Cash advice

1 HOW TO SELL YOUR OLD TECH

You’re likely to make more money by selling your old gadgets privately. Around eight iPhones were sold every half an hour on eBay in 2019, for an average price of £256 each. eBay claims this is £50 more than you’d get on some other sites.

2 HOW TO WIPE YOUR SMARTPHONE/TABLET

Before you recycle, sell or donate your old device, you need to ensure your personal information stored on the device is completely removed. First, remove the SIM card and MicroSD card, if there is one. If you’ve been using iCloud, make sure you sign out of the storage service in your Settings before you pass on the device. Now use the Factory Reset tool to remove other information and accounts stored on the device. On Apple devices, head to the Settings menu, then find Reset in the General section. On a Android smartphone or tablet, open the Settings and head to the Backup & Reset page.

3 HOW TO DONATE TECH

If you don’t need cash to put towards a new device, you might want to donate your old tech to help someone else. Initiatives such as Three’s Reconnected Scheme let you donate your phone by post to charities that give to those in need. Three even gives recipients of donated phones 90 days of free calls, texts and data. Want to donate a laptop or other electrical? WeeeCharity collects working electrical goods free of charge to recycle and refurbish.

4 HOW TO TRADE IN OLD TECH

Many retailers let you trade in old tech for money or gift cards. How much you get will depend on the age of the device and its condition, but you should still get something even if it’s broken. At the time of writing, Carphone Warehouse offered us £75 cash for a working 32GB iPhone 7, while Apple (which only does its own devices) offered a £90 gift card. Sony also offers a trade-in scheme but it’s only open if you have previously purchased an Xperia handset. Amazon will let you trade in old Kindles and tablets, Echo speakers and Fire TV streaming devices for gift cards or money off a replacement.

5 HOW TO RECYCLE OLD TECH

Recycling sites offer cash for an old phone or laptop. Sites like Mazuma Mobile and Envirofone recondition gadgets if possible and send them to developing countries where a new smartphone can be unaffordable. Other sites like musicMagpie and CeX will buy most of your old tech including laptops, eReaders and MP3 players, and sell it on.