When I moved over to a Smart Phone some years back, without any understanding of how they worked, I bought one with two SIM card slots. One has an Orange sim which I use for France. The other has a Giffgaff, pay as you go card. I don’t really know why, but because I thought it was supposed to enable me to phone/text the UK from France for not much money. It has an automatic top-up of £10 when the balance gets too low and that very rarely happens.
I’ve been using the Giffgaff SIM when I’ve been in the UK to phone delivery companies etc and to send texts to UK and France to let people know how I’m doing.
I am obviously getting something horribly wrong as I am managing to spend over £50 on the card in the UK in less than a week.
We’ve just had EE broadband installed in the house in the UK and the man in the shop suggested I installed an EE SIM card as a better option that Giffgaff.
I would really be grateful if someone could explain what I should do (and why). Thanks
Or see if there’s a “bundle” of minutes and/or data you could buy when needed, typically valid for a month.
If their general calling rate outside of plan or bundle is, say, 35p (not unusual in rip off Britain) then only 150 minutes would cost about £50. That’s 2 and a half hours, which is easy to run up sorting things out via phone
Is it possible that it’s routing through France for the calls and charging you as if you’re in Europe?
I had a GG account and ended up with £100 in roaming charges because of unexpected data usage (2 x windows computers trying to update). Giffgaff suck for support TBH and I don’t use them now.
Dump Giffgaff, it’s not good and those saying it is have missed the point. Lebara have far better plans in the UK with the best discount deals from comparison sites.
Things that tend to cost money, on top of the normal data sim:
some text messages, depending on where they’re sent;
MMS messages, i.e. messages containing photos, videos, etc, are charged extra, as I recently found out with my ThreeIreland subscription for when we are in Ireland.
There are probably others that I’ve forgotten about, e.g. validation messages or security tokens for logging into websites, etc, that are charged extra.
It sounds to me like your phone has been using your Giffgaff account for accessing mobile data (WhatsApp conversations, Google Maps, Android security updates, etc…). It’s unlikely to be racked up from phone calls or text messages.
Giffgaff is great for receiving text messages whilst you’re in France, but the PAYG option is expensive for data usage.
As already mentioned, you could buy a “bundle” which is more cost effective but make sure you get the “rolling monthly” option. It’s more expensive per month but you can cancel it when you’re back in France. Otherwise you’ll be tied into an 18 month contract.
Is the EE deal that you mentioned a PAYG or a monthly contract? I would check this before signing up to it.
Lastly, also make sure you’re using WiFi when at home now you’ve got broadband installed.
Yes! Thanks Gareth. My bill talks about MBs and not texts etc. I’ve been using my phone to get me from Gatwick to Chichester and then round and about. That makes sense.
Thanks Corona, I will investigate. Can I migrate my phone number? The EE guy was pretty sniffy about Giffgaff as it only offers 3G and reception in Chichester is terrible.
Yes it’s quite straightforward UK to UK number takes about 24 hours and switching the mobile off and on a couple of times. You will need a PAC code which you can get easily by a text message text “PAC” to 65075 for free from your current phone.
That code is only live for a week or so, therefore wait until you are ready.
I remember we exchanged posts about giffgaff (?). I’m sorry to read you have had a bad experience.
My first thought is that the problem is not Giffgaff, it is that you ‘switched’ from your France provider plan to your Giffgaff pay as you go (PAYG - it’s not a ‘plan’) when you arrived in the UK.
You should not have done that, as surely your France plan covers you when in the UK, similarly as you would use it in France, through roaming? You’ve switched from a ‘plan’ to a ‘pay a you go’ tariff which is always much much more expensive for all than the briefest use, and much less expensive when used for the briefest of uses, i.e. receiving UK texts! So switch back to your France SIM, provided of course it does roaming.
Now secondly, Giffgaff has been a bit maligned in the thread, which I don’t think is quite fair. Whatever PAYG provider you chose for receiving UK texts in France, when using PAYG in England you would have had similar costs.
As @KarenLot suggested, you could take out a suitable plan with Giffgaff for the month(s) you are in UK, though first check your existing France plan as to whether you are covered in the UK for your stay from that.
However, I also suggest you reach out to Giffgaff’s customer agent (it is online messaging / chat) explaining what has happened, that you didn’t understand, dual sim problem etc, are delighted with their product, will be in UK a lot more going forward, whatever, asking perhaps for a partial reduction, or a credit towards a plan etc (edit - and Gareth’s point below - phone ‘switched’ mysteriously to data (so they’ve made all their money from data which is very cheap, and their most expensive rate)
They might question why you kept topping up, or maybe offer you a cup of sympathy, who knows?
Good luck, maybe switch back to the France Sim straight away till you know where you are!
I’m editing my post to include Gareth’s insightful post I skimmed over, missed, and didn’t take into account.
No I am sorry I don’t agree with that. The Lebara is a monthly rolling contract with no tie ins so if the reception doesn’t work for Sue minimal money spent. Never been charged
Understood but there is just no reason to bebon PAYG when the non tied in plans simply wipe the floor with them.
Years ago I was on giff gaff, had to buy a bolt on every time I went to france which was very very frequently. Upon my return giff gaff would spend my bolt on first leaving me to have to buy another when returning to france only two weeks later. So it was an expensive take on for travellers.
That makes sense.
