Giffgaff increases pay-as-you-go prices – but boosts allowances too

The £5/month goodybag currently includes 150 minutes, 500 texts and 500MB of data each month. From Thursday 9 May, this bundle will be going up to £6/month and will include 300 minutes.

On the same day, the £7.50/month goodybag – which includes 250 minutes, unlimited texts and 2GB of mobile data – will go up by 50p/month to £8. It'll include 500 minutes.

Giffgaff will also increase the cost of any mobile data used outside your goodybag monthly allowance from 2p/MB to 5p/MB.

Find the right mobile deal for your usage by checking our Pay-as-you-go Deals and Sim only Deals guides.

How do goodybags work?

Giffgaff – which is owned by and piggybacks on the O2 network – offers these bundles on a pay up-front basis, but you're not tied into a contract. So you can switch between bundles each month if you find you're using more or less of your allowance than you planned to do.

Goodybags are essentially one-month contracts that roll over – you can set your plan to recur via your online customer account. If you don't set your plan to kick in automatically each month, you'll need to add credit to your account and you'll be charged Giffgaff's standard pay-as-you-go rates. These are:

• 5p/MB of mobile data.

• 15p/min for calls to UK mobiles, landlines and calls forwarding.

• 5p/text.

But there are better value monthly Sims

For a similar monthly pay-upfront bundle, Smarty* – which piggybacks on Three's network – offers 2GB of data, with unlimited minutes and texts for £7.50/mth. Plus, right now you can also claim a £10 Amazon voucher on top. This compares to 500 minutes offered by Giffgaff's soon-to-be £8 goodybag.

In the lower price range, you can grab an ID Mobile* one-month rolling Sim offering 1GB of data, 500 minutes and unlimited texts for £5/mth.

For a complete round-up of our top picks, check our Sim only Deals guide.

What does Giffgaff say?

On its website, Giffgaff said: "We had a look at how people used our goodybags. Members on the £5 and £7.50 goodybags aren't big data users – on the whole, they care much more about minutes.

"We never like to raise our prices, so we've tried to make sure these goodybags are more valuable than before by doubling the minutes available – in short, it's a little more money for a lot more talk time."

All other goodybag prices remain unchanged.