Old iPhones: where to sell them for the most money

Keen to get your hands on the new iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus but worried about the cost? Here’s how to get the best deal when selling your old smartphone.

The latest Apple smartphones, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, are now available to pre-order and will go on sale on 16 September.

But with handset-only prices starting from £599, getting your hands on one won’t come cheap.

If you have an old iPhone (or any other smartphone for that matter) here’s how to get the best price to fund your upgrade.

Trade-in websites

There are a number of trade-in websites that offer to pay you cash or vouchers for your old smartphone.

They will provide a quote based on the model and condition of your device.

If you decide to go for what they’re offering, you can usually send off your old phone via post or take it in-store. Once it’s been checked you’ll receive your money.

We’ve compared what the biggest names are offering for an old iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus 16GB unlocked model in good working order to see where you can get the best deal at the moment.

Envirophone offers the most competitive trade-in deal for the iPhone 6s at £302 for a device that is in good working order.

Meanwhile Mazuma Mobile and Carphone Warehouse offer the best trade-in deal when it comes to the iPhone 6s Plus (£350) and iPhone 6 (£230).

If you have an iPhone 6 Plus the best offer we found came from Music Magpie which is willing to hand over £245 for the device.

Sell on eBay

You’ll probably be able to get much more for your phone if you put the effort into selling it on eBay.

Right now there are a few sellers listing unlocked iPhone 6s 16GB handsets for as much as £469 using the ‘Buy it Now’ option and on auction listings we’ve seen prices as high as £390.

This is much more than you can get with trade-in sites, so may be worth the extra effort.

However, you should also factor in eBay fees and the postage you will have to pay in order to ship the item to your buyer.

Upgrade through your network

It’s also worth taking a look at what kind of upgrade deal you can get with your contract provider.

Some providers like O2 and Tesco Mobile allow you to separate the cost of your handset from your airtime, making the cost of buying out your old deal and upgrading much easier to work out. With these networks you just have to pay off the rest of what you owe for the handset in order to get out of the deal.

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