I bet everyone of us have got an old mobile phone lying about in our homes which is in almost pristine condition. Rather than letting it gather dust in cupboards, hoping that one day you might be able to auction it off to an antiques fair, why not instead send it off and convert it into some hard earned cash.
We have already talk about our top 5 mobile recycling sites, MoPay, Envirofone, Mazuma, Mobile Phone Exchange and Fonebank, but there are plenty more sites which can offer you cash for your mobile.
It would appear that UK mobile phone carrier, O2 has caught onto the idea and have launched their very own online service that claims to make it easier for people to recycle handsets in return for cash.
The service can be used by anyone in the UK, regardless of the network and they will also redeem your old MP3 Players, Digital Cameras, Games Consoles and much more. So if you're interested in converting cash for your gadget stash then all you have to do is follow these 6 simple steps?
1. Visit the O2 Recycle Website
2. Enter the details of your device
3. Get an estimated value
4. Print off the Receipt
5. A prepaid postage envelope is sent to you to put your receipt and phone in
6. Once the phone is received and shows it is in good working order you'll receive a text saying the money has been transferred into the account.
Plus, what is even fantastic about this is that for every device, O2 donates £1 to "It's Your Community" charity and your products are sold onto global markets by a company called Redeem.
With my iPhone 3G up for renewal this month, I'll soon be getting an upgrade so I thought I would check out how much cash I could get for my current iPhone 3G, which is a staggering £173! If that’s the case then all I can say is bring on the cash O2 Recycle!
Has anyone else used O2 Recycle to redeem their gadget stash for cash? Or did you opt in using another mobile recycling site? Share your experiences and leave a comment…
18 thoughts on “Mobile Phone Recycling from O2: Redeem Your Gadget Stash for Cash”
hi, I didnt realise o2 had joined the recycling band wagon. Thanks for the heads up I will have to check them out.
o2 advertise payment within 3 days, 11 days later im still waiting for my money, even though its being paid straight into my bank..
I too opted to be paid through bank transfer, received the text saying I’d get full payment for my iPhone 3g, 5 working days later – still nothing. Just phoned the contact number only to be told to leave a message. Slightly annoyed now.
Hi Micheal and Jeni,
Sorry to read about the delays you have experienced, if you could provide me with an order reference number I will look into your orders for you.
Thanks
O2 recycle
I sent my nokia 5310 to 02 recycle and they have told me it’s registered as stolen so cant pay me and cant release the phone back to me by law – the phone is not stolen, is in full working order and they are effectively accusing me of being dishonest and a thief, which is really annoying me as i have done nothing wrong. i don’t recommend them.
I have since made contact with O2 Recycle and have been told the payments are taking 10 days, rather than the 5 days that is (or was) detailed on the website. Slightly miffed about this. I shall be phoning again if I do not receive payment by next Monday or Tuesday.
Didn’t get the promo code, for whatever reason when I upgraded from Blackberry to iPhone, and want to recycle. Tried contacting them twice, but got no reply! Might as well just ebay it!
Do not use O2 Recycle – i sent them a virtually new Nokia N95 in full working order only for them to tell me it was broke when they received it and they were only offering me £22 for insteand of the £86 they had agreed on – if it did get damaged on the way to them they should provide better envolopes with more protection.
I requested that the phone be sent back to me and they are charging me £10 for the privilage??!!! With this experience and trying to get a mobile phone contract out of them after being a customer for over 10 years without a saitisfying offer its safe to say 02 have gone down hill big time.
i sold my n97 to them at a agreed price of 150 and they only gave me 108. i sold the phone because i needed the money and Ive now not got enough money to pay off the things i needed to pay off. i do not recommend and all!
I was quoted £185 for my iphone 3g 16GB. It was in excellent condition saqve for a few scratches but I then got an email saying they would pay me only £45 because of ‘shadowing’ in one corner of the lcd screen, a 75% reduction! Utter codswallop, the phone was fine. I have now paid £14.95 to get my phone back from them and will be selling on Ebay. I won’t go near o2 recycle again!
Beware Avoid at all Costs
Got a new Iphone from local O2 shop, they suggested I use O2 recycle to dispose of my existing phone now this was an HTC HD2 with 14 months left on guarantee quoted me £167 so I left my phone with the shop manager, after 10 days got an email down grading the offer to £42, they say there is a blemish on the LCD, rang they said the blemish was not visible to the naked eye but it was there so the price as been reduced, asked for it back charging me £14,99 postage, just avoid at all costs, my phone was like new, I feel stupid for trusting O2
I gave my phone to O2 for recycling at one of their stores as i thought this would be easier than sending it away to somone else. A week or so later i recieved a message saying that my phone was now ‘damaged’ i asked for further information and was told that the phone had recieved ‘LCD damage’ and the price promised instore of £154 had gone down to just under £40 (this is a third less than most recycleing sites will give for a broken one – and this handset was working fine when it was handed over)
I also have to now pay them £15 to get my handset back, this was in their terms and conditions, but i didnt think to ask for these in store, and they were more than happy not to offer them to me
Be careful
Must admit i found this forum after i sent my phone and i was scared however, I got full price paid 3 days later. I had scratches over it and wasnt in best shape so was really surprised!
My wife and i both sent our nokia 5800 music xpress mobiles to 02 recycling . The mobiles were in good condition , very little wear and tear . We were quoted 80 quid on the web site for each phone . We both got a text off 02 saying we would be getting 39 quid because the screens were scratched ,very strange when the web site says you lose 5% of the value for a sratched screen and you can still get 90% of the value for your phone if it’s broken. It cost me £14.95 to get my phone back but couldn’t afford to get the wifes back . Thanks 02
Sent in a LG renoir. Was quoted £30.50. Then got a text and email saying they couldn’t give me any money for it as it was water damaged. It’s not been near water or left in a bad environment. I read through the T&Cs – all phones valued over £30 could be subject to the £14.95 return fee. Conveniently my phone was valued at £30.50. Coinsidence? I think not. I am a customer of o2 and this is the last contract I’ll have with them as personally, I think they’re crooks. I was better off keeping the phone as a spare. FYI – Mazuma mobile gave my husband his money for the same phone (and kept in the same condition) about £22 for his phone – even though his had a massive crack down the screen, which impared the touch screen capability. Would stay away from o2.
Beware of using this company. I sent my iPhone 3G to O2 recycling after being recommended to do so by O2 when upgrading. They quoted me £126, this morning I get an email offering me £94.50, a 25% reduction because there is a crack by the charging port. I have never noticed this crack in 2 years of using this phone. I can get my phone back for £14.95, which is a lot more that the £5.40 it cost me to send it to them special delivery. I feel completely let down by O2 after 12 years of custom and will NOT be renewing my contract with them.
Use this code I just found:
O2 Recycle is offering customer £5 more on orders over £20 this month. Simply visit O2recycle.co.uk to find out how much your old mobiles, digital cameras, iPods, sat navs and games consoles could be worth. O2 Recycle can even recycle your iPad.
Enter the code O2More at checkout and £5 will be added to your order once processed.
Why use O2 Recycle:
• What you see is what you get – O2 lets you answer questions about the condition of your mobile and if you don’t get this price you get your phone back for free.
• Last week 70% of customers got full value for their items.
• O2 Recycle has paid out over £12million to customers.
• O2 donate everything they make from O2 Recycle to Think Big, so by using O2 Recycle you are also helping young people in communities throughout the UK
• During March you can get £5 more on orders with a basket value of £20 or more.
Visit http://www.o2recycle.co.uk now and see how much yours is worth.
My experience of recycling my old cell phone with O2 was pretty well. I got my payment on 5th day. So well done O2.