Consumer: Are Used Cell Phones for You?


I’m always keeping an eye out for when I can do my free upgrades at Verizon.

When I bought my RAZR, contract costs and specs helped me purchase the thing. I don't do impulse buying. It took me a few months of reading around and looking at different things. Face it, I don't want to blow money buying a lemon of a phone. (I haven’t done that yet.)

Some time back, Cingular started offering refurbished phones.

It seems the refurbished phone market can be a booming business as people are returning older phones rather than tossing them out. AND in some cases, some folk are returning new phones, but once a phone has been sold, it can’t be marketed as new anymore.

Naturally, if you angle for the best deal on a phone price you'll also be signing a multi-year deal with the carrier.

An example in the article I came across:
Cingular sells a new LG CU500--a flip phone that supports the high-speed HSDPA network--for $150 with a two-year contract (a $50 mail-in rebate brings it down to $100); a refurbished model is $50 with a two-year contract, no mail rebate required (or available).

Keep in Mind:
There are used phone distributors out there. ReCellular, Wireless Galaxy to name a couple. (Not endorsements, just resources.)

When you buy a used phone, any warranty will probably not come from the manufacturer and look at the warranty closely and see what it covers and who’s responsible for what.

And when you buy into this package deal, is it worth the length of the contract from the provider?

Just food for thought gang.

Source article
Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons
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