Get Cash For Your Old Mobile

These are specialist, super-speedy, mainly web based companies, which will take an old phone and give you cash. You go to their websites, tell them what the mobile model is, they tell you the price and if you accept they send you a jiffy bag to post it in. Better still, they pay much more than the ‘trade-in’ discount you receive when handing in your phone to a high street retailer.

What type of phones do they want?

Sadly, digging a mobile out of the wardrobe isn't a guarantee of decent cash.  Your phone needs to be in decent working condition, have no more than mild cosmetic damage, the original battery, hopefully the charger, and be able to be switched on.

Companies won't pay a decent whack for all phones so if it's old, rare or 3G (there isn't a market for these yet) a bigger hunt's needed to find one that'll accept it. If your phone is only slightly under the weather, check how much you'd get for a fully working model. Often all it takes is replacing the battery, so it may be worth doing that yourself to get the decent sales value.

How do they operate?

They give you a price, and if you accept it, they usually send a jiffy bag for the phone, which you can return freepost. Yet they don't accept responsibility for non-delivery so depending on the value of the phone, it's worth considering sending the phone by ‘Recorded Signed-For' delivery which insures it for up to £36 and costs around 72p on top of the usual postage.

Send the phone charged, switched off, without the Sim card, and remove any security or pin codes that'll hamper its testing. To do this, just opt for ‘reset factory settings’ on your phone’s menu. If it isn't up to scratch (usually only 20% of phones are rejected) you'll generally be contacted and offered a reduced price, which you can accept or have the phone returned free of charge.

What happens to the phones?

Once they’re tested, if the phones are decent, they’re shipped abroad and flogged. For example Envirofone sells phones in the Middle and Far East, Africa and South America. The one thing to be aware of is if it’s a particularly high value phone there is a chance these companies will sell it on eBay to get the most money, therefore if you find your phone is high value, you may want to consider doing that yourself, and cutting out the middle man.

The Top Phone Buying Companies

These days there are a lot of companies offering to buy your phone; yet often they're the same company dressed up via a commercial deal with another site. You can even hand in your phone for Nectar or Boots points, but you tend to get a much lower cash value.

The golden rule is try at least three companies, they only take a minute or so each.

Just to prove the point… in one comparison where two companies said one old phone was worthless, a third was prepared to pay £20; for another phone the amounts varied from £25 to £75. So don’t give up too soon.

• The highest payers
  
  Depending on the model of your phone Mopay and Mazuma fight to be the top payers. Mopay is a well established site, though Mazuma tends to pay out more for higher spec phones. You can also get a slightly higher pay out with Mopay if you opt for Marks and Spencers vouchers.
• Fast, easy and reliableWeb only company Envirofone pays well, though not the very top prices, but tends to be the easiest to use and has strong feedback. Enter the phone's details and it instantly gives you a price. This is either paid in cash (by cheque) or you can opt for roughly 15% more in Argos points. It also donates £1 to charity per phone. 

• Best of the restThe more you try, the better. The other big players are Mobile2cash, Mobilephonebuyer, Mobilephonexchange and Banana Green.