Compare the trade-in offers you have been given
Trade-in values change daily and depend on the exact model, storage and condition, so no tool can tell you what your phone is worth. Get quotes from two or three buyers for the same model and grade, then add them here to see which pays most. Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. The three filled rows are an example with made-up buyers — overwrite them with the offers you have actually been given.
£210.00 from Buyer C
The lowest offer you entered was £122.00, so checking around is worth £88.00 on this phone.
That leaves the new phone costing £689.00 after your best trade-in.
- Buyer C£210.00
- Buyer A£183.00
- Buyer B£122.00
A trade-in quote is provisional until the buyer inspects the phone, and most pay less if the grade comes back lower than you said. Check whether you are paid in cash or store credit, how long the quote is held for, and whether you can send the phone back for free if you reject the revised offer.
Get a valuation from the buyers' own sites: musicMagpie, Argos trade-in, Mazuma Mobile, Apple and Samsung.
Back up and sign out of your accounts, then factory reset the phone before you post it. Remove the SIM and, on iPhone, turn off Find My.
Why quotes for the same phone differ
Buyers are bidding for the same handset but planning to sell it in different places, at different margins, and some specialise in certain brands. That is why the same iPhone can be worth £80 more on one site than another. Grading is the other half of it: two people can describe the same phone as good or fair, and the gap between those grades is often larger than the difference between two buyers.
Get the quotes at roughly the same time. Values follow the second-hand market, so a quote from last month is rarely the price you will be paid today, and a new model's launch tends to knock the older one down.
What to check before you accept
Read three things: whether you are paid in cash or store credit, how long the quoted price is held for, and what happens if the inspection comes back with a lower grade. Most buyers will pay the revised figure or return the phone free of charge, but only if you say so within their window. Store credit is worth less than its face value if you were never going to spend it.
Also check whether the buyer wants the phone before or after you have cancelled insurance or moved to a new handset, and keep your own record of the condition — a couple of photos of the screen and back protect you if the grade is disputed.
Getting the best price
Two or three quotes are usually enough to find the top price, because the spread between the best and worst offer is often tens of pounds. If you are buying a new phone at the same time, compare a cash trade-in against the retailer's part-exchange: the retailer's number can look bigger while quietly assuming you buy from them.
Back up your photos, sign out of your accounts, remove the SIM and factory reset the phone before you post it. On iPhone, turn off Find My first or the buyer cannot use the phone and the offer will be withdrawn.
Coverage information comes from each network's own checker and from Ofcom's Map Your Mobile. Contract and roaming rules follow Ofcom's guidance for phone customers. CompareDirect does not sell phones, SIMs or contracts, and takes no commission from the buyers listed here.
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