Virgin Data Gifting lets you send GBs to your BFF

Virgin Mobile customers will soon be the most popular kids in the class with the ability to share the unused mobile data in their plans.

With its new Data Gifting feature, Virgin is letting its postpaid mobile subscribers send data to friends who also use the the Virgin Mobile service.

Available from the My Account section of the Virgin website, or from inside a new My Account app, customers can send data by entering the recipients phone number and choosing the amount of data to send.

The lucky so-and-so receives an SMS letting them know that you have sent the gift, and the data is credited to their account. All in all, it sounds pretty straightforward. 

A gift that keeps on giving?

Data gifting is an intriguing new initiative, and an interesting alternative to the Data Sharing function available to Telstra, Optus and Vodafone customers. If you’re not familiar with it, the major telcos allow customers to nominate groups of phone numbers and pool all of the data associated with each plan.

For example, if mum and data have phone plans with 5GB each, and the two kids each have 2GB in their plans, the total family pool would be 14GB. All of the family members on this bill would be able to use as much of the 14GB as they like. 

However, there is no way to limit how much each member can use, which might be a pain point in some families. Vodafone lets the primary account holder switch data on and off for the accounts, but this is as much account management as is currently available.

The new Virgin Data Gifting has the potential to give parents more control over how much of the data they pay for can be used by their kids. It is a bit more manual effort, but the benefits are pretty obvious.

Virgin is also pitching it as a service that groups of friends might use, but it is hard to say whether mobile data limits  is the sort of thing that friends talk about, let alone share. Still, it’s a pretty neat idea.

Dudes with phones image via Shutterstock

Joseph Hanlon

Editorial Director | X | LinkedIn

Joe Hanlon has been immersed in mobile phones, plans and the internet for over a decade, having written for publications like CNET, Techradar, Gizmodo and Lifehacker. He steers the editorial ship and makes sure that we are always serving up the most useful guides and recommendations. If you ever bump into Joe on the street, don't be afraid to ask for a phone recommendation. It's embarrassing how much he enjoys talking about this stuff. He also loves listening to podcasts, so feel free to email Joe with recommendations.

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