Gift your data
Watch our video explaining how to gift your data – the easy way to move spare data around all your family’s devices with you in the driving seat.
If you purchased a plan after 17 August 2022, Data Gifting is only available on our Essentials, All Rounder and Full Works plans.
How do I gift data?
Data Gifting lets you move data around your family’s phones and plans when someone’s low. You can do this by logging in to EE. The plans must all be in the same account. Just choose the person who needs more data, then choose the person you’re gifting data from and that’s it.
As soon as you’ve gifted data, it’s ready to use. Once complete, we’ll send a text to the person receiving the data and the person whose data has been moved.
Data gifts aren't carried over month-to-month. Your plans will reset to their original data allowances at the start of each month.
How it works
- open the EE app and go to Family Usage
- choose who needs data
- choose the account you want to gift from, and the amount of data you want to gift
- send the data gift
Who can gift and receive data?
Only the person who runs the account can gift the data, but they can gift it from any plan within the account. So, if your teenager has been heavy on the downloads and your partner still has at least 500MB left on their account, you can gift a bit more data to your teenager from your partner’s account.
If everyone has run out of data you can purchase a data add-on in EE online or in the app.
Need to know
You can change who runs your account by logging into EE.
Can data you’ve gifted be used abroad?
Data that has been gifted works in the same way as your monthly data allowance.
So if your plan lets you use data abroad, you can use any data you’ve gifted abroad.
If your plan only lets you use data in the UK, any data you’ve gifted can only be used in the UK.
To find out if someone on your account can use data abroad, go to the menu, and select Plans & Add-ons.
How soon can I use data that’s been gifted?
Straight away! As soon you’ve gifted your data, it’s ready to use.
Once it’s done, we’ll send a text to the person receiving the data – and the person whose data’s been moved.
Can I control how my devices are used?
As long as you run the account, you can control how your devices are used. So if you have kids, you can stop them:
- buying data
- using their phone abroad
- making international and premium rate calls
- using data
It's easy to add or change device controls:
- open the EE app or log in to EE online
- select the FAMILY USAGE tab
- choose whose controls you want to change
- go to Controls
How long does it take for my controls to change?
It can take up to 24 hours, but shouldn’t be that long.
While the controls are updating, you’ll see a 'pending' message. Once it’s updated, the switch will turn on/off.
Keep in mind, if you leave the app after changing a control the 'pending' message won’t be there when you return. (But the control will still change).
Why’s a control not turning on/off?
Has it been over 24 hours?
It can take a while for controls to change, but shouldn’t be longer than a day.
Does the control say 'pending'?
This means it’s busy updating. You’ll know it’s done when the switch is turned on/off.
Did you close the app after changing the control?
The 'pending' message won’t be there when you return, so it might seem as if nothing’s happening. But the control will still change within 24 hours.
What happens if I turn off ‘use phone abroad’?
If you turn off ‘use phone abroad’, the person using that device will be unable to make calls, send texts or use data outside the UK.