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Digicel has done it again with yet another promotion that may be permanent feature bound on the heels of their Pay the Right Price Campaign as per my article Digicel’s Green Tick ‘Pay The Right Price’ Campaign. This as they’ve rolled out a new Promotion, neatly titled BFFF (Best Friend For Free) Promotion.

It’s simple enough, really. Digicel rewards its customer for topping up with a minimum of JA$120 Prepaid Credit or more by giving them Bonus Credit of equivalent value the amount the topped up with to make Voice Calls and Text one Friend for “Free” for a 24 hours period.

 

digicel logo

Kinda like a Double Bubble meets the monthly JA$100 Free Bonus Credit meets Digicel VIP Talk and Text! Amusingly I had done a nice ditty on Digicel VIP Text as stated in How to activate Digicel VIP Text and get Free Texting on Digicel or LIME phone as IM gets more popular but this may just be its long overdue replacement!

How it works should please Digicel VIP Talk and Texting Fans! It’s very simple enough to use based on Digicel’s Best Friend for Free FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Upon replenishing your Digicel Prepaid Credit, you’re prompted via a SMS (Simple Messaging Service) by the Network that you’ve qualified for the BFFF.

You then enter the following USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) Codes which are necessary to sign up for Digicel’s BFFF. For my example, I’ll use God’s phone number, that being 777-7777:

  1. *161# – Sign up for Digicel BFFF
  2. *161*18767777777# – Enter the number of the persons whom you wish to be your best friend.
  3. *161*1# – System asks for confirmation

Note: Confirmation has to be given within 1 hour after you’ve nominated your BFF!

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From this point on it’s not so straightforward, especially if you read Digicel’s Best Friend for Free FAQ, as caveats abound!

To qualify, you have to be on either the Brawta Plan or the Gimme Five Extra Plan as described in Digicel’s New Rates make Credit Last longer despite no Postpaid Options announced. Can’t get in on the action if you’re on a Postpaid Plan, The Double Bubble Plan, the $2.99 Plan (all with per second billing), the $2.49 Plan or the $2.89 Sweet Plan (per minute billing).

The Best Friend For Free Plan is somewhat misleading as well, as the 24 hours is a reference to how long you can use your Bonus Credit, which is billed at a rate of JA$8.99. If that Bonus Credit runs out, you’ll be charge for the Voice Calling and Texts from your Main Balance at that very same rate. Hence the reason why you need to check your Bonus Balance using *130*12#, as Digicel will not pre-alert you as to when you run out of Bonus Credit.

Also you can’t use Credit U while on the BFFF Promotion, possibly because Credit U  is really a type of Bonus Credit as explained in How to activate Digicel VIP Text and get Free Texting on Digicel or LIME phone as IM gets more popular.  It won’t please fans of CLARO’s Network still vexed over Digicel’s removal of their Call 2 for Free Text 1 for free as explained in CLARO’s Freeness ends 5th January 2012 – Digicel’s Bigger, Better with Data and Cloud.

This isn’t true Free Calling and they’ll complain. With the once great and mighty CLARO, once you had Airtime from Topping up your Prepaid Credit and you had chosen the three (3) persons to Talk and Text. You could then continue doing so even after your Credit ran out so long as you hadn’t exceeded your airtime as explained in The Prepaid Cycle and How Prepaid Credit gives your SIM Card access to the Prepaid Network.

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Most persons on the Brawta Plan or the Gimme Five Extra Plan are more like CLARO Callers as they too can continue free Texting so long as their Airtime hasn’t expired as explained in The Prepaid Cycle and How Prepaid Credit gives your SIM Card access to the Prepaid Network.

Possibly, Digicel may have notice that the Millenials (ages 18 to 28) on the Brawta Plan or the Gimme Five Extra Plan hardly talk and mostly use the Free Texting. So they’ve created this Promotion to get them to top up their Prepaid Credit more frequently in order to increase their revenue stream from them.

My advice is to steer clear of this Promotion as it’s very deceptive in its wording and not worth its Billing. The Best Friend For Free Promotion is nothing more than an attempt to get users of the Brawta Plan or the Gimme Five Extra Plan to spend more money on Voice Calling via the lure of Free Double Credit! Trust me, your true BFF will thank you for it, as Brawta Plan or the Gimme Five Extra Plan with Credit U sans the Voice Calling is quite fine!

 

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