GiffGaff and their goody bags and which unlocked phone

[Callofthefishwife]

Hi I am living in the dark ages with my mobile phone. I hate the thought of having a contract no matter how good a deal it apparently is.

I need to upgrade my phone and undecided what to get but looking at Samsung Ace or even Blackberry Curve as I am not sure how well I will get on with touch screen. Am looking to spend around £100 and want to be able use this phone for internet as well - facebook, email and whatever else takes my fancy when away from home.

I like the look of GiffGaff Goody bags. Especially the £12 one with unlimited data as this will serve me well when we move house and are without internet for weeks on end and I will be away from home a fair bit later this year, so reckon I would make good use of this. Am I right in thinking this is an optional monthly charge?? Another words if I dont buy another goody bag when the old one expires - I can just top up any other way with GiffGaff ot am I committed to every month buying a goody bag say on the 1st of each month or when ever it runs out. Can I just buy the goody bags as and when I choose (I assume online) or do I need a Direct Debit??

What I dont want is any contract with the hassle/expense of mobile phone insurance. I like PAYG because there are no shock bills - am terrified that because I am so un IT savvy i will inadvertently download something/be online to something costing me £££ and not realise until the end of month bill arrives. If my phone gets stolen as PAYG - then yep its bummer but they can hardly call Australia in my name - or only upto the credit is gone. I just want to keep things simple. I want to continue to Pay up front and know there are no hidden costs and charges or bills.

Am so confused. I keep hearing good things about GiffGaff but am yet to actually meet anyone who uses them.

Advice, experience and tips gratefully received.

You buy goody bags as and when you need them. All my kids are on giffgaff and they are extremely good. When my kids' goody bags run out, I get nagged for a few days until I remember to go and top them up online.

Oh, and my personal opinion is that Blackberries are a bit shit, but that's my opinion only!

You can buy the goody bags online,no need for direct debit.

You buy a goodybag and use it until you have used all your allowance or the month passes,if you dont use all your allowance,you lose it.I f you do use all your allowance you can only top up with airtime credit and use that until the month passes and you can buy another goodybag,ie you can only buy a goodybag once a month,not when yours runs out.If at the end of the month you dont want another one just dont buy one,there is no commitment.

We are a family of 5 ,all with Giffgaff,we spend less per month for all of us than we did for dh,s contract.remember Giffgaff to Giffgaff calls and texts are free.

I have the Ace and find it fine,it lacks on storage space for games and apps,but I have a laptop to play games on so that doesnt bother me,as a phone it performs fone and browses the internet fine as well.

Hope I have explained things,post back if you need to know more.

I've got a galaxy s4 after a galaxy s3 and have used the gifffaff 12 pound goody bag for over a year as i can use thr phones as a modem when our broadband is down - i've had it run my laptop, yhe pc and dps iphone before for over a week and used 8gb in that full month (phone has a data tracker) so i was very pleased :)

I've no recs on phones but giffgaff is brilliant.

Me and DP are on Giffgaff. Works out dirt cheap as call and texts between us are free.
All 0800 numbers are free too. I know the Government want to make all mobile providers do it but Giffgaff are the only ones who do it now.(I think)

You can top up with credit or goodybags as and when you like.

Madlizzy- Did you know that you can 'queue' your next goodybag right after buying the current one? Or have recurring ones now?
So you don't have to worry about remembering to top up!

I use giffgaff. I'm very happy. Had £12 goodybag for a bit but didnt use it so have dropped to £10. Very easy - have it set up to DD. Use my HTC Wildfire with it.

Brilliant.

Thank you. You all seem to be saying what I was hoping.

Can I alternate different types of goody bags. For instance one month have the £5 one because I dont expect to use much data but the next month but the £12 one because I know I will be away from home and need internet more??

Also, I suppose the type of phone I have will mean whether I can support my laptop through it too - am just considering this for when we move house.

Also do I need a different type of SIM for Blackberry?? So many people keep telling how crap BBs are mind I am thinking sod it - I am going to just have to get used to a touch screen.

Can anyone recommend a cheapish £100ish phone, preferbly with a larger screen (worried about my fat fingers)??

Oh and one more thing I was wanting to ask is - can I keep my existing (virgin mobile) phone number with GiffGaff??

You don't need to get the same goody bag no, just as you say one minth you can have £5 one tge next £12 etc. You csn get your pac vode from who you are with now and giffgaff will transfer your number within 2 days - i moved my lovely number from vodafone.

You can keep your existing number and port it to Giffgaff,but it seems to be a large cause of the complaints that I read about in the Giffgaff forums,dont know if its a Giffgaff problem or the original company,we chose to have new numbers so we were up and running straight away.

You can alternate your goodybags as much as you want,you can even just top up £10 and use it as normal pay as you go.

Not sure about the sim for Blackberry,if it doesnt say it need a micro or mini sim,then the ordinary size sim will fit it.

PC, yes, I did know. I just have to wait till I have the dosh. :)

According to their site "Tethering is not permitted on £12 goodybag."

So potentially they could block it by the time you move home.

In fact several networks block it entirely, and the ones which do allow it, either offer a limited amount of data or restrict it to most costly plan. For example, Three offers tethering and unlimited data on the One Plan but that starts at £25/ month, or as an 'add on' at £5/ month on other plans (and giving only 1 GB for tethering use).

There are phones with QWERTY keyboards (I have a few) and smartphones under 100 quid (a few of those too) but hardly anything that is smart enough to offer tethering and has a QWERTY keyboard and comes in price range and can have monthly spend under 15 quid.

Tesco Mobile and Three offer 'capped' contracts, but if you expect to use the internet for a month or so, when moving, a MiFi (or Mobile Wi-Fi or Mi-Fi) might be worth considering. Search MNet for MiFi or Mi-Fi and you may come across some recent threads. I have a home unit from Three which can provide a wireless router connection for up to 5 devices to share a 3G data connection (a USB modem dongle plugs into the router).

Three sells the modem with data with either 3 GB of data or 12 GB of data (3 GB will last for 90 days or until you use up the 3 GB, and with a modem costs about 40 quid, I think... the router I bought was 40 quid, but at the time I was on contract and paying 8 quid a month for 15 GB of data... 12 GB/12 month + modem costs arm and leg {over 75 quid})... Anyway, a bit academic if the area you move to has only poor coverage from Three.

However, there's a proper 'mobile' MiFi from T-Mobile which someone mentioned in the last 10-20 days so worth doing some searching... as few of the PAYG deals are much good with quantities of data, let alone sharing by 'tethering', so MiFi or similar might be a better option... just for the time after you move in before phone line and broadband active.

Giffgaff will block internet on any sim that they suspect that has been used for tethering,however you can tether on the £10 goodybag or just buy a data bag and pop that in your mobile and use it as a wifi hotspot.

I had no problem at all porting my number from Orange to GiffGaff. I keep a few pounds PAYG on my phone plus the £10 goodybag on recurring renewal (the PAYG covers odd things that the goodybag doesn't such as 0845 numbers, i think picture messages too but I hardly ever send those).

For tethering I use the Three Mifi dongle, £10 for 10Gb which expires after a month, but it cost about £60 to buy in the first place. 3G coverage seems to me to be better than GiffGaff.

"£10 for 10 GB which expires after a month"

I thought it was 1 GB, not 10 GB. However, if that's the case, then very pleased to see price coming down!

however you can tether on the £10 goodybag

Worth knowing. Thanks.

Also worth remembering that AFAIK, GiffGaff does not support Apple iPhone users. (Worth asking them before spending anything, for anyone using Apple phones.)

I,m not positive on this but I,m sure I have seen people posting in Giffgaff forums from Iphones

Just checked,Giffgaff do support Iphone,full guide here

Sorry, think it is 1Gb on the Three. I don't use it very often TBh, just glanced at the Three website, looks as though there are a lot more options than there were a couple of years ago when we bought our Mifi.

We use GiffGaff on Iphones.

Dp has used giffgaff on iphone 4s and 5

My post should have said tethering for Apple phones {based on info I read last year}.

Happy to be corrected, however. What I read some time back was that the phone had to have been 'jailbroken' for tethering to work. I have never owned an iPhone but since I had seen it discussed "as a problem for Apple users" then I felt it worth mentioning, just in case :)

Just to say, and I'm a giffgaff user and have been for 18 months,that I'm moving the kids to virgin £7/ month deals ( unlimited texts 250 mins 500mb data) . They use to be on £5 unlimited texts- which is all they really need. this deal is cheaper and more "stuff" than giff gaff offer now.

The £12 unlimited data (no tethering though) phone goody bag is fair value, and the £10 bag (1gb can tether) is ok but other deals out there are equally good now .the only real giffgaff advantage is that it is pre paid with no possibility of going over the amount ( unless you set the auto top up option..)

Un jail broken iPhones still don't tether unless you pay extra on any network :( and gg just have a deal with apple.

Thanks for the info. Android doesn't need any warranty-breaking changes to be a hotspot, but networks can still detect tethering and may block it anyway.

Very useful info about GiffGaff options which may assist others. I think the free GiffGaff to GiffGaff calls is probably something many families would find useful, but clearly you cannot impose on friends and they will all use different networks, so more minutes for calls (or for younger people, plenty of texts) may be best.

Might try out GG with my O2 Sony phone, as the unlimited data is always handy for a heavy user :)