Tips to Sell Your Phone Smartly and Safely

Selling your old smartphone nowadays has become too easy as there are many buying and selling websites. But, this seemingly easy task actually carries huge potential risks.

Your smartphone is not just a piece of phone equipment meant for talking to someone. It contains a lot of your personal data including your business and financial data. If after selling, your phone lands in the wrong hands, you can face the risks of huge bills if your phone is connected to your cell phone services provider and of breach of your personal data.

So, if you want to sell used business phones or Smartphones, you should first completely wipe off all the data. After that, the best way to dispose of your equipment is to sell it to an IT asset recovery and disposition services provider that takes stringent measures to prevent any breach of data, and at the same time, follows standard e-waste recycling procedures.

You can follow the tips given below to smartly and safely sell your smartphone –

Remove your phone’s SIM card

Removing your SIM card is the first step that you should take before selling your smartphone. SIM card has contacts saved on it and connects your account with your cell phone services provider to your phone. If you have not canceled your account, your SIM card can be used to make calls and use mobile data. This can result in heavy bills under your name.

Remove the memory card

The memory card on your phone has a lot of data. If it has some space left, you can copy photos, apps, and other data to it. After that, you should remove the card from your phone. You can insert the memory card into your new phone.

Erase all data

Before proceeding to erase data, make sure that you have backed-up all your data including photos, contacts, documents, etc. Now, log out of your email accounts and social media accounts. Then, if you can, clear the email and social media apps’ data.

In your Android phone, first of all, deactivate Android device protection or factory reset protection (FRP). This is important as otherwise, the buyer of your phone will not be able to use your phone after it has been reset by you. Go to Settings and then to Users and Accounts. Go to your Google account and remove it. If in case, you are using a Samsung phone, then you have to remove this account also.

Now, encrypt your device. If your phone is using stock Android, go to Settings, then Security and after that choose Encrypt phone. If your device is not using stock Android, the encryption feature may be present somewhere else. Now, go to Backup and Reset option under Settings. Tap on the Factory data reset to erase all data on your phone.

The above steps are usually enough, but if you want to add an extra layer of protection when deleting your phone’s data, load some fake data such as fake contacts, photographs, etc. on your phone. Now, erase this dummy data by doing a factory reset once again. These last two steps burry your data under the dummy data so that it becomes more difficult for any person to find your personal data. If you want, you can repeat these last two steps as many times as you like.

Sell your phone to a close friend or family member

If someone in your family or friend-circle needs a mobile phone, you can sell it off to that person. This is much safer than selling it to a stranger on the internet. For example, if in case, you forgot to erase some data from your phone, you do not have to worry much and you can even contact the person and delete the left data yourself.

If already sold your phone with SIM, disconnect with the services provider

If you have already sold your phone without removing SIM card, get it disconnected from your cell phone services provider. Canceling your account can save you from misuse of your phone number and from paying hefty phone bills issued under your name.

Just like the smartphones, if you want to sell used business phones or other IT equipment, then you should do it in the safest way. IT equipment used by a company has a lot of business data that should be securely disposed of, and the best way to do this is by taking the services of an IT asset recovery and disposition services provider that follows standard protocols for dealing with sensitive data. Such a provider also protects the environment by practicing eco-friendly e-waste recycling.

I am Chris Klow, Owner of Telecom Recycle, is a leading IT asset and disposition company specialized in buying and recycling of redundant business telephone systems and handsets.