GiffGaff or Smarty - or Another?

[Alickadoo]

I have been with GiffGaff for a few years, runs on O2, £6 a month 2gb data ul texts and minutes - I think.
The service hasn't been wonderful, I am thinking of switching to Smarty £5pm which runs on 3.

Good idea, or not?

I am in Surrey, if it makes a difference.

[Ham_and_Jam]

I’m on Talkmobile (Vodafone), and my wife on IDMobile (3) and never had an issue in over 5 years.

If you’re looking for fairly low monthies / data, then £4.95 / month will get you 5Gb on Talmobile and £6 / month is 8Gb on IDMmobile.

Both do much bigger data bundles for under £10.

Check out uSwitch for sim only deals

[Hoofy]

Yeah, check Uswitch. I found Idmobile on Uswitch and it seems fine (only been with them a couple of months).

Haven't managed to test it in all the dead spots that O2 was having problems with yet but it seems promising in the couple that I've visited.

[Alickadoo]

Thanks for those replies.

How can I tell which will give best coverage?

[LuS1fer]

I have been with Giff Gaff for years and years. I switched to Smarty and could barely get a signal outside and nothing in the house.

Transferred back to Giff Gaff pretty sharpish but GG has always worked for me and does limited EU roaming for free.

Much depends on where in the country you are, though. LeBara are advertising heavily but not sure how good they are.

[Hoofy]

Alickadoo said:

Thanks for those replies.

How can I tell which will give best coverage?

You might be able to find a coverage map but you may also need to search on FB and forums because whilst an area might theoretically be covered if it's a really popular or sold service then it's going to be problematic. That's what I had with O2. Standing on Richmond Bridge (LONDON!) gave me zero signal and I had to switch to 3G (now dead?) to get anything as 4G was just not giving me any data.

It might be a case of getting a no-contract sim for a month and testing it before transferring your number? For £5 it's worth the test before committing?

Oh, and if you go to idmobile, we can both get some money back if you use my referral link: http://aklam.io/kGuC2n

Edited by Hoofy on Sunday 22 September 11:24

[Ham_and_Jam]

Alickadoo said:

Thanks for those replies.

How can I tell which will give best coverage?

You won’t realistically other than getting one to try. Most are on 1 month / no contract basis so the most you’ll be out of pocket is £5-10.

There are coverage maps available, but they rarely give you reliable day to day useage.

[hellorent]

OH is with Idmobile 50gb for £8 pm can't fault it.

[ATM]

I've had Giff Gaff, Smarty and Asda. All were sheet. Now I have EE pay as you go SIM for £10 per mon. Signal is much much better.

[Xcore]

I’m on lycamobile which runs on the EE network, seems ok but no wifi calling!

[Dave.]

Hoofy said:

Yeah, check Uswitch. I found Idmobile on Uswitch and it seems fine (only been with them a couple of months).

Haven't managed to test it in all the dead spots that O2 was having problems with yet but it seems promising in the couple that I've visited.

I’ve found better sim only deals on moneysavingexpert recently.

[LuS1fer]

ATM said:

I've had Giff Gaff, Smarty and Asda. All were sheet. Now I have EE pay as you go SIM for £10 per mon. Signal is much much better.

But you pay through the nose for EU roaming.

[craig1912]

Lebara £6.95 for 15gb and no foaming charges in Europe. Can’t fault them.

[littleredrooster]

craig1912 said:

Lebara £6.95 for 15gb and no foaming charges in Europe. Can’t fault them.

But they are capped at 2Gb roaming (the same as GiffGaff), aren't they? I'm fairly certain mine is.

[craig1912]

littleredrooster said:

But they are capped at 2Gb roaming (the same as GiffGaff), aren't they? I'm fairly certain mine is.

Nope, capped at 30gb

https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/help/roaming/can-i-use...

[stevoknevo]

Xcore said:

I’m on lycamobile which runs on the EE network, seems ok but no wifi calling!

We use Lycamobile in an old Pixel 4 at our caravan purely to create a WiFi hotspot network (we don't get any signal on our EE and VF phones but the Lycamobile handset picks up enough of a signal when placed in an optimal position...) then we do get WiFi calling on any devices connected to it - 20 quid pm for unlimited data.