My orange contract is coming to an end and I’m not really using the package as much as I should so I thought I’d look at pay as you go. Are there any giffgaff users on here that could share their experience as it looks a go set-up and deal?

works fine, as long as you’re in an area well served by O2 (I’m not)

get someone you know to “refer” you – they get a bonus and I think you might too (my 12yr old daughter will, if nobody you know is on giffgaff 😳 )

The top-ups are easy, goodie bags are quite sensibly set up too, if you want more coverage for a month or something

(and/or go via quidco for a “fiver” in cashback/credit)

I really like it. Saved me about £500 over 18 months, never had to deal with customer service which tells it’s own story so can’t comment.

Wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole! Awful service, try tesco real people in a shop and I’m paying £12.50 a month with none of the giffgaff hassle.

Yeah you get a fiver credit. And they get 100 points or something. Click me to order sim 😉

I’ve been on Giffgaff for quite a while.

O2 reception in all the places where I spend any amount of time is very good so I’m sorted there but of course YMMV.

I have an auto-renew £10 goodybag each month which the 250 mins, unlimited text and net. I use a lot of data but hardly touch the minutes so it suits me. They dont allow tethering though.

One little quirk of the system I found was that if you buy a goodybag or gigabag then it last for a month. If you use up all the allowance then you still can’t buy another one until the month has elapsed, only normal credit.

Customer service via the forum is woeful too, contributors get ‘payback’ by posting on there (regardless of whether or not they’re actually saying something useful) so ask any question and you just get dozens of people parroting the same useless things without reading what’s been said so far or even the original post. Infuriating. You can still ask an actual giffgaff agent though. But that’s not instant.

Also there’s a customer consultation going on at the moment where the price of the £10 goodybag (the lowest with unlimited data) is being reviewed and will probably end up being changed to either £13 or £15.

Other than that, it’s all good.

I looked at Giff-Gaff when I found myself in the same situation as yourself. Ended up taking a SIM only deal with TalkMobile who piggy-back on the Vodafone network. This was based purely on coverage in my area. Fingers crossed, they’ve been great so far.

oooooh, that’s interesting exiledgeordie – I have to use voda to get a signal where I live, but they’re pretty inflexible. I’ve always chickened out of threatening to leave ’em as I didn’t think there was anyone else I could sensibly go to

(do any other companies use the voda network ?)

Talkmobile is owned by Carphone Warehouse so although TM piggybacks on the Voda signal you will be dealing with CPW / TM

In my experience some times the TM signal can be better than the Voda one (don’t know why, although could depend on the phone I’m using). I use TM for work and Voda for personal use.

Because I work in the sector I get a new phone every few months and it always surprises me how one can work better than the other in exactly the same location.

Because Talkmobile want to increase market share you will probably get a better SIM only deal with them than on Voda. Can’t comment on Giff Gaff but Tesco piggyback on O2 also if they are a consideration.

Also keep a eye out for Sainsburys mobile coming soon..

nano – sainsbos on voda ??

Didn’t Sainsburys’ try an MVNO some time ago that flopped?

Got my son onto Giffgaff and he has the £10 and £3 BBM deal and its been faultless.

as you customer ‘service’ is a bit flaky but daughter has a £5 pcm unlimited texts package, wife has joined for the £5 all mixed up package, they can text / call each other and it doesn’t deplete the allowance which is good.

Was way cheaper than the Orange packages they were on. Seriously thinking about switching when my Voda contract is up..

I quite like it, couldn’t quite figure out he pricing but it turned out to be 2 x £5 free credits that were confusing it for me.
Anyway, I now just put some credit on rather than take one of their goodybags.
The missus and one of the kids use them too so calls and texts between each other are free.

As for customer service? I can’t say I’ve ever needed it with a phone so not sure what other folks do to make it a big deal and it certainly wouldn’t be a deal breaker on a PAYG SIM – you can just go elsewhere if you don’t like it without loss

My wife is on it and it has been problem free, apart from a bit of faff setting up picture messaging. Also text messages seem to get lost sometimes if she is in and out of the house and the messaging flitting between iMessage and standard text messaging (we both use iPhones).

My business tariff has come to an end and I have just ordered a GiffGaff sim too.

Pity they don’t (yet) support the new nano sim for iPhone 5s though.

Fine for me. Only things I’ve needed from CS were porting my number and lifting the block on “adult content” for data – both done pretty quickly. Agree the forums are full of idiots, but I really don’t see what you’d want to get from them.

Pity they don’t (yet) support the new nano sim for iPhone 5s though.

When you say “support” ………….

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Blog/Cutting-a-nano-SIM-for-the-iPhone-5/ba-p/6061444

Yeah, don’t think I could be bothered with the faff – not that desperate to get one so will probably just wait until they do a proper one then get a phone then. As I am buying outright I might look at getting one from the States as I am going over there at Christmas.

@ scaredypants re Sainsburys

Don’t know TBH.. The recently ex retail director of Carphone is going back to Sainsburys from whence he came to run it..

Based on Tesco on O2 and unlikely that Everything Everywhere (T Mob and Orange) won’t want to share 4g with anyone just yet Voda could be a goer.

Sorry it’s taken a while to reply.. Been out

thanks nano