Sell your old phone to pay for Christmas

The holidays are fast approaching, and while this should be cause for celebration, many of us flinch at the mere thought of it. It’s difficult to be merry when you’re feeling the financial crunch of buying presents. That’s why so many of us are out there looking for a way or two to make a little extra Christmas cash.

If we can just get a little breathing room, we could stop feeling so suffocated and start actually enjoying our friends and family. Some get that relief by taking on a second job, but that has the drawback of running us down. Others like to sell or “recycle” possessions that they no longer need. Bingo!

The good news is that selling our old stuff has become increasingly profitable as society puts a greater focus on reusing resources. So why not sell an old mobile phone to buy some Christmas presents, which has the added benefit of helping the UK to be green. 

Most of us have an old phone or two lying around the home somewhere, and if we just forget about them, they could make their way to a landfill. So let’s do a good thing for the environment while putting a little extra Christmas cash into your pocket by finding those phones and then selling them.

The most obvious choices for selling your phone are websites like eBay and Craigslist. If you price the phone competitively, you can sell it relatively fast with little to no hassle. The downside here is that unless the phone is extremely new and in exquisite condition, competitive pricing is likely far less than what you’d like to ask for. One alternative is to trade it in or sell it on consignment at a local shop, but this might actually be worse. Not only will you face the same issues, you’ll have to incur the shop’s fee, which means less money for buying Christmas presents.

One of the best ways to sell your phone is through a service that specializes in recycling such devices. They deal with selling used and refurbished devices as well as selling phones for parts. The benefit here is that they’re likely to offer you something no matter the state of your phone, and even for those with newer phones, recyclers typically make the highest, most hassle-free offers.

Whatever you do, don’t forget to prep your phone. If it's an iPhone, sync it with iTunes or any similar services and back everything up.  Make sure you delete everything thoroughly, especially if it's a camera phone photos. Once done, it’s time to restore the phone to its factory settings. Then head to Selling My Mobile Phone to make sure you get the best price.