Three currently offer effectively free roaming in the USA and many EU countries by allowing you to use your existing UK minutes and data allowance whilst abroad: their Feel At Home initiative.

 

Although there are plans to scrap roaming charges across Europe this coming summer, it's unclear exactly what this means and when it will happen.

 

Perhaps giffgaff could remain competitive in the meantime by at least partially meeting what Three is currently offering. Would it be possible to allow us to use our current goodybag's data allowance in at least some countries outside the UK?

I had a look to see if this was already posted, but a million apologies if this is old news and i just didnt spot it in my search.

 

I am not the only one confused by the 'Choose your BlackBerry plan' page. For some reason the plans are all in order of value except for the £5 hokey cokey bag, which is at the bottom of the page beneath the £20 bag. This led me, and others, to incorrectly assume the £5 bag was no longer available with the BIS add-on.

 

Simple solution: Bring it to the top of the list so it is in value sequence.

 

Image: The offending article with Hokey Cokey down the bottom where people wont be looking for it.

 

I love this feature, but could it be made clearer that GG debit your Card each month rather than take the money off your a/c. As a new user, I didn't realise this and have been topping up my a/c, the payment history also said that the method of payment was unknown.

 

it's a small thing but would help stop confusion.

I have some home automation products worked by text. I can text my heating to go on/off & put some lights on too.

There's a complete shortage of UK products to do this at a reasonable price, yet from the far east virtually all are under £30. Basically a GSM switch is little more than a cheap mobile, a transistor, and a relay.  The pin out on these is also normally far eastern needing an adapter to run on the UK 3 pin sockets (mine have C13/14 kettle cables so it was only a new cable was required rather than an adapter). So UK plugs would be in demand.

These devices also reply to the phone sending the commands to confirm the new settings (so if nothing returns you know its possible the command never reached & should be resent). As the actual cost of  a text is very close to zero, there could be sim aimed at this to only return texts to a giffgaff phone for say £10 a year.

The present sims worth considering are the one of payments then a lowish package available each month free, but will these companies be around at the end of a year?

British Gas is currently charging £200 for a remote heating controller (and normally charge a four figure sum over the odds for entire heating installations) so there is room for competition & even an initial abnormal profit while undercutting the only real suppier.

Think of what you save in taking your heating off the timer/stat when you are out & there is no risk of freezing, then text the heat on 15 mins before you arrive. You can also flick the lights on/off with a text if you want your house to look occupied if you feel uncomfortable when out.

Current devices all seem to have a 2200W limit, which prevents (like I have with a wireless remote 3KW switch) the kettle & toaster being started downstairs before I get up in the morning.

Further developments could even include email automation via a PC as the kit does not differ too much.

The possibilities are endless & no one is producing products for the UK at a reasonable price, nor is there a dedicated sim/package.

currently GG does not allow tethering on goody-bags for the perfectly good reason that the data usage demand would be through the roof and could collapse the GG/O2 network.

plusnet imposes similar volume restrictions on its basic package of home broadband, 10GB/month, however data usage between midnight and 08:00 (while network is unstressed because traffic is light) is not counted against the 10GB limit.

I suggest that while tethering during the day may be a non-starter for political or technical reasons, there should be scope to allow unrestricted data use overnight and include tethering in that free for all.

this will also overcome the perceived clamour from users demanding tethering!

How about adding the "extra minutes earned from incoming calls" function to all goodybags and not just the £5 hokey cokey?  This would placate those people who run out of minutes because they don't realise they can't buy a second bag within the month.

 

The system is already there, so it shouldn't cost much more to add it to all goodybags - and maybe gigabags too?

 

While a gigabag is being used for phone calls, it cannot be using high-speed data so it is reducing loading on the network.  That could be rewarded - by encouraging people to spend even more time not on the internet...

 

It would also help those who currently have to choose a £10 goodybag in case they need to tether, when really they wanted more minutes - especially when the current offer ends and newbies only get 250 mins.

 

I've already sugggested this in Contribute, but oldyorkie recommended putting it straight into Ideas.  Please support this if you think it would encourage you to buy a goodybag.  Let's get this to the ideas meeting, and then giffgaff can tell us whether it is practical or affordable.

 

 

Hi
My idea is to double a data allowance on 7.5 Goodybag due to pressure from competitors.
Giffgaff could refresh their goodybags to stay step forward.

For example:
Talk Talk S plan -100 min -250 txt. -200 mb cost 5 pounds 1 month
but if you take it for 12 months price decrease to 3.5 pounds

Virgin media 30-day contract 150 min ,unlimited txt , mobile data 500 mb cost 7 pounds

Three 30-day contract 200 min, 5000 txt, 500 mb cost 6.9 pounds

As tethering is currently only allowed on 1 current goodybag, shouldn't this be extended to all goodybags ie give both the £15 1GB of tethering data, & the £20 goodybag at least 2GB tethering data, that way those of us with wifi tablets can least use our tablets when out and about & with the thethering limits applied to the goodybags it won't be possible to abuse it, and when the amount is about to be used up let people know by sending a text that your allowed tethering data is about to be used up, so they know not to continue using tethering data afterwards.

 

Comon Giffgaff you just up the minutes on both the £15 & £20 goodybags, why not add some tethering aswell & make this a very special Christmas for us all.

Hi
I think it would be good to change the banding and add a few new layers
1- £1.00
2- £5.00
3 - £10.00
4 - £15.00
5 - £20.00
6. - £25.00
7 - £30.00
Thanks

I see lots of threads from users that forgot to add on blackberry services when they buy a goodybag.What follows is always a lot of discontent.

 

Is there not a way method for giffgaff to identify blackberry users at sim activation (eg via the IMEI).For blackberry users the add on would be automatic unless you opt out (rather than the standard opt in.

 

Or could the blackberry add on be capable of being added to a goody bag durung the goody bag period.

 

 

Since the £10 goodybag is now 400 mins and 1gb of data and the £12 goodbybag is 250 mins and unlimited data surely both these goodybags are  at an equivilant value? i think there should be two £10 goodybags, one with 400 minuets and 1gb data or one with 200-250 minuets and unlimited data, surely there are alot of data users out there like me who use internet on their smart phones more than minuets. anyone with me on this?

When you have a limited data plan on giffgaff, it shows you how much data you've used.

This is a simple idea - but would it be possible to show how much data has been used - even on an unlimited plan? My phone doesn't count data properly, and it would be handy to have it on giffgaff.com (and the giffgaff iPhone app, if possible).

Many people might find there need for their phone varies substantially month to month.

For example, you normally work at home and your landline and home broadband are fine until ...

some project orientated work which takes you away from home at short notice.

 

Your £ 5 or £ 7.5 goodybag looked fine a week ago when you bought it, but suddenly  you might find yourself exhausting the remnants of your current goodybag very quickly and wanting to buy the £ 20 one.

 

Gigggaff's pricing suddenly looks potentially a bit punishing although the 2p rather than 20p MB is a thoughtful concession.

 

Nevertheless, 10 hours of calls @ 10p at standard 'outside goodybag' rates would be £ 60. Ouch

 

How about allowing a surcharge, say £ 2.50, for buying another goodybag , to start as soon as the current one is exhausted?  The new one would run for the usual 30 days from the date of exhaustion of the first one.

As a compromise, this might might also only be only in conjunction with the £20 goodybag so that it is worthwhile for giffgaff as well as out of genuine change of circumstances for the community member (i.e. he or she suddenly has substantial unforeseen phone costs, not just brushing up against his or her goodybag allowance every month).

 

The idea also hopefully merits analysis from giffgaff as to whether it might be beneficial to them in revenue terms as well as giving the community extra options.  After all, part of giffgaff's appeal is the opportunity to change from goodybag to goodybag each month.  Also, to retain its community loyalty and differentiate itself form other networks, it needs to avoid hidden nasties.

 

The idea also works (perhaps even more so) for gigabags.

 

I appreciate that the balance needs to be struck between boodybag and out-of-goodybag rates, but there seems to be no 'long stop' protection at the moment. 

 

In my last goody bag in used up my internet allowance but had lots of minutes. So had to switch off cellular data. It would be great if you could buy a quick fire amount of data or minutes to top up your goody bag.