I moved to Giffgaff mobile in August. Stupid name, but a really reliable and cheap network. 

How does it survive offering more than other networks? You ask. Well, basically they have a small staff maintaining everything and customer service is handled by the other members on the network. 

Promotion is down through referrals and this keeps down high marketing costs.

It is owned by Telefonica so it is backed by a huge company and it runs on the O2 network. You can even buy an O2 topup voucher and call 43430 to apply it to your giffgaff phone.

If you order a sim from another member, you get a bonus £5 free credit, and the referrer earns a commission. 

But Giffgaff really does offer more than any other mobile operator. It's calls are cheap, and even after a small price rise in October will be majorly competitive.

A single topup will grant you 3 months worth of totally free calls and texts to other giffgaff members. For me that was a bargain. We had 10 family members on O2 family costing nearly £13 a month and I had 4 people on a vodafone family costing me £5 a month. now all those people are on giffgaff that £18 a month would buy me 400 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited data!! Plus £3 left over!!

I have done a summary of Giffgaff benefits on the main page of this topic. 

As a customer I have earned over £35 in my first month with Giffgaff through moving my family and friends to the network. We have all saved heaps of money by buying value-for-money goody bags and talking to each other for free. I received a summary by email that proved I had saved over £20 in August alone. 

Lack of BBM is annoying but these services are expensive to set up and are currently being implemented now there is enough demand for it.

One of the other amazing things with Giffgaff is that free phone numbers are actually free as long as they start with 0800 or 0500.

Moving people from different networks and transferring our numbers has been relatively easy. As such now a bunch of us from 3, O2, Virgin, T Mobile and Vodafone are now together on Giffgaff saving money and chatting for free.

What do you think?