What to do with used mobile phones? There are three markets competing for your used mobile phone, the friends, the commercial market and the charity market. This is good and bad news for those who have used mobile phones. You can give your used mobile phone to a friend or relative. The second option is you can sell your used mobile phone. Companies refurbish and resell it to customers who want to pay a low price for a mobile phone. The third option is to donate your used mobile phone to a charity. One may ask is there any risk involved in selling or donating your used mobile phone?
The answer is yes in all cases. One option is to give used mobile phone to a friend or another family member. They can arrange with a provider to reassign the phone service to the used mobile phone. There are ISP providers that will reassign the existing number to another person. However, your private information and messages will be available to the new user. This is the least desirable option. Giving your used mobile phone to a friend is a very risky enterprise.
If you choose to sell your used mobile phone to a company that refurbishes the used mobile phone, you need to inquire if they sweep and clean the phone. Most companies that purchase used mobile phones deprogram the phone and reinstall their programs. This assures you that any personal messages or photographs will be erased. This option is safest of all three options of disposing of a used mobile phone. However, there is still a risk. If the company takes short cuts in the reprogramming of the used mobile phone, personal information may be accessible.
The third option is to donate the used mobile phone to a charity. Many charities take the used mobile phones and refurbish them for their use. An example of this type of charity is Phones for Soldiers. The charity accepts used mobile phones and have the used mobile phones reprogrammed to give to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. This allows soldiers to communicate with their family and friends. Other charities use the used mobile phone to protect abuse victims by giving used mobile phones for emergency access. One benefit is this donation is tax deductible. The risk factor of this option is the charity may not have the used mobile phone appropriately cleaned. However, most charities do have reputable companies do the refurbishing of the used mobile phones.
