying, sure – but should get it sorted. O2 stores might be able to help too.
I am looking at switching from my current 02 expired contract. I want unlimited data for use on my iPhone 4 as i use this all the time for surfing and watching sky Go and TV, i also use plenty of text and call minutes.
Im paying £42.50 for 02, but they won’t let me tether unless i switch to another price plan (basically they are forcing me out of my unlimited internet price plan). The GG plan that seems ideal is the £20. However, i also want to tether through my phone to my iPad.
Where i have always had unlimited internet use, i am quite ignorant as to how much data is used when surfing and watching TV etc.
I would use my iPad to mainly watch TV. This will usually be around 3 football match’s per month and maybe an hour or twos worth of TV.
Can you suggest what my ideal options would be. I am assuming as well as the £20 price plan, you can top up a gigabag on the same sim and use it for tethering, or is it just as easy to get a separate micro sim separately for the iPad and run the gigabit that way? also, if you don’t use all the allowance, does it expire after a month or can it be carried over?
Thanks
Unfortunately Giffgaff don’t offer tethering at all unless you buy a data-only goodybag that wouldn’t include any calls or texts. You can’t tether on the £20 goodybag and if you do, you’re liable to be cut off. Please do post on their forums to say that you would like this option as they do listen to their customers and the more people asking for this obvious choice, the more likely they will introduce it soon.
At the time being though, your best option is to get the separate micro-SIM as you discuss. That way you can have the £20 goodybag on your iPhone 4 and the gigabag for data on your iPad. The allowance on all goodybags and gigabags expires every month though. You might also want to look into getting a monthly One Plan SIM through 3 as this gives you tons of minutes, texts and unlimited data which allows tethering.
the network lost all service on friday the 16th and promised to make it up to its customers then next thing they say there donating to charity not helping the people that make it grow .this is a complete pr stunt by the company ! ” network run buy us ” its a joke its a way of saving money after all people that are on the network have to pay for a months goodbag . We lost a day no one said anything about donating to charity they just did it. I know they have more than 50,000 people on there network so if they give them all £1 each that would be £50k so a £10k donation is a huge saving plus they can claim the vat back this company is a joke !! and i am leaving as soon as i can!
I switched from O2 to GG and wanted to transfer my old number. Well everything went as planned :- sim arrived etc etc on the appointed day of the transfer all went dead! Eventual got response from GG that there was a problem which will take days to resolve (which leaves me with no phone – now on my forth day without it) still no word from GG as to when I will have a working connection. My gg home page clearly shows my old number but it doesn’t work and trying to communicate via email with the long pauses is crap.
GG is crap and if I don’t get a working phone tomorrow it will be the bonfire of GG sims.
Giffgaff have left my port hanging in midair for almost three weeks now.
My husband has had no signal since a failed port 11 days ago.
Their customer service is rubbish, the agents are badly trained and give cut and paste answers; the forums are full of people who know that Giffgaff are perfect and that your problems are therefore 100% your fault (one person, complaining of a failed port, got told he was stupid to have gone to Giffgaff – because he was a doctor!). Educators give a slightly longer cut and paste answer, then ignore you. Even their complaints line gives a standard reply – and all you can do is wait 8 weeks to take your problem to the Ombudsman.
I am quite desperate about giff gaff at the moment. I was happy at first because the value was fantastic but then for some reason my account got blocked. I cant acces it although i know for sure that the password is right and because they have no call centres, i cant contact them any other way than looging into my accout. Which doesnt work. I tried reseting it, but that doest work either, the page is supposed to send me a link to my email to reset the password but it never does. So a vicious circle really, because unless the site lets me in to top up, i will have to leave giff gaff. So overally, not great.
Please let us know your username and we’ll PM someone in the company for you. Hopefully they’ll then get it sorted out.
it is dominikacr
thank you ever so much.
Joined giffgaff over 3weeks ago, asked them to port my number from another network provider, given them the pac code, was told it should be straight forward process and I would be connected in 2 to 3 days.
Well that was over 3 weeks ago and still waiting …. what I think of them? absolute joke, incompetent company, run by amateurs, couldn’t give a care about their customers, absolute rubbish, biggest mistake ever done was to join them, if you are thinking of joining please don’t, they are no good, useless, inconsiderate, a joke of a company, can’t wait to get my service so I can leave them and take my business somewhere decent
i woud like to say i got a samsung tocco it will play net videos on any nerwork except giffgaff there must be a problem with gg but there are no real answers