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Giffgaff UK Boost 5G Mobile Data Allowances, Hikes PAYG Price

Thursday, Jan 21st, 2021 (8:06 am) - Score 11,640
giffgaff logo uk

Mobile operator giffgaff has announced that they will soon be boosting the data (mobile broadband) allowances on some of their plans and as part of that they’ll also launch two new 5G ready “golden goodybag” plans. But it’s not all good news as the operator is doubling the price of data usage on their Pay As You Go (PAYG) service.

Back in October 2020 giffgaff launched (here) their first 5G ready “golden goodybag” plans (these still work with 4G too), which gave customers “unlimited” data (Fair Usage Policy), minutes and calls for £35 per month. Soon after they also introduced a cheaper £10 option with a 9GB data allowance.

NOTE: Giffgaff is an O2 based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).

Under the new changes giffgaff will be adding two additional golden goodybags on 11th February 2021, while also boosting the data allowance of their standard (4G) £8 goodybag from 2GB to 3GB (this will be an automatic upgrade for existing customers). Remember, all of their Pay Monthly (no contract) goodbags come with unlimited calls and minutes as standard.

New 5G golden goodybags

£15 golden goodybag (25GB)

£20 golden goodybag (100GB)

In addition, both of the new golden goodybag plans will each give you a 20GB data allowance when mobile roaming around the EU. The existing £15 (15GB) and £20 (80GB) 4G goodybags will also still be available, although they do appear to be less competitive than the new ones and that may confuse some consumers.

The bad news is that, with effect from 23rd February 2021, the operator will be significantly increasing the price of data usage on their PAYG service. At present giffgaf’s PAYG rates are 25p/minute, 10p/text and 5p/MB (MegaByte) without a goodybag, but after the change you’ll be paying 10p/MB. Mind you they aren’t the only ones to hike PAYG rates, with Three UK recently increasing the price of 1MB from 1p to 5p (here).

So, on the one hand operators seem to be boosting their data allowances for pay monthly customers (often without increasing prices), while on the other hand we have operators massively hiking PAYG rates for data. The goal here is often to convert more PAYG subscribers to Pay Monthly ones, which is not always suitable for such users. As an alternative there’s always 1pMobile (EE MVNO powered). Credits to Aaron for spotting the change.

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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Comments
16 Responses
  1. Avatar photo Bill says:

    With 1p mobile there is a minimum top-up requirement of £10 every 4 months.

    1. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

      It’s not uncommon for PAYG plans to have 30, 60 or 90 day expiry times on top-ups, so four months isn’t too bad.

    2. Avatar photo Leex says:

      1p mobile isn’t very good because you have to use the credit by 120 days or they eat it (topping up doesn’t reset it)

      Giffgaff and three as long as you do something that is chargeable you keep credit indefinitely (debatable in giffgaff as you shouldn’t use giffgaff without a goodybag, my motto was use it or lose it on giffgaff if you leave credit on your account)

      If you put credit onto your account convert it into a goodybag

    3. Avatar photo Pete Forman says:

      Leex said “1p mobile isn’t very good because you have to use the credit by 120 days”

      That is not quite how it works. You have to top up every 120 days but your credit does not expire, it just accumulates.

  2. Avatar photo Gareth says:

    I had 1pMobile a few years back for an old number I wanted to keep. The number was rarely used so I thought putting £10 on it a couple of times per year would be great.

    My £10 quickly disappeared and I found out a premium rate text service (never used it) managed to send me texts that I was billed for.

    I rang 1pMobile who refused to refund the money (which I agreed with) as it wasn’t their fault, but what I did NOT agree with is the fact they refused to put any block for premium rate services to stop it happening again. They just flat out refused, so I requested the PAC and left and funnily enough I never got any of those messages again

    1. Avatar photo Anna says:

      Gareth

      I just left them because I used more than they could offer (was a trial for me to see if I could fit in with their model) However they give customers all the network tools and you could have self blocked them. It’s the first thing i did.

      Although might not have been possible back then. I can only take from recent experience. I also left without speaking to them – was all easy enough

  3. Avatar photo Stuart says:

    It’s great they are offering 5G goody bags but maybe if they actually provided a 5G service to go with it people might be interested. Leeds has no 5G service from giffgaff at all but they are happy to take the money

    1. Avatar photo John says:

      You can’t expect them to sell regional packages on a SIM card that you can use nationwide.

      If there’s no 5G coverage in your area then don’t buy a 5G goodybag?

  4. Avatar photo Paul Barrett says:

    Of course it should be recognised by the mobile companies that PAYG is used by many as they can’t pass the stringent credit checks that have to be passed to obtain a contract.

    Obviously not so much an issue if a contract is a rolling 1 month one.

    But in general PAYG rates are outrageous from all providers.

    For many a contract is a distant dream.

    Invariably a contract is ideal and there are many competitive and cheap contract deals out there.

    Getting them though is not so easy for some!

    1. Avatar photo 5GFORWALES says:

      Agreed

    2. Avatar photo Ben says:

      I didn’t know Giffgaff ran credit checks for their monthly packages. Could you share some more information?

    3. Avatar photo Leex says:

      He said contracts you can have add-on packages on giffgaff/payg perfectly fine because you pay up front

  5. Avatar photo Gareth says:

    @Anna

    Not according to their website!

    “1pMobile and all other telecom companies have a legal obligation to allow these texts to be sent to your phone, we cannot block them and we cannot refund your money, the money refund would need to come from the company that originated the text message, if you can prove you didn’t sign up for the texts, they also must stop sending them if requested”

    That’s more or less what they said to me two years ago. So someone can send an unauthorised premium rate text to your phone and steal your credit. Most other networks I have been with allow Premium Rate Text Blocking. So I don’t understand how they say they can’t “block” them.

    1. Avatar photo Ben says:

      They can not block premium rate services that customers have subscribed to. They CAN and do block all premium rate texts and calls by default. However if a customer wants to use these services they can enable them from within their account area.

      At this point the customer has stated that they wish to send and receive premium rate services. A company can not then block the very services that a user has unblocked because they want to use them.

      So if you want to donate say £10 to Comic Relief via text that would be classified as a premium text, and you would have to request premium rate calls and texts to be allowed.

      The company is then obliged to allow all premium rate services through on your number, their is no filter for charity donations, game subscriptions, or texts from other services that you may have unwittingly clicked on.

      Providers can and do allow you to block premium rate services as a whole but they can not block individual services if a user has requested that premium rate services should be allowed. They do not know what services you want to use, so they are either blocked or not blocked en masse

  6. Avatar photo Thomas says:

    This is likely an attempt to get people back on to a monthly payment plan again. The first few months after lockdown I was using 0MB of my £10 goodybag because my phone was connected to my home wifi 24/7 so I cancelled it and have been on PAYG ever since.

    Once I start spending enough time out of the house again I’ll get back on a goodybag but maybe others who have done the same have realised that PAYG is just as cheap, or even cheaper than a plan.

    I’m sure these companies prefer a predictable income every month instead of being at the mercy of usage trends. This price hike feels more like they’re trying to nudge people back to where they want them.

  7. Avatar photo John Holmes says:

    Does anybody else think giffgaff slogan, “The mobile network run by you”, is now dated? It really only refers to the forum, which most customers do not even use. Most other operators also have forums or communities.

Comments are closed

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