Is the Virgin mobile bundle a good deal?

linzi268

Hi,

I'm looking for help from anyone who has experience of any of the Virgin mobile deals. I'm on giffgaff at the moment and when I started with them, the service was outstanding. In the last year or so, since Sky bought O2, the service drops in and out all the time making calling and texting almost impossible. Tried all the usual things they suggested - cleaning the sim, trying it in another handset, etc. The fact remains that it works perfectly everywhere else but here.

I'd be really grateful if you, or anyone you know has had a good, bad or indifferent experience with a Virgin PAYG mobile bundle so I can make an informed choice.

Thanks!

mije1983

linzi268 wrote: »

In the last year or so, since Sky bought O2, the service drops in and out all the time making calling and texting almost impossible

Sky purchased the O2 broadband business, they have nothing to do with the mobile phone side of things which is still owned by Telefonica, so any issues are purely coincidental.

Anyway, back to your question.

First thing would be have you picked up a free sim to make sure you can get a decent signal on Virgin wherever you need it? If you can't get a decent signal then any deal they offer is going to be worthless to you. Link here if you haven't:

http://store.virginmedia.com/virgin-media-mobile/sim-only/sim-only-ready-to-buy-payg.html



Secondly, what is your usage? Without knowing that it's quite hard to say whether the Virgin Mobile bundle is good deal for you or not.

linzi268

I'm on the £12 goodybag on giffgaff which is 250 free minutes, unlimited texts and 1Gb data, I think so I reckoned the £10 Virgin bundle would work fine for me. According to Virgin, the signal's good in my area.

Giffgaff is driving me round the bend as I try to send a text or call and the signal goes out. Grrrr!

mije1983

linzi268 wrote: »

According to Virgin, the signal's good in my area.

Don't rely on the networks own signal checker, especially when sim cards are available for free to try out. It's a much more reliable test!

It may well say the signal is good in your area, but then you may find that your house is in a blackspot.

linzi268

Thanks mije - not sure how I go about checking it out without completely leaving giffgaff. I suppose if I got a sim and initially had a Virgin number instead of using my own, that would be a way. I think I have to switch from giffgaff anyway but don't want to go from the frying pan into the fire or be left without phone service at all.

The_Loan_Stranger

Just get yourself a virgin sim card and pop it into an unlocked phone and see if you have a signal in your area, they use the EE network so it's fairly good, my partner has been using Virgin for the last year and she's had no trouble what so ever, they ported her number across quickly and the coverage is really good around here (West Country, but O2 does'nt work at all where we live). She pays £15 a month for unlimited minutes, texts and data, although i don't think they still do that deal anymore.

mije1983

linzi268 wrote: »

Thanks mije - not sure how I go about checking it out without completely leaving giffgaff. I suppose if I got a sim and initially had a Virgin number instead of using my own, that would be a way. I think I have to switch from giffgaff anyway but don't want to go from the frying pan into the fire or be left without phone service at all.

As said above, just order the sim card (other networks also offer their own sim cards on their websites) and pop it in your phone -if it's unlocked- and see what the signal is like. Once you have established whether there is a decent signal in your area, put your giffgaff sim back in your phone. No need to switch from giffgaff until you settle on the network you want to move to.

linzi268

Thank you, mije1983 and The Loan Stranger!