Balance @ 0 after paying same day.

clair77805

Hi giffgaff,
I just bought a 10 quid top up at 11;45am. On the same day at 3:43 I received a text saying that my account has dropped to 0. I LITERALLY JUST SPENT 10 ON MY PHONE PLAN. Now I cannot use my phone for work unless I spend more money on my phone plan or am in wifi. I travel around for work so wifi isnt something I come by very easily.

On another note,. I don’t even know why my phone plan has run up on its data in the first place. Nothing has changed in my data usage from last month and I had plenty remaining previously. Can you please check into 1)why my balance is back at 0 2) why my account has claimed i’m all out of data in the first place.

I appreciate your help ASAP.

williamwalker

clair77805
It sounds like you’ve just topped up pay and go credit and not exchanged it for a goodybag which contains minutes text and data.
Check data usage on your phone if your phone has used 200 Mb in the background that would eat the whole £10 top up it’s 5p a megabyte.
If you’re using a smartphone it’s always best to use a goodybag or at least if you’re using paying go turn data off.
11 link underneath explaining how to exchange credit for a goodybag. 👍

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Solve-your-questions/Can-I-buy-a-goodybag-gigabag-with-my-existing-credit/ta-p/4101025#

Also here is a video which will explain.

Hope this helps you

natty88

clair77805 remember topping up means your not pay as you go rates of twenty five pence per minute for UK calls ten pence per text and five pence per megabyte data usage in UK example ten pounds would only give you two hundred megabyte data usage

it’s best exchanging credit top ups for goody bag here

buy from credit
welcome to help and support Please follow this guide

https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Solve-your-questions/Can-I-buy-a-goodybag-with-my-existing-credit/ta-p/4101025

or call 43430 option two and follow prompts given to exchange credit/voucher for goody bag

also make sure recurring payments are switched of here

http://giffgaff.com/profile/payment-details

if you believe it’s wrong inquire about it with agents here please

Agents as it’s account related

welcome to help and support

please inquire with agents here

https://support2.giffgaff.com/app/ask/Top-up-balances-and-goodybags/Credit-debit-card-or-PayPal-overcharging/form/

allow up to a maximum of 24hrs for replies although usual time frame is 3to5 hrs

replies will show here when logged into your account

https://giffgaff.com/support/questions

Agents start work at 8am until 11pm Monday to Friday and 8am to ten pm Saturday and Sunday

What’s the difference between goodybags and credit?
https://www.giffgaff.com/help/articles/difference-between-goodybags-and-credit

halfd74

clair77805
These might off took your credit off

Maybe some apps are using up data in the background on your phone
Have you sent any MMS? MMS cost 16p and don’t include free in any of the goodybags at all
Or have you been texting/calling premium rate numbers such as 0870/0845? these are also not free
Or maybe international texts

Cheers 😉

clikasarus

clair77805

welcome to giffgaff and the community

did you buy a goodybag?

as that is different from just toping up you can check your order here ⬇️
  https://www.giffgaff.com/orders/history

If not then you can buy a goodybag from here ⬇️
  https://www.giffgaff.com/sim-only-plans

otherwise pay as you go rates apply:-

Calls: 25p/minute

Texas: 10p each

Picture messages: 30p each

Total pricing can be found here⬇️

https://www.giffgaff.com/pricing

I hope this helps;

netfax

clair77805 Hi there. Could you please check your purchase order history to see if you’ve bought a £ 10 credit top-up or a £ 10 goodybag plan? If you’ve bought a £ 10 credit top-up in error, instead of buying a 1 month goodybag plan, you’d be subject to giffgaff’s PAYG top-up rates, which are 25p per minute for standard UK calls, 10p per UK text and 5p per MB for mobile internet (data).

Your top-up credit balance might have been used by Apps running in the background or updating using giffgaff’s mobile data services (at 5p per MB), on top of your known usage. Please take a look at your Recent Usage Statement as this should show how your credit has been used. Please note that the information displayed is up-to-date as of the end of the day before yesterday. Any transactions/usage made yesterday will show on this page from 8am tomorrow and today’s usage will appear from 8am the day after tomorrow. If you need more details (or records going back further in time), please raise an agent case HERE to request this information. Agents (giffgaff staff) aim to reply within 24 hours (maximum). You can view agent replies through your account dashboard’s messages section.

If your credit has been used by mobile data, please make sure that within your Apps Store settings, you select the option for Apps to update via Wi-Fi only as this will avoid Apps updating via mobile data. Also, Apps running in the background can also use mobile data without you being aware of it, so if you don’t want this to happen, please switch off mobile data when you don’t need it.

USING AN iPHONE OR A PHONE WITH A ‘WI-FI ASSIST’ FEATURE? Please turn off the Wi-Fi Assist feature, as this uses a Wi-Fi/Mobile Data combination to increase data speeds, even if mobile data is turned off. Please see the official Apple instructions for full details on how to turn Wi-Fi Assist off.

Credit gone and made a mistake with your purchase (bought a £ 10 credit top-up instead of a £ 10 goodybag plan)? Please let a giffgaff agent know HERE, stating what’s happened in the text box provided and request a refund. Agents aim to reply to questions within 24 hours.

You can view agent replies on your account dashboard, under the Messages section.

In the meantime, please take a look at the article below to view more information about the differences between goodybag plans and credit top-ups (including purchase links):

Article: Difference between goodybags and credit

In a nutshell…

Goodybags are 1 month SIM Only Plans containing standard UK minutes, texts and data allowances. When your goodybag expires, any remaining allowance is lost and nothing is rolled-over onto your next goodybag.
Credit top-ups (PAYG) don’t expire and remain available until used (assuming that your SIM remains active on the network and used at least once in any 6 month period to avoid disconnection). You’d be charged standard UK rates when using PAYG credit top-ups. Credit is also good for things that aren’t included in goodybag plans, for example… MMS/Picture Messages, International Calls, Calls and Texts to Non-standard numbers or 5 digit shortcodes.

Hope this helps. Many thanks.

muddycalhoun

clair77805 Hi Clair, I am sorry to be telling you after the fact, but if you were using your phone on giffgaff s a PAYG customer as opposed to using a goodybag that is unsurprising. Being as giffgaff is far from a good value provider without the benefit of a goodybag, the mistake that those who are unfamiliar with the way giffgaff works is that they don’t know that you have to actively purchase your goodybag from credit it isn’t applied automatically.
With data being 5p per megabyte at PAYG prices that is only 200Mb to consume your tenner. Whereas you are getting 6Gb on the standard £10 goodybag plus there’s an extra gigabyte when you are regularly using £10 or larger goodybags for three months and a “golden goodybag” for those can or want to use recurring goodybags with ten gigabytes.
I hope this hasn’t put you off too badly and in future if you are using a voucher for purchasing goodybags use the 43430 line and select option 2 and follow the instructions, this I have found the by far the quickest, easiest and best method for turning a voucher into a goodybag or purchasing goodybags from credit and an easy way to check your remaining balance, data etc. Hope this helps put things in perspective and is some help in future

eddiehk6

clair77805

Buying only ‘credit’ / ’topup’ means using the SIM on a “pay as you go” basis, spending your credit on every call, text and MB of data at pay as you go rates

Mobile data costs 5p per MB, which will quickly spend your credit.

For reference:

£10 ‘credit’ = 200MB data at pay as you go rates, which doesn’t last long as you have discovered
£10 ‘goodybag’ = 6GB data (6,000MB) included.

Don’t worry, this is a fairly common mistake. A giffgaff agent will refund you at their discretion. To resolve your issue:

Request for a refund by asking a giffgaff agent
When the credit is refunded, exchange the credit for a ‘goodybag’ using this guide

To make your life easier and prevent this happening again in future, I highly recommend you simply setup your goodybag to automatically recur each month.

beebeer

You should be buying a goodybag as credit won’t last long especialy on data, look here https://www.giffgaff.com/buy/goodybag

clair77805

beebeer why is that top up even an option then? I thought that I was buying a goody bag

beebeer

clair77805 Not all numbers plus overseas calls are not included in a goodybag therefore you’ll need credit to call them. Look here https://www.giffgaff.com/pricing

muddycalhoun

clair77805 why is that top up even an option then? I thought that I was buying a goody bag

I can understand that, especially if you are new to giffgaff, there is plenty that is not exactly intuitive.
The problem is that unless you have received the heads up from someone who has already had some experience with giffgaff and how it works, there is no prominent information saying something like “giffgaff’s good value and competitive pricing comes from using our goodybags” and a quick description of what you need to do to get said goodybag.
(Really a more truthful message would be “giffgaff’s pricing is really quite expensive if you aren’t using a prepaid bundle/goodybag you have been warned” but I don’t think giffgaff would approve of the image it would conjure)
Topping up credit is important for some members, if they are needing to make occasional overseas calls (because if they were making regular calls internationally they would be with a different provider) or for things like picture messaging, or some of the 08 numbers but in some ways your point is a good one.
These PAYG priced non goodybag extras are for the most part required by a minority of giffgaff’s customers and possibly used by some extremely light users as a cheaper option than the <£1.50 a week for the cheapest goodybag.
Whatever I think that credit top ups are something that should be organised in a less prominent position to goodybag purchases, I expect that the statistics for where giffgaff’s income originates, if broken down would show that airtime credit usage plays a second fiddle to goodybag purchases, (probably a very tiny second fiddle) accordingly perhaps the payment pages layout should reflect that. If it did we would have to explain why members like you, have fallen foul of this mistake and found their credit gone in no time, on a lot fewer occasions.