Giff Gaff

[maddog04]

I'm looking for a sim only deal at the mo with unlimited data and a quick search shows Giff Gaff at £12 pm
anyone tried these or have any thoughts, currently on Orange/EE as is my lad but reception is piss poor in the house (never had an issue with o2)
 
cheers

[mickvp]

GiffGaff use the O2 carrier signal, so if you get a sigfnla on O2 you should not have any issues - never been with them personally though.

[Rexr]

My m8 uses the giff gaff sims and he's happy enough, when my contract finishes I'll be switching to them.....

[BBROWN1664]

My dad switched to Gif Gaf a while ago and keeps going on about it. SIM onlyo n O2 is a similar price. Note sure about the data volume though.

[baggy]

I was on GIF GAFF last year and there were 4 times when they had issues and all services were off with no services working. They run on O2 network so if they have issues or high volume they stop GIFf GAFF customers before their own.


I switched to 3 mobile. 12 month SIM only contract, 500MB data, 200 minutes, 2000 texts £6.50 a month

[Dead Eye]

I was previously an Orange customer before switching to O2 in January... I wish I hadn't...

O2's quality is fine in terms of internet speed, but any time I head in to the countryside the signal becomes patchy and my phone becomes useless for anything internet related. I can still make and receive calls and texts, but internet services are out the window.

I've heard a lot of good things about 3 from friends and colleagues so it's something I'll be looking to move two in 18 months time...

[headgonekneedown]

dead eye. do you have a iphone 5 ?

[Dead Eye]

Nope, I now have a Galaxy Note 3 - huge handset and I love it ^^ I had a Galaxy S2 before hand


I find it ironic that as far as I'm concerned Apple is "the dark side" yet most of their products have historically been white...

[maddog04]

what's the note 3 like, I have an s2 at the mo and tho I'm after a sim only for now; I will look at a phone before xmas
thinking about s4/5
note 3
LG g3
M8
any thoughts anyone?
 
for those using giffgaff, do you just contact them and get the sim sent out and pop it in, I want to be on a rolling month so if I see a good phone deal then I can move?

[Fazafou]

You can order a SIM simply enough through my link here:
 
https://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/nogginphone
 
I think you get a free £5 when you get this and no cost for the SIM card
 
I joined a month or two ago and initial experience is good however there are things you should be aware of as it came as a surprise to me - sorry if you know all this.
 
Giff Gaff is an online only service, run by members through a community style forum.
 
You can earn money back through helping people on the forum and you can ask for help which is usually provided pretty quickly, but......
 
If you have an issue, you can't just ring someone for help, instead you post a question to an 'agent' and then wait up to 24 hours for a response or them to sort out the problem.
 
I had a few reasons to get in touch and they always sorted the issue no problem, however, I had to wait a few hours and you don't know when anything is happening, so a bit frustrating if you're used to just shouting at a call centre and getting some action.
 
A good point however is a very nice Giff Gaff app to monitor your balance.
 
Also you can buy monthly 'goody bags' containing your preferred service e.g. 300 mins, unlimited texts etc.
 
The nice thing with this is its completely flexible in that you may know next month will be a quiet one, so you drop to PAYG, but then you want a lot of talk time so get the appropriate service just for that month.
 
You can set these to recur so it act's like a normal account, or just play around with the services how you want
 
Once I got used to the fact you get help through the forum, and accustomed to the website which can be hard to navigate initially, I really like it.  Coverage is generally good (O2 as said above) and the flexibility is really nice.
 
Also, when you have a rolling monthly goody bag, you can also store normal PAYG airtime.  This can be used as backup in case you run out of minutes or go abroad and need to cover some roaming fee's for example.  Through the App, its really easy to see the account balance and I now prefer to other services I've used.
 
At the very worst, if you don't like it you can drop out easily anytime, especially if you do the PAYG service
 
I've been on a learning curve with the service so drop me a PM if you need to know anything specifically with the service or using the website.

[maddog04]

cheers Fazer, I'm looking at the £12 goodybag
I barely use talk time so 200/250 minutes is ample, texts will also be enough.............opting for it due to unlimited data bit

[Dead Eye]

what's the note 3 like, I have an s2 at the mo and tho I'm after a sim only for now; I will look at a phone before xmas
thinking about s4/5
note 3
LG g3
M8
any thoughts anyone?
 
for those using giffgaff, do you just contact them and get the sim sent out and pop it in, I want to be on a rolling month so if I see a good phone deal then I can move?

I did like my S2 but it got to a point where the battery was only barely enough - it used to run out every day and I'm not a particularly heavy user.

My Note 3 I do love - its one annoying feature is also one of its best which is the screen. If you have small pockets, you'll hate it because you have to take it out of your pocket to sit down - for the most part this doesn't affect me. As its a bigger handset, they can fit a larger battery so it easily lasts 3-4 days for me. Even with very heavy use I can usually get 2 days out of it.

I've heard good things about the S4 / S5 - the S4 had its initial issues with the glass top layer coming away from the handset (though this might have been the S3) but that was resolved fairly quickly. The S5 is too new for me to have an first hand impressions as I only know one person with one and he's only had it for about a week.

The other handsets I don't really know anything significant about. I've generally stayed with Samsung as it's what I've become used to. I'm occasionally tempted by a Windows Phone, but they just aren't well enough established to cater for the apps that I like to use.

[mickvp]

what's the note 3 like, I have an s2 at the mo and tho I'm after a sim only for now; I will look at a phone before xmas
thinking about s4/5
note 3
LG g3
M8
any thoughts anyone?
 
for those using giffgaff, do you just contact them and get the sim sent out and pop it in, I want to be on a rolling month so if I see a good phone deal then I can move?

In short - It depends what your looking for! the best two phones on that list in regards to technical ability and speed/power are the Galaxy S5, and the HTC One M8.

If your looking for build quality and "premium" feel, the HTC One M8 is light years ahead (all metal body, whereas the S4/S5 are both pretty flimsy plastic designs). Another contender not on your list with a premium feel is the Sony Xperia Z2 (glass/metal all round) which is also about as fast as the HTC One M8/S5.

All of the phones on your list will likely do everything you want. dont expect massive battery life from any of them (galaxy Note aside) so expect to be charging the rest daily.

I have a HTC One myself (M7, not a new M8), and although its great in terms of feel, size, build quality, and it does everything I want it to - after 2 HTC's I can say that I wont be buying another. My first HTC (sensation XL) got so bad with the battery I had to charge it almost twice every day, after a few updates it became so bloating with firmware it became woefully slow - there was no processor allowance for future expansion. My HTC One is just back yesterday from being repaired (its only 8 months old). I woke up one morning to find it had turned itself off - never to go back on, it had somehow corrupted its own firmware so I ujst went a week without a phone.

So, No HTC for me. I also wouldnt own a Galaxy S4/S5 either. they are probably the best phones overall in terms of ability, and support, but the poor quality feel for a phone that is £500+ is a deal breaker for me.

My Missus has the Xperia Z2 which is very nice, and also waterproof as well (you can actually dip it right into a bucket of water, not sure why you would want to), so that waterproof-ness appeals in case im on the bike and its not in a waterproof pocket when I get caught in bad weather.

As I say, you probably wont choose a bad one there, it just depends whats most important to you

[maddog04]

Id forgot about the Z2  
the lad in the shop said he had the Z1 (few months back and the Z2 was due out) and couldn't sing its praises high enough and also banged on about being waterproof..............as a fireman and a biker, that would be more than useful; the S5 has gone the same way...........shouldn't be long before all the top end ones are waterproof

[Fazafou]

I recently got the HTC one M8 and have to say it's a blinding phone.

Came from a Samsung and definitely not looking back.

[Doddsie]

Im on sim only with Virgin, £15 a month, unlimited everything.

[Fazafou]

Im on sim only with Virgin, £15 a month, unlimited everything.

I was on that, very disappointing.

Poor signal coverage, signal dropouts with ages before phone could find the signal.

Was my main reason for moving over to GG.

[Andy FZS]

Interesting to read all the above as my contract ends soon and to be honest I'm in no hurry to change my s3 as it's a good phone. So I think I'll also give gif gaf a go on £12 / month deal that will save me enough to fill my tank every month for another ride out
Andy

[nitemare]

I use Giff Gaff on an old Nokia E5. My wife and friends are on it so free calls & text to them. Also if someone calls me I get credit, got 18minutes because someone called me with a computer problem. I use the cheapest £5 on auto, might switch to £7.50.

Yes runs over O2. Not had problems so far. Also you don't have to unlock an O2 phone to use GiffGaff.

Recommend it.

[Doddsie]

Im on sim only with Virgin, £15 a month, unlimited everything.

I was on that, very disappointing.

Poor signal coverage, signal dropouts with ages before phone could find the signal.

Was my main reason for moving over to GG.

Never had any problems at all with mine.

[richfzs]

Nor me with my Virgin sim card...

[Dead Eye]

Ahh, Virgin brings back some good memories from school... they had the summer of free texts (in like 2005 or 2006) to other Virgin customers so naturally every single student had a Virgin sim card with 0 credit on it :P

[Doddsie]

Dont remember too many virgins at my school!!!

[Dead Eye]

Huh... maybe my school had better standards than I thought for... 

[darrsi]

what's the note 3 like, I have an s2 at the mo and tho I'm after a sim only for now; I will look at a phone before xmas
thinking about s4/5
note 3
LG g3
M8
any thoughts anyone?
 
for those using giffgaff, do you just contact them and get the sim sent out and pop it in, I want to be on a rolling month so if I see a good phone deal then I can move?

I did like my S2 but it got to a point where the battery was only barely enough - it used to run out every day and I'm not a particularly heavy user.

My Note 3 I do love - its one annoying feature is also one of its best which is the screen. If you have small pockets, you'll hate it because you have to take it out of your pocket to sit down - for the most part this doesn't affect me. As its a bigger handset, they can fit a larger battery so it easily lasts 3-4 days for me. Even with very heavy use I can usually get 2 days out of it.

I've heard good things about the S4 / S5 - the S4 had its initial issues with the glass top layer coming away from the handset (though this might have been the S3) but that was resolved fairly quickly. The S5 is too new for me to have an first hand impressions as I only know one person with one and he's only had it for about a week.

The other handsets I don't really know anything significant about. I've generally stayed with Samsung as it's what I've become used to. I'm occasionally tempted by a Windows Phone, but they just aren't well enough established to cater for the apps that I like to use.

I'm still using an S2, but i bought a big bastard battery for it. (technical term)
Normal one is 1650mAh, but the one i got is 4800mAh.
It's obviously a thicker battery, so you get a new back plate for the phone, which rules out all your fancy cases as well, but it made a huge difference on battery life.
I just use one of the pull up pouches to protect it.
Ideally you should get a new battery every couple of years as well.