How to save money on your mobile phone charges
Posted: September 12th, 2013, 8:48 pmI have been with Vodafone for years but found their roaming data, limits and MMS costs prohibitive.
I bought a pay as you go SIM from "Everything Everywhere" which runs on the back of T-mobile as does Orange and Virgin mobile too, but again I could not get what I wanted for what I was prepared to pay.
When you look at just who is providing your mobile service you can see that your actual choices are not as wide as you might have first imagined. Then I heard of "giffgaff" - my first thoughts were what a stupid name but then I discovered the word giffgaff is from the Scottish English meaning "mutual giving" and was chosen to fit with the principles "the mobile network run by you" to reflect the fact that some users of the service help run various aspects of the operation.
What this means in practice is that there are usually a couple of thousand "giffgaff" members on-line at any one time who are able and willing to help you with any difficulties you may have. The members provide the primary customer service and I am amazed at just how good it is. Not only can you earn kudos and rank by helping others less knowledgeable than yourself but you can also earn money too.
For any issues with your account then there are Agents who work for "giffgaff" who will always attend to any account difficulties that may arise within 24 hours. In my experience of dealing with big Corporates 24 hours is no time at all.
"giffgaff" runs on the back of o2 but use there own unique Area Network Provider settings which can be sent to your phone by text for popular handsets. In my case, my newly purchased Chinese Zopo C2 Platinum had to have settings manually entered from a text containing the instructions which is easily completed.
You can choose from a whole range of what "giffgaff" call goody-bags or you can simply chose pay as you go to suit whatever your needs are. In my case I chose a combination of both. I said at the start I wasn't prepared to pay too much for what I wanted my mobile to do and for me "giffgaff" win hands down.
I chose a 30 day recurring auto-top-up goody-bag for £12.00 every 30 days which gives me:
250 min airtime
Unlimited texts
Unlimited web --- and yes this does mean truly unlimited without any fair use policy
Free calls to other giffgaff users
Lasts for 30 days then you can buy another as you chose or set auto-top-up.
The most important thing is that you are not tied to a contract you can leave whenever you like with no penalties.
I also decided to buy as I need it £10.00 pay as you go as the £12.00 goody-bag does not cover MMS picture messages but charges for these seperately at 16p each which is on my reckoning 9p less per MMS than most of the other mobile service providers.
If I have whetted your appetite and you feel ready to try a new service provider and pay less money then simply click my link to order your free "giffgaff" SIM and when you register it with "giffgaff" using my link they will credit you with £5.00 of free airtime too.
http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/trashcooky
If it turns out you don't like "giffgaff" (which I think will definitely be in the minority) then you can always go back to one of the other service providers again.
There is an important caveat which must not be ignored and that is that your phone must be unlocked before you can use a "giffgaff" SIM - however, so long as you own the phone, even if locked, then the "giffgaff" community can tell you exactly how to unlock it.
I bought a pay as you go SIM from "Everything Everywhere" which runs on the back of T-mobile as does Orange and Virgin mobile too, but again I could not get what I wanted for what I was prepared to pay.
When you look at just who is providing your mobile service you can see that your actual choices are not as wide as you might have first imagined. Then I heard of "giffgaff" - my first thoughts were what a stupid name but then I discovered the word giffgaff is from the Scottish English meaning "mutual giving" and was chosen to fit with the principles "the mobile network run by you" to reflect the fact that some users of the service help run various aspects of the operation.
What this means in practice is that there are usually a couple of thousand "giffgaff" members on-line at any one time who are able and willing to help you with any difficulties you may have. The members provide the primary customer service and I am amazed at just how good it is. Not only can you earn kudos and rank by helping others less knowledgeable than yourself but you can also earn money too.
For any issues with your account then there are Agents who work for "giffgaff" who will always attend to any account difficulties that may arise within 24 hours. In my experience of dealing with big Corporates 24 hours is no time at all.
"giffgaff" runs on the back of o2 but use there own unique Area Network Provider settings which can be sent to your phone by text for popular handsets. In my case, my newly purchased Chinese Zopo C2 Platinum had to have settings manually entered from a text containing the instructions which is easily completed.
You can choose from a whole range of what "giffgaff" call goody-bags or you can simply chose pay as you go to suit whatever your needs are. In my case I chose a combination of both. I said at the start I wasn't prepared to pay too much for what I wanted my mobile to do and for me "giffgaff" win hands down.
I chose a 30 day recurring auto-top-up goody-bag for £12.00 every 30 days which gives me:
250 min airtime
Unlimited texts
Unlimited web --- and yes this does mean truly unlimited without any fair use policy
Free calls to other giffgaff users
Lasts for 30 days then you can buy another as you chose or set auto-top-up.
The most important thing is that you are not tied to a contract you can leave whenever you like with no penalties.
I also decided to buy as I need it £10.00 pay as you go as the £12.00 goody-bag does not cover MMS picture messages but charges for these seperately at 16p each which is on my reckoning 9p less per MMS than most of the other mobile service providers.
If I have whetted your appetite and you feel ready to try a new service provider and pay less money then simply click my link to order your free "giffgaff" SIM and when you register it with "giffgaff" using my link they will credit you with £5.00 of free airtime too.
http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/trashcooky
If it turns out you don't like "giffgaff" (which I think will definitely be in the minority) then you can always go back to one of the other service providers again.
There is an important caveat which must not be ignored and that is that your phone must be unlocked before you can use a "giffgaff" SIM - however, so long as you own the phone, even if locked, then the "giffgaff" community can tell you exactly how to unlock it.