Recycling your phone once your done with it can be a pain. You paid so much for it that you don't just want to throw it away but sometimes trying to sell it causes even more difficulties. Leaving you with the question...so how do I sell my phone?
Thanks to comparison sites, dedicated trade-in schemes and easy phone recycling systems done through the post, it's actually extremely easy to trade in your phone these days.
There are essentially two options when recycling your old phone - sell for cash or trade-in. If you decide to go for the cash, a website will give you a quote, you send it off and they'll put the money into your account, simple!
The second option is for those looking to buy a new device. With trade-in, companies like Samsung or Apple will offer you a certain amount off the price of a new SIM-free phone if you send them your old handset.
Both of these methods can score you a decent amount of money but there are many ways to do it. We've compared some of the best websites for recycling phones below.
- Also looking for a new phone? Consult our mobile phone deals to see the best prices
Where can I recycle my phone?
Phone trade in schemes:
What to do before selling my phone?
Look around at your competition
You should take some time to see what price other people are selling your exact model of phone for to check you’re not going to be ripped off.
Something to bear in mind is the storage available in your phone. For example, if you own the 64GB Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, it’ll be worth more than the 32GB version, so it’s worth looking in the Settings on your phone to ensure you know what version you own.
Take a look at the recycling, auction and sale sites in the next section below to check how much your phone is worth before you start trying to sell it. Doing this may mean you can avoid getting screwed over.
Check over your device
This can be hard to do as you may realise your phone isn’t worth as much as you’d hoped. If you have damaged your device, make sure you’re clear about it with whoever you’re selling to.
If you try to cover up the condition of your device it may damage your reputation on auction websites and some deals will even be invalidated if you’ve lied.
Reset your phone
This is something a lot of people forget to do, but you have to make sure you’ve reset your device before you then sell it on. You can hard reset all modern smartphones, which means it will then delete all of your data that’s currently on there.
Without doing this, whoever buys you phone may have access to your data, your private accounts and you’ll likely lose things in the process too. Before resetting your phone also make sure you’ve backed up any data you want to save to use on your next device such as music, photos and videos.
How much cash can I get for my old mobile?
It's hard to give an exact figure for selling your phone, especially because there are so many factors involved. However, using SellMyMobile, we can get some pretty accurate estimations of pricing:
*Prices correct as of writing
- iPhone 7 32GB - working condition - £96
- Samsung Galaxy S8 64GB - working condition - £111
- iPhone 6 - 64GB - working condition - £47
- Samsung Galaxy S7 - working condition - £65
- iPhone X - working condition - £297
- Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus - working condition - £160
- Huawei P30 - working condition - £175
- Google Pixel 3 - working condition - £145
How does phone recycling work?
It's hard to give a concrete answer as every website/service will do it slightly differently, however there is a rough outline that we can look through:
1) Put in the details of your phone including its memory size, condition and model.
2) Decide a price. If you go through a site like eBay, you will have to choose what you want to sell it for whereas most other sites will give you a quote and you decide if you're happy with it.
3) Once you've decided a price, you agree with the website/buyer and sell it on. Obviously again websites like eBay will differ in sending something off but most websites will send you a kit to pack up your phone and send it over.
4) You'll receive an email from the company either agreeing the pre-agreed price or raising complaints which will lower your valuation. Once that is all agreed, your money will be sent over.
Can I recycle a phone that is completely broken?
This depends mostly on how broken your phone is. If it has a few scatches, some cracks, a fault part of even a fully smashed screen, you're in the clear.
However if you find yourself with a handset that is completely smashed to pieces and really not in a good way then you might struggle to recycle it or if you do, you will be getting a very small amount for it.
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