We often hear the question “Why should I sell my mobile“.

Here are 5 good reasons:

1. You want a new phone! Well, why not. Phones with better features are being released all the time and what was once the top of the range mobile may be looking a little long in the tooth. It is probably still worth quite a bit when you sell your mobile though.
2. Your contract is up for renewal. If your contract is up for renewal there is no reason to wait as the network will have costed in an upgrade in the monthly plan.
3. You need some extra cash. Selling your mobile is a great way of unlocking a bit of spare cash.
4. You have an old phone sitting in a drawer. Well, your mobile is not doing any good in there! Get it sold, get some cash. The longer you leave it the less it will be worth, so check on our price comparison service today.
5. You can get a better deal with a new phone. Many companies will give you a better deal on call costs or packages than you could get 12 or 24 months ago. Your home telephone provider (such as Virgin Media) may also offer a great bundle that will add a mobile to your home entertainment package for less than a stand alone mobile phone contract.

So there are 5 great answers to the question “Why should I sell my mobile”?

When you recycle your phone, what should you do with the data stored on it?

Smartphones are incredibly complex devices, just like PC’s really but in very small boxes. Just like PC’s they can also have a tendency to stop working, refuse to turn on, or to scramble information. It is therefore important to protect your data and then back it up especially before you recycle your phone so it can be restored to your new device.

This can be particularly so if you add lots of apps or 3^rd party software, because any one of these may not work correctly with another piece of software on the device. Whilst in most cases it is quite easy to reset the phone back to the original factory settings you will probably lose all the data, contacts, and software stored on it. In some cases your phone may just stop working or come up with a message such as “Start up failed, return your phone to the manufacturer”.

Whilst total hardware failure is difficult to protect against (although it is always a good idea to treat your phone with respect and avoid dropping it or getting the phone wet), there are some simple steps you should take to protect your phone investment:

1. It is important to back up your data, as often as possible. Some phones will connect wirelessly using Bluetooth to a similarly enabled Laptop. Alternatively, most Smartphones will come with a cable to connect them to a computer. Use one of these methods to back up your phone regularly.
2. If you take a lot of photos with the built-in camera, back them up to a computer.
3. Some providers have a free service for backing up contacts. Orange is a particular network that does this
4. Consider hardware insurance if your Smartphone is particularly expensive, but check your house hold cover first as your device may be protected through that.
5. When you upgrade your mobile and recycle your phone, remember to back up all important data and then wipe the memory before you send your old phone away. Use the ‘Restore to Factory Settings’ function to do this and then check the data has gone. (Whilst electronic equipment is meant to be wiped when you recycle your phone, as part of the recycling process you probably do not want personal information falling into someone else’s hands)

It is true; you can get cash for phones! A mobile phone is a costly device and even if it comes to you for free as part of a monthly subscription contract, that does not mean you should not look after it. There are three main areas where should look to protect your mobile phone.

If you consider what you do with your phone, some of the problems become apparent. You pick it up in the morning going out the door and pop it in your bag or pocket, where it jingles around with keys, coins and who knows what else. Then you may put it on a desk at work, a table at lunch, or on the dashboard of the car as you drive home in the evening. After a while, this can lead to the phone becoming scratched, chipped or bashed. This has an aesthetic effect but it can particularly effect the camera because if the lens area is scratched the quality of the images will be impacted, or the touch screen area especially with phones that have large screens that cover most of the front of the handset. The better the condition when you come to part with it, the more cash for phones you will get.

There are loads of products that can help reduce these scratches and protect your phone, including full cases which usually have leather back and a clear or open front element. These do however make the handset bulkier and sometimes less easy to use. If this style of case is not to your liking, then a screen protector is a must. The inexpensive, clear plastic overlay sticks to the screen and takes all the scratches and other abuse that the unprotected screen would have had. When one screen protector becomes too scratched it can be easily peeled off and replaced. Some go further still and will protect a whole phone in a thin transparent rubber coating. These simple products are one of the most cost-effective steps you can take to make sure that you get the most cash for phones you sell.

A second area that should be considered in mobile phone protection is your information stored on it. Much like a personal computer, mobile phones are very sophisticated technical devices. However, just as computers susceptible to data loss or corruption, so are mobile phones, and many smart phones now rely on third-party applications such as games or other utilities, which users install or firmware upgrades released from the manufacturers. Each time a change is made on the device with a new piece of software added, you risk something else going wrong. Although a reset or reformat of the phone can usually resolve these problems, doing this will mean your data is all lost. Taking the simple step of backing up your data regularly can help minimise any impact this has on you should you need to restore the information held on the phone. With many mobiles having USB leads to connect them to a computer, this simple routine should not be prohibitively time-consuming.

Finally you may want to consider what will happen if your phone is stolen, lost or broken accidentally. Insurance is available, usually for a small weekly premium, but before committing you should check that your phone is not already covered by your household contents insurance policy.

When you come to the point of getting a new phone, remember the better condition it is in, the more cash for phones that are recycled that you are likely to receive. A little effort and care can mean big rewards when you move onto a new phone.

Recycling is all the rage and in the case of mobile phones, it makes both ecological and economic sense.

Rather than filling up landfill your mobile phone can either be refurbished and reused or for very old or broken handsets stripped down and the valuable metals and plastic recovered.

When you send your mobile phone to be recycled, the company will first check to make sure it is not reported as lost or stolen. The Central Equipment Identity Register holds records of mobiles that have been reported as stolen and a simple check of the phone’s IMEI number should prevent these devices from re-entering the marketplace.
Phones are then passed to specialist repair centres who will swap out broken or damaged elements before updating the software if required.

Many of these refurbished handsets will then be reissued as replacements under warranty or insurance claims or sold back onto the market as second hand or refurbished phones. Older models may well find themselves being shipped to emerging markets where they are still in demand, particularly in areas where land line networks are as yet undeveloped.

For those devices that cannot be reused, the component parts like the small amounts of metals such as platinum, silver, gold, and copper will be recycled, often into jewellery whilst the plastic from the casing is melted down and reused.

The newer the mobile the more chance it has of being reused so when you do replace your phone recycle it or give it to a charity who can recycle it for you as soon as possible.