How to Prepare Your Phone For a Trade in?

Trading in your phone can be a great way to save money on your next phone upgrade. It’s also an environmentally friendly habit since traded in phones are refurbished and sold at a lower price. In a way, trade-ins are an ideal way to recycle your old phone.

And the best part is that you also make some money in the process. Phone trade-ins are gaining popularity, a lot of retailers give you the option to bring in your old phone. If you’re planning on trading in your phone, you should prepare it a little bit before you actually take it to a retailer.

Even if you’ve been very careful with your device, it’s still bound to have signs of wear and tear. And these signs can significantly decrease your phone’s trade-in value. You need to prepare your phone for a trade-in in order to maximize its value.

Even if your phone is damaged, you can get it fixed in order to bring its trade-in value back up. A reliable repair lab can help you salvage a broken phone and get some money out of it. Repair companies like breakfixnow offer great repair solutions at great prices.

Let’s go through everything that you should do before you hand your phone to someone else for a trade-in.

Preparing Your Phone For a Trade-in

You want to make sure that your device looks as good as it can when you’re about to hand it over. The more unused a phone looks, the more value it will get.

Freshen Your Phone’s Looks

Cell phones are perhaps one of the most manhandled pieces of technology out there. This means that an average cell phone will be subjected to plenty of wear and tear. It will also collect plenty of dust and other particles throughout its use.

Now, you want to make sure that you get rid of this dust and also do whatever you can to remove scratches and scuff marks. Removing dirt from your phone is simple enough. Just take a damp microfiber cloth and thoroughly wipe your phone with it. You can also use slightly dampened earbuds to get into nooks and crannies.

Dealing with scratches and scuff marks is slightly trickier. If you’ve taken the right preventive measures (screen protectors and phone cases) then your phone should be in great shape. Simply take off your old screen protector and get a new phone case. Your phone will look brand new. However, if your phone didn’t have any protection then there are bound to scratch that you won’t be able to get rid of.

Wipe Your Phone’s Data

Our smartphones are loaded with personal information. Before you think about giving your phone to anyone, you should make sure that all your data has been erased. Smartphones come with a factory reset feature that is perfect for erasing data. However, before you wipe your data, make sure that you’ve made a backup of everything useful somewhere else.

After you factory reset your phone, you should go through your gallery and contact list. Sometimes data can be left behind. You should also make sure that your online accounts and bank information has been wiped as well.

Check If Your Phone Needs Repairs

You might find it odd to spend money on a device that you’re about to trade-in. However, investing a bit of money in an old device can really help improve its trade-in value. Most repairs don’t cost a lot, so you will not have to worry too much about how much your spending anyway.

If you have used a device for more than 2 years, then there is a pretty good chance that it is in need of some kind of repair work. A quick check-up can be carried out on your own. If you have an android device, then you can even carry out in-depth diagnoses of your phone’s performance.

Bonus Tip

This is something that you can’t do once you’ve bought a phone. But it can be a good tip for your future cell phone purchases. Generally, unlocked phones always have greater resale value. They come with lesser restrictions, making them easier to sell. So, when you buy a phone in the future, you should try and buy one that is unlocked by default. You’ll get better resale value in the future because of it.

Trading in your phone is a great habit and more people should jump on this bandwagon. You get value out of your old phone and a lesser number of old phones end up in the trash. It’s great for you, the environment, and for people looking for cheap phones. Everyone benefits from this practice.