Compare who pays the most cash for old mobiles

Q. How do I send my phone?

A. Simple. Log onto their websites, type in your mobile model and they'll give you a price. If you accept, they send you a jiffy bag to post it in. Since they don't accept responsibility for non-delivery, it'll be worth sending it - depending on the phone's value - by 'Recorded Signed-For' delivery which insures it for up to £36 and costs 75p on top of usual postage. Wipe off any private data and send your handset fully charged, switched off, without its Sim or memory card and remove any security or pin codes that could hamper testing.

If your mobile isn't up to scratch (1 in 5 are rejected) you'll generally be contacted and offered a reduced price, which you can either accept or decline and have the phone returned free of charge.

Q. What condition should it be in?

A. Your phone needs to be in decent working condition, have no more than mild cosmetic damage, its original battery and be able to be switched on.

If it's 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.

As a rule, you don't usually need to provide the charger but most will recycle it properly for you (though you could keep it as a spare or flog it on eBay).

Got a damaged phone? Most providers will consider non-working handsets, offering a reduced price for these (expect to get around 10-50% less) or at the very least will re-cycle 'em for you.

Typical damage which might mean you'll get less whack include badly damaged casing, a locked pin or failure to power up. Water damaged and broken phones with unresponsive or cracked screens will probably get zero cash. Make sure you click the 'damaged' box when searching for the best quote.

Q. What happens to phones?

A. Once tested and if in good shape, they're shipped abroad and flogged. For example, Envirofone sells phones in the Middle and Far East, Africa and South America.

But if you've a particularly high value phone, chances are these companies will flog it on eBay to bag the most money. In which case, cut out the middle man and consider doing it yourself.

If your phone is rather less classy, it'll be broken down and sold as component parts. And if it's totally worthless, it'll be disposed of in an environmentally-friendly way.

Q. Why isn't my phone listed?

A. There can be a number of reasons for this – it may be that your phone is either very new, very old or very rare.

Alternatively if no sellers are willing to give a valuation for the phone then we don’t list it.

However if you spot that your phone is listed on a site and we don’t include it, please report it.

Q. Why isn't my phone worth more?

A. While older phones attract less value, it can also happen with some modern hi-tech phones since the handsets are often sold to developing countries whose infrastructure may not be suited to such high-tech use.

Q. How does the tool work?

It repeatedly builds a database of prices by scanning the various mobile recycling companies, and stores them for you to be able to check them all. There can be small pricing errors in between scan times - and occasionally the same phone may be listed twice due to tracking. If that happens please report it to us.

Q. Will I get more on eBay?

Phone-buyer sites aren't the only option and, with a bit of effort, you could earn more cash elsewhere.

• eBay or car boot. A thriving old phones market on eBay could earn you 20-30% more than the best 'phone-buyer' site. Alternatively, use eBay to get a rough idea of what a fair price is; simply search for an identical phone to yours - preferably in similar condition - and check what price it's going for. See the eBay Selling Tricks guide. Though do factor in selling charges.
• Sell to a friend. The difficulty is deciding on a price without ruining the friendship. My easy formula is, take the best price from the 'phone-buyer' companies and add 10% - more for you and cheaper for them than buying it commercially.
• Re-use it. Most phones can be legally and freely unlocked to work on any network (see the Unlock Your Mobile guide). Keep it as an alternative handset, perhaps for text-only, for your kids or for overseas.
• Trade in low-value phones. If the recycling companies aren't willing to give you much, try and trade it in with the company you're buying a new one from, especially on the high-street. For example, Carphone Warehouse offers competitive prices on old models.

Q. How do you pick the companies?

A. We list any companies that are top payers for a reasonable number of phones (not just for one phone as then we risk them gemmying it to be top for an obscure old model just to get listed). If you think we're missing any good mobile recycling sites please report it to us and we'll look at inclusion.

Q. Why aren't charity sites listed?

A. In a nutshell, there simply aren't any charity sites that fit our criteria of being top payers. This isn't a philosophical objection, rather that it isn't an efficient way to do it for mid- to high-value phones (it's not so bad for lower value ones).

Give or sell it to a 'we'll collect your old mobile for charity deals' operator, and it gets a cut of the cash you would've received. Yet if you sell it yourself, you get more than the charity does. Therefore to maximise the amount the charity gets, sell it yourself, then donate the cash to the charity. This way, the charity gets more cash and it can reclaim your tax too via the 'Gift Aid' scheme - worth an extra 28%(see the Boost Charity Donations guide).

Check for discount codes & vouchers.

The following are the current codes which boost the amount the mobile buying companies pay. This boost is not included in the tool's results - so do factor it in yourself.

Current codes available (0):

£3.50 mopay boost on any phone...

Until 9 May we've blagged a special code from mobile seller Mopay that means you will get £3.50 more per phone for the price listed in the comparison.

How to get it

• Going via Mobile Valuer: Simply click through the links from MobileValuer to Mopay and the £3.50 code is automatically added, so you don't need to do anything.
• Going direct to Mopay: Then it gets complicated, but essentially go direct to the mopay.co.uk/voucher and enter the code "happybirthday".

What's classed as a non - working phone?

Each recycler will grade phones differently but a non-working phone can generally be described as one which: does not turn on or off, is missing a battery, has badly damaged casing, a damaged aerial, has a faulty keypad, is barred or blocked (this is different to a phone which is locked to a certain network, that is fine), or is pin locked.

In some cases it won't be possible to get any cash for your phone, but in this case the company will still dispose of it in the environmentally correct way. If your phone is physically broken, in more than one piece, water damaged, has a cracked screen, is blocked or barred then you it will be classed as having zero value.

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