Hi all!
It's been another fantastic year for the giffgaff community. We've helped thousands more people get to grips with giffgaff, we've grown beyond just the walls of the forum to embrace feedback from a wide variety of our members, and we've completely lifted our community to a new platform, with the help and feedback of you all helping make it the best it can be, during migration, through today and into the future. And we've done it all together.
As the nights get longer, take comfort in the fact that getting your hard-earned Payback is just a handful of weeks away. Make sure you've chosen how you want to take it before Sunday 15 December at 23:59, and we'll make sure you get it. Whatever you'll be using your Payback on, let us know - it's always great to see what you choose to do with the Payback you've earned.
You can choose between having it as cash to your PayPal account, credit to your giffgaff account, or as a charity donation to the member-voted charities (which we'll match). The charities this period are Women's Aid and Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter, both of which will be able to use your donations to directly help real people and families this winter.
If you want the nitty-gritty, there's more info below with our key timings. We'll keep this updated as we pass these milestones and get closer to payout.
If you're over 16, you can turn your Payback points into Credit or Cash (via PayPal) for yourself, or select Charity which donates your Payback to the charities chosen by members.
You can let us know any time before 11:59pm 15 December 2019 how you’d like your Payback – just head to https://www.giffgaff.com/profile/payback and click the button. You’ll be presented with the three options to make your choice from.
If you’re selecting PayPal, you'll be asked to log in to your PayPal account so that we can be certain we're paying the right person.
- Credit: Select credit and we'll turn your Payback Points into airtime credit on your giffgaff account. As long as you choose before 23:59 on Sunday 15 December 2019, you'll get your Payback as credit on your account from the week of the 16th (Plus, it will trigger free giffgaff to giffgaff calls and texts for another 3 months).
- Cash: If you want cash, select PayPal as an option and log in to your PayPal account. You need to have earned at least £10.00 (1000 Payback points) to do this.
- Donate to charity: If you want to donate your Payback to charity, not only will we make sure that 100% of your points go to the charities chosen by our members, in addition giffgaff will match the total amount of money raised by all our members. Double nice one.
Donating to Charity if you have not selected Charity
If you've taken your Payback as cash or credit, we'd still encourage you to donate what you can, directly to the causes members have chosen this period. The charities this time around are Women's Aid and Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter.
Key Dates
October
Wednesday 9th - Charity Nominations Opened. [Complete]
Monday 14th - First set of Points Statements sent to members. [Complete]
November
Wednesday 6th - After technical difficulties, Points Statements completed sending to members. [Complete]
Sunday 10th - Charity Nominations Closed. [Complete]
Tuesday 12th - Charity shortlist announced
Wednesday 13th -Charity Voting starts [Complete]
Sunday 24th - Charity Voting Closes [Complete]
Tuesday 26th - Charity winners announced [Complete]
Saturday 30th - Earning Payback for this period closes at 11:59pm.
December
Wednesday 4th - Payback Calculations started
Week of the 9th - Points Statement sent to members
Sunday 15th - Payback selection closes as of 11:59pm. You will no longer be able to change your mind on how you get your Payback after this date.
Monday 16th onwards - All Payback to begin being paid. This might take a few days for all Payback to process, as we process a lot of Payback every six months. In addition, sometimes there are unexpected delays or issues with some payments (such as someone's PayPal account being inactive). Please be patient with us if you don't receive your Payback immediately - we'll be looking out for these incidents and fixing them as we go.
January
Early January - If you have a query about your Payback payment, you will be able to raise a case to the agents. Payback queries are not accepted before this date.
Three important notes
1. Making sure you are eligible for Payback -You should be an active member (eg you have an active SIM prior to the end of the Payback period).
2. How many points have you earned? You can head to the My Payback section of the website to find out – this gives you your total number of points which is accumulated since the beginning of the Payback period. Your Payback points are calculated monthly and sent in a points statement via email on or around the 5th working day of each month.
3. Points removal due to abuse - The purpose of Payback is to reward members for helping other members in the Community and for helping giffgaff grow. As per the T&Cs, giffgaff will determine the activity which qualifies for collection of points and reserve the right to remove some/ all points.We can only reward members for connecting “real members”, we’ll remove points awarded if that members connected is then banned for abusing our service (breaking our service T&Cs etc) or if they haven’t connected a “real new person” (for example, I connect another SIM to connect my own iPad and receive the points/ bonus credit, that’s fine. But I then I activate another SIM to put in that same iPad again to get more points / bonus credit the following month – this isn’t in the spirit of Payback, so the subsequent points may be removed).For full terms please see our T&Cs.
FAQs
Open the spoiler to view the FAQs:
How do I vote for the charity?
Votes for the Payback charity are conducted through email, with a unique voting link. We send these emails every Payback period to members who have opted in to marketing communications and earned Payback. Voting has now closed for this year's Payback charity.
When will the winning Charities be announced?
They already have been. The winning charities this year are Women's Aid and Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter. They will benefit from the donations of all members who choose to give their Payback to charity.
What time will the Payback selection window open?
It is open now, make your selection on the My Payback page.
Will my points default to credit?
No. You need to make a selection. If you don't make a selection prior to 23:59 15 December your points will roll over to the next Payback period. If they rolled over at the end of the previous period they cannot roll over again and will expire, so please choose how you'd like to recieve it.
Can I change my selection?
Yes, any time up until 11:59 15 December.
I haven't been an active giffgaffer for 3 months, will my points roll over?
No, as you haven’t qualified for Payback as per T&Cs all your points may be removed.
I have ported out my number will I still get my Payback?
Payback is only open to active members, so you have to have used a giffgaff service in order to be eligible.
I really really want my Payback now, what should I do?
Don't worry, we'll make sure you get it. There are thousands of payments being given back to our members - it'll take some time to process all of them. Sit tight over the week beginning December 16th while we process them, and our agents will be able to take any queries about Payback from early January.
I haven't received my Payback yet, what should I do?
If by Early January you have not received your Payback, contact us via the ‘Ask an agent' link. Please do not raise a case before this date as we're not able to investigate your Payback until we've processed (or attempted to process) everything.
Why can't I see "cash" as an option in my selection?
"Cash" is only made available to members who have a points balance of greater than 1000 points (£10 Payback). If you select this, and you don't have 1000+ points at Payback time, it'll default back to credit at Payback time.
When will I see my final points tally?
We'll be doing final checks to the balances and the final tally will be displayed as soon as everything is finalised in December.
I usually get early credit, how does that work?
This time around we're continuing to pay all Payback at once, without doing the early credit selection. It means it'll be a smoother process of paying back and we've got a bit more time to sort things on our end. For this Payback period, everyone will get their Payback in the same run.
Why are you rolling over points instead of defaulting to credit?
Defaulting to credit payment meant that there were delays where our systems were trying to credit an account that wasn't being used any more. To speed things up we're no longer trying to process these payments as credit - but rolling the points over. If you had points rolled over from the last Payback period, remember to make your selection otherwise these points will expire, and will be removed from your account.
Can I transfer my points to someone else?
No. Points are not transferable.
Can more than one member use the same PayPal email address?
Yes, it's up to you which PayPal email address you use for your Payback selection. However, you will need to be able to log in to the PayPal account you wish to use from each account you want to redeem Payback from.
Any failed credit payments will be retried, will this be done for failed PayPal payments?
No, so please make sure you log in to the correct account when you're making your selection. For some PayPal accounts you will also have 30 days to log-in to PayPal to claim it otherwise PayPal might send it back to us as ‘failed’. If your PayPal payment does fail, tyhe agents will be able to take your questions in early January.
I'm banned from the community, what happens to my points?
All of your community points will have been removed. If your SIM card is still active and you have other points (eg from recuriting new members), you can make a selection.
My SIM card has been barred, for various violations of giffgaff's abuse policies (ie text spamming, data policy abuse, harassing giffgaff staff/ other members, Member URL abuse) what happens to my points?
You need to be an active giffgaff member to qualify to claim points. As your giffgaff SIM is barred, it is no longer active and you will not qualify for Payback. Any points earned on that account are subject to removal if you are not an active giffgaff member in another way.
My SIM is reported Lost/Stolen, therefore in-active, what happens to my points?
They're still there, but if it is still inactive when we try to credit your account, the payment will fail. We will make a few attempts to credit your account. In order for you to get your Payback quickly, we'd advise you to try and get your SIM card up and running again prior to 15 December and make sure you've made your Payback selection.
I can't make my selection.
Let us know what device and browser you're using, and we'll check into it. In the mean time, try making a selection on a different device.
I've selected credit, will my free giffgaff to giffgaff calls be updated?
Yes, as long as the credit you've earned from Payback is more than £10, the expiry date for your free giffgaff to giffgaff calls and texts will be updated after the credit goes on your account. The date will be updated after the credit goes on to your account - potentially up to a few days later.
