Low on price and high on satisfaction among its loyal community of users, giffgaff is a network like no other. Here’s what you can get from ‘the mobile network run by you’.
Compare giffgaff phone deals
Let’s look at giffgaff’s speciality: SIM-only that stand out for their flexibility and keen prices.
They work a little differently from standard pay-monthly deals from most mobile networks. giffgaff plans are more like pay-as-you-go SIMs: each month, you purchase a ‘goodybag’ of allowances. You’re free to choose a different goodybag each month, and if it runs out (or you haven’t bought a new one yet), your usage comes out of the remaining credit on your account.
Monthly allowances run from 500MB data for light users, up to ‘Always On’ data. This gives you unlimited downloads, but once you’ve used 80GB in a month, your 4G speed is throttled pretty severely from 8am to midnight.
You can easily change or cancel standard goodybags whenever you like, and it’s a great choice if you have a poor credit rating or if you're only in the UK temporarily.
There are also ‘golden goodybags’, which are even better value. To get access to these, you’ll need to set your plan to automatically renew each month for a set period, and pay by direct debit. It’s as convenient as a SIM contract from any other network, and costs work out in your favour. It’s also the only way to get truly unlimited data (as opposed to Always On).
And finally, giffgaff offers deals on . You can choose to buy a phone outright, or pay in monthly instalments over 24 months. Bear in mind this is through independently owned buy-now-pay-later service Klarna, though, rather than giffgaff itself – it’s not a typical mobile contract, and includes interest. Few are available with no upfront cost too.
Your SIM plan will always be separate from your handset contract, so you can chop and change your tariff as you wish.
Whatever you choose from giffgaff, you’ll be getting a good deal. It’s one of the cheapest mobile networks out there, and costs are guaranteed to stay low.
What are the best handsets to get on giffgaff?
giffgaff’s selection of mobile phones isn’t half bad. The best handsets of all are generally the latest iPhone and Samsung Galaxy mobiles, all of which are available on giffgaff.
You’ll find the best handsets from the likes of Motorola, Oppo, and Sony too – along with an excellent selection of mid-range and budget mobiles, matching the company’s commitment to good prices.
A wide range of refurbished phones are also available too, to help you save even more cash and make an environmentally friendly choice.
All giffgaff handsets arrive unlocked, so switching networks is easy peasy.
Is giffgaff a good network?
giffgaff operates a little differently from most networks. It’s ‘run by you’, and takes great pride in its customer community forums. There’s no official, telephone-based customer service – just users helping each other out, with the network’s own technicians on hand to solve network issues.
Participating and helping your fellow users earns you Payback points, which you can then convert into mobile credit, a donation to charity, or just cold hard cash.
Better yet, what giffgaff saves on customer service expenses, it passes along to its customers – hence the low cost tariffs. And the proof is in the pudding. Customers report incredibly high levels of satisfaction, according to Ofcom, both with the network and with the ‘customer service’ they receive.
There are a lot of things you can enjoy from other networks that you won’t get with giffgaff – such as free subscriptions to TV and music streaming services, priority tickets, mobile web security, and so on.
But what you will get is consistently low prices, flexible plans, and a community of fellow customers. If that’s all you need from your phone plan, giffgaff is a fantastic network.
Is giffgaff coverage good where I live?
giffgaff is an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), meaning it piggybacks off another network to deliver its service. In this case, that network is O2.
O2’s coverage is excellent, with 4G reaching over 99% of the UK population. Rural indoor coverage is more sparse, though generally good – and bear in mind O2’s 5G rollout isn’t the best in the country.
If you’re unsure, use O2’s coverage checker to see its service provision in your area.
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