I heard a staggering statistic recently that Australian’s are sitting on over $847 million dollars’ worth of old mobile phone technology. You know, that old horrible Nokia that sits in your bottom draw? Yep, it’s worth something.
As a money saver I was naturally interested in getting money to boost my savings account from items I no longer need. To me, a phone that may be worth $50 sitting in my desk drawer is a complete waste. I would rather have that money reducing my mortgage or growing my savings.
Now the conventional methods of selling a phone that come to mind are eBay or GumTree, however the problem with these sites is that it all depends on someone actually wanting your old (and likely dodgy) phone in Australia.
This is what led me to search a little further into options for selling my mobile phone, getting quick cash and doing so in a way that wouldn’t take up much time.
Here is how I sold my phone for $43 for 10 minutes work. Looking forward to repeating this with all the phones I can find in my house!
I found a company called Bounce Mobile
BounceMobile.com.au offer a service where by you can look up your phone model, get a quote on what it’s worth and then it allows you to check out with the choice of getting money transferred via PayPal or bank transfer.
I chose to go with them simply because they made the process look so easy. The last thing I want is some convoluted mobile sales process. Bounce Mobile instead take care of everything once you agree to sell your mobile (at no cost to you).
How do you sell your phone with Bounce Mobile?
Surprisingly it was quite a quick and easy process to get rid of my phone in exchange for money. The process is as follows;
- Bounce Mobile tell you how much your phone is worth.
- If you accept, you sign up and check out.
- Bounce Mobile then send you a prepaid envelope to send your phone to them.
- Chuck your phone in the padded envelop, include your reference slip, seal and then send back.
- The prepaid envelope can be dropped at a Post Office or alternatively picked up from your home by courier (pretty cool!).
While you wait for the delivery of your reply paid envelope, you will need to complete an ID check on their website to prove your identity. I did this the easy way; I took a photo of a utility bill and my drivers license on my iPhone and uploaded. Much easier than sending documents, scanning etc – took me 30 seconds.
My experience with Bounce Mobile
I followed the steps above and found myself with a prepaid envelope on my door within 24 hours.
The particular phone I was selling was a Nokia E72, a rather old and useless phone that simply will never get used again since buying my iPhone. I won’t include a picture of it as it will burn your eyes with ugliness.
I figured I would do a test with the Nokia before selling my other phones I have lying around.
I packaged up the phone and opted to send it via Australia Post. I work right near a post office so opted to send it in this way rather than a courier pick up (which 99% of the time would be the easiest option).
The phone arrived at Bounce Mobile around 5 days later (the Australia Post option is slower than the courier, but that was my choice). Someone from Bounce Mobile rang me to follow up where my package was after a few days – they chased it down from the post office and confirmed it had arrived.
They then rang me to confirm that full payment would be made. Two days later I had my $43 in my account. I have to say; this was one of the easiest and smooth ways to sell an old mobile.
Thank you Bounce Mobile!
I genuinely still can’t believe they wanted my old Nokia and were willing to pay me for something I was willing to simply put in the bin.
What I liked about Bounce Mobile?
- They pay for the phone postage.
- They deposit the money quickly.
- They offer competitive prices on the phones they want (I checked other sites also)
- Their customer service was exceptional (thank you to the lady who rang me and looked after me!)
So how much money could you make on your old mobile phones?
Well according to Bounce Mobile – there are around 20 million mobiles that could be sold across Australia. On average a household will have 2.29 mobiles with an average sale price of $92. That is nearly $200 per household.
How much money do you have lying around?
The statistics show that:
- VIC has $212,371,315 worth of unused mobile phones
- NSW has $274,895,500 million dollars worth of unused mobile phones
- QLD has $165,417,577 million dollars worth of unused mobile phones=
What I am going to do with the $43 I got?
Remember, I have another four phones to sell – so more money is coming!
As for the $43? I put this into my savings account for my baby boys future education. It’s little deposits like these that really add up over the years. I am a big believer that the smartest savers are the ones who do actually take the time to do stuff like this.
The other money I make I might put towards my mortgage. Even $43 can save nearly 4-5 times that on a mortgage of around $300,000 over 30 years.
Give them a try – you never know how much your phone will be worth. Every dollar counts when it comes to saving money!
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