To buy a secondhand mobile phone?

[User181019]

DD needs one as she's walking home from school on her own. Only needs it to message and receive/make calls if needed on her way home. Won't be using it for gaming or social media. Phones are handed in at school and she won't be using it at home.

Looking at secondhand mobiles in CEX, I'm shocked at how expensive they still are even for models 5+ years old which are no longer being updated.

E.g. looking at the Samsung phones (we are Android in this house), a 2017 J series model is £90 including delivery compared to a brand new Samsung Galaxy A03 (same series) which is £120. Even £90 is a lot for us but the cheaper phones are all around 8+ years old.

I'd rather not spend the extra money but is it false economy to save £30 and buy a phone which is already 5 years old, no longer being updated and I've no idea how it's been used or looked after in the past? What do you think?

I always buy secondhand phones--I don't need or want the new bells and whistles and it cuts down my contribution to electronic waste,

Have you looked at ebay? They are usually cheaper than places like CEX.

Do a bit of googling on how long different phones will be supported – up to 90 quid for something that will be supported for up to the next three years seems like a reasonable bargain…? Or are you on a contract that can cascade your old phone down to her?

I got mine from Music magpie and it's been great

Android phones are usually supported way more than apple I actually bought my ds a nokia brand new when he started secondary school it was about £80 did the job fine

They can be good value, eg I bought a laptop from cex for £150 for ds which is fine as always plugged in. A few ipads all going strong dispite not taking ios updates years later. Dh has hsd a iPhone for four years from cex iPhone 6 still going.

However the battery is the key, normally they are not great and don't have much juice left left in them.

It's not a false economy, but if you can afford it I'd get the basic Galaxy from curry's unlocked on the cheapest plan as that works out the cheapest option if your adding calls anyway I think but you'd have to crunch the numbers

I really need a new phone but I won't buy one second hand. I did consider it but any phone I have had for over 2 years has become slow or had faults. Not necessarily damage but stuff like apps stopping working on and off and calls being funny.
I went back to use a couple of old phones we have kept recently. They were both less than 5 years old and both had faults and were slow.
I really hate buying new products as im conscious of the environmental impact and I buy most things second hand but having this experience has put me of with phones.

Cex has a two year warranty as well

What about a cheap brand new smartphone? Full warranty, current support for the tech etc.

www.argos.co.uk/product/9483068

I assume a dumb phone (not a smartphone) is not what you want.

Try giffgaff

If she just needs it for emergencies, why not an old fashioned brick? It will also avoid any gradual introduction social media and subsequent arguments etc until you're completely ready.

If she only needs it for basic calls and texts, she can get a new basic Nokia dumb phone for about £20 from Argos.

Or if you still want her to have a smart phone, look on ebay. I recently sold a 3 YO Motorola G7 for £60, which is typical of my experience, I buy a new Android phone when I see a good deal for £100 or so and then sell it after 2/3 years and usually get around that amount. So my phones cost me hardly anything and someone else gets something second hand for a reasonable price.

Cross posted with a few others.

@LovelaceBiggWither I'm scared about buying on eBay due to burnt fingers in the last. There's a CEX where I live so I assume if anything goes wrong, there's an actual store I could go into. I agree with your ethos of not contributing to electronic waste where we can help it.

@MrsWooster I've read that Android phones are only supported for around 4 years now. So even the 2017 model won't receive software updates anymore.

@IncessantNameChanger yes, my concern with buying secondhand is not knowing how they charged it before as I know that can affect battery life. That's great your devices are still going! We have an old iPad that stopped receiving updates and now we only surf the net and that's about it. Majority of apps no longer run on it because the OS is out of date. A pity as the hardware itself is otherwise fine! Feels like such a waste.

@Theillustratedmummy that's why we don't have old phones to pass down. Even the premium ones broke in the end (stopped charging usually) after only a couple of years. Perhaps we've been unlucky as we are careful with our phones!

You can get some great Android phones brand new from Amazon, we both have Ulefone models, cost about £100.

The difference with CEX is that you're paying for a network of shops and the cost of them holding stock and honouring warranties.

For relatively small value items like mobile phones, these will be high compared with the cost when new from larger retailers.

If you're not wanting a higher end phone, and it won't be used much, a new basic one will be fine, likely cheaper than second hand, from what you've posted and you'll be able to sell it when the time comes for her to upgrade - even if it no longer works, people still buy them for parts or to repair.

Agree with others that you may as well just get a cheap brick phone. Other advantage being that battery lasts for ages.

It's also a good learning tool before giving her a smartphone - she gets used to making sure that she has the phone with her, responds to messages from you, doesn't drop it etc.

I got a decent deal from Music Magpie, on an iPhone 7. If she'll just be using it for calls and messages in emergencies then it doesn't really matter if it can be updated - those things should still work.

Otherwise I'd go for a Nokia dumb phone.

Giffgaff do some reconditioned ones, I got a phone that seems brand new but was a little cheaper.

I would be wary of buying secondhand. Any savings are probably going to be lost if you have to replace the battery.

I've decided to upgrade every three years for environmental reasons. Current phone is doing fine at 2.5 years of use, previous phone wasn't great once past two years and the last six months were annoying - I only persevered because there was no problem with me charging it in work.

Previous phone I did try getting second hand from CEX before buying new, but it was faulty - another thing that put me off.

Honestly I would be asking around friends and family. Many people have an old phone sitting in a drawer.

@purplecorkheart we did but nobody has one. We are from a family of people who only upgrade when our mobile dies! And our other side of the family live abroad. I was hoping someone would have an old device sitting in a drawer somewhere but nope!

@DiddlyDoris thanks. We checked and they were all too expensive and more than what we need for Y6.

Thanks to everyone who suggested a Nokia. Will have a look. By the time she's in Y8, that might be a good time to consider an upgrade when she is using the phone more. Then the Nokia can go to her younger sibling.

I have no idea why buying second hand could be unreasonable.

The only thing you need to consider is if the phone is still supported (contrary to what a pp said, Apple actually support their phones longer than Android manufacturers do).

But otherwise they are much cheaper and still work, so what's not to like?

Just had battery replaced on my iPhone se (2nd gen) and it only cost $59. Well worth it to get two more years use from it and much cheaper than a new phone.

I buy used phones for my kids off of Swappa. Assume there's something similar in the UK?

I also use a cheap phone plan. When I tell people my monthly bill for four people they always seem shocked at how little I pay.

I only get a new phone when mine dies/ doesn't charge properly, and that seems to be about 3 years. So I would say not worth getting a second hand phone, it isn't worth replacing the battery. Also, how old is your DD? Even if she doesn't use it at home now, it's unlikely that will last forever. Have a look at Tesco phones, there are some pretty cheap new phones.

Absolutely do this. I have my daughter's old iPhone with a sim-only deal from RiffRaff.