deano87 
Member 
 
Registered: 21st Oct 06
 Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta 
User status: Offline 
 
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My phone is up for renewal today (HTC One S) which I've had 24 for 24 months on O2, paying £32/month including insurance. 
 
I'm not a huge user, txt more than call, data more than txt and use less than 100 minutes per month. 
 
It seems O2 just aren't competitive anymore. Saving for a house I want to go on a "Simplicity" tariff as I'm happy with the phone. Their prices start atr £12 for a 12 month contract (which you can upgrade after 3 months) or £15 for their 30 day monthly. This doesn't get me enough data. 
 
However Giffgaff can do £10/month with everything in and 500mb more data than I currently get - I've ordered a SIM! 
 
What are peoples experiences with Giffgaff? My phone is an O2 phone so should have any problems. 
 
I guess I will get all the info when the SIM arrives, but is Giffgaff essentially PAYG, with you having to manually top up, or does it go on a direct debit? Can you set up autopayment when getting low on credit? 
 
Their website seems to be very good except providing information on "how it works"! 
 
  
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John 
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
 
User status: Offline 
 
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Giffgaff has been pretty good, a couple of big outages about a year ago but they seem to have sorted that out now. 
 
It's PAYG but you can set it so the goodybag gets added automatically every month. 
 
They are just about to start trialing 4G but the packages don't look as competitive as 3.
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Rob_Quads 
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
 Location: southampton 
User status: Offline 
 
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We've been on giffgaff for the last few months and found it to be just as good as Vodafone that we moved from just cheaper. 
 
Only downside is the "carrier updates" you have to be careful with. Wife lost signal for a day when she accepted it and I was not available to fix it for her
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Brett 
Premium Member
 
Registered: 16th Dec 02
 Location: Manchester 
User status: Offline 
 
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Think they block tethering on the unlimited data plans, but not on the others.
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Dom 
Member 
 
Registered: 13th Sep 03
 
User status: Offline 
 
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Worth looking at Ovivo's Freedom 0 plan as well - it's FREE  
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Robin 
Premium Member
 
Registered: 7th Jan 04
 Location: Northants Drives: Clio 182 Cup 
User status: Offline 
 
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quote: Originally posted by Brett 
Think they block tethering on the unlimited data plans, but not on the others. 
   
 
Correct, or I wouldn't have to have a hard connection at home
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deano87 
Member 
 
Registered: 21st Oct 06
 Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta 
User status: Offline 
 
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quote: Originally posted by Dom 
Worth looking at Ovivo's Freedom 0 plan as well - it's FREE   
   
Knew I'd read about that somewhere, couldn't remember the name  
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Dom 
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
 
User status: Offline 
 
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quote: Originally posted by deano87 
quote: Originally posted by Dom 
Worth looking at Ovivo's Freedom 0 plan as well - it's FREE   
   
Knew I'd read about that somewhere, couldn't remember the name   
   
 
Only issue i've found is data throughput is a little naff (even on on HSDPA) but it's a minor problem and otherwise it's pretty decent - certainly worth looking into anyway (note, they use Vodafone).
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deano87 
Member 
 
Registered: 21st Oct 06
 Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta 
User status: Offline 
 
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quote: Originally posted by Dom 
quote: Originally posted by deano87 
quote: Originally posted by Dom 
Worth looking at Ovivo's Freedom 0 plan as well - it's FREE   
   
Knew I'd read about that somewhere, couldn't remember the name   
   
 
Only issue i've found is data throughput is a little naff (even on on HSDPA) but it's a minor problem and otherwise it's pretty decent - certainly worth looking into anyway (note, they use Vodafone). 
   
Hmmm so won't work on my O2 phone. 
 
My phone is shite with signal at the best of times and suffers from a known problem which was never truly resolved. Having worse signal on 3G/3.5G would be a killer   
 
 
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Dave 
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Registered: 26th Feb 01
 Location: Lancs 
User status: Offline 
 
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Been with GG about a year now, had one blanket outage but it was only a few hours one evening iirc. 
 
Other than that it's been no bother, goody bag renews every month and away you go. One thing to remember is if you dial lots of 0845/0870 type numbers and can't find an alternative you'll need credit, no big deal but worth having some on just in case.
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deano87 
Member 
 
Registered: 21st Oct 06
 Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta 
User status: Offline 
 
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quote: Originally posted by Dave 
Been with GG about a year now, had one blanket outage but it was only a few hours one evening iirc. 
 
Other than that it's been no bother, goody bag renews every month and away you go. One thing to remember is if you dial lots of 0845/0870 type numbers and can't find an alternative you'll need credit, no big deal but worth having some on just in case. 
   
 
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Dom 
Member 
 
Registered: 13th Sep 03
 
User status: Offline 
 
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quote: Originally posted by deano87 
Hmmm so won't work on my O2 phone
   
 
Get it unlocked   
 
Still worth looking in to it and at least having a quick look at Vodafone's coverage map (and/or trying a Voda sim) considering it's Free (well after the £20 one-off payment)   
 
 
As for GG, used them since end of 2010 before switching to Ovivo this xmas and there was probably a few handfuls of outages (few big network outages early 2011, one 2012 sometime iirc; mostly their dodgy backend services, like payments, going down) - although i only really notice the effects once when i couldn't pay for a GoodyBag and they've massively improved their infrastructure since. 
Other than that, GG was generally pretty decent, easily comparable to O2 (which i was on prior to GG) and if you're active on their forums then you can make it pay for itself through their 'Payback' scheme. 
 
Only potential issue with GG is that there's a good chance they might be throttling data - i suspected it towards the end of last year and there's been a load of forums posts on their forums and others saying something similar. Obviously GG are denying it but it's worth keeping it in mind if you're a big data user.
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deano87 
Member 
 
Registered: 21st Oct 06
 Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta 
User status: Offline 
 
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What do you mean by throttling data? tbh I'm not a "power" user.
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Ben G 
Member 
 
Registered: 12th Jan 07
 Location: Essex 
User status: Offline 
 
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Had giffgaff for a while and it was decent enough. Signal was shit at my house but so is 02's/ee's. 
 
Internet was good. Had to go with unlimited as used the 1gb up a few times even with just light browsing. 
 
I would still be with them if I hadn't dropped an engine on my phone   
 
[Edited on 12-03-2014 by Ben G]
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Aleex 
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Registered: 21st Jul 09
 Location: Plymouth 
User status: Offline 
 
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i was going to go with giff gaff , but with 3 only costing a couple quid more, and better support, i went with them. 
 
never had a problem, bill has always been correct, 3g is brilliant too!
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A2H GO 
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Registered: 14th Sep 04
 Location: Stoke 
User status: Offline 
 
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Been with GG 5+ years on and off. Ventured to Three a couple of times and whilst their internet speeds are better their cellular coverage is terrible and ended up going back to GG after a couple of months.  
 
GG internet speeds are pretty slow, I'd guess that's because they've become more popular as they've maintained unlimited data options whilst other carriers have imposed caps.  
 
Not tried Ovio as I've a feeling the ad's would do my head in but worth looking into if you don't mind stuff like that.  
 
Think GG are getting 4G soon...
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Dom 
Member 
 
Registered: 13th Sep 03
 
User status: Offline 
 
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quote: Originally posted by A2H GO 
Been with GG 5+ years on and off.
   
 
They've only been going four years  
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A2H GO 
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Registered: 14th Sep 04
 Location: Stoke 
User status: Offline 
 
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Feels like way longer, thought I was being conservative with 5.  
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deano87 
Member 
 
Registered: 21st Oct 06
 Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta 
User status: Offline 
 
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Signed up. Registered SIM. Used O2 PAC. Transfer not until 20th   £20 initial cost, £10/month ongoing. 
 
Sorted.
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deano87 
Member 
 
Registered: 21st Oct 06
 Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta 
User status: Offline 
 
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Had a nice welcome message from an Agent yesterday which was a pleasant surprise. 
 
Number transferred today no problems. From losing signal to number being with GiffGaff it was about 2 hours. Then another hour for my online account to reflect the change. 
 
Impressed so far. And signal seems to be a bit better even though I've gone from O2 to GiffGaff. Probably psychological.
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deano87 
Member 
 
Registered: 21st Oct 06
 Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta 
User status: Offline 
 
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Anyone else not got GiffGaff signal?!  
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deano87 
Member 
 
Registered: 21st Oct 06
 Location: Bedfordshire Drives: Ford Fiesta 
User status: Offline 
 
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