Make money from your old mobile phone

Don't throw away your old mobile phone handset. You can make a handy bit of extra cash out of it.

Every year in Britain, we throw away 5.25 million mobile phones, reckons Moneysupermarket.com.

This is utter madness. I realise that recycling can seem a bit of a chore at times but unlike your cans and newspapers, you can make a handy bit of extra cash from your old handset.

For example, if I sold my Nokia 5800 to one of the mobile phone recycling firms, I could earn £100. Even a very old handset such as a Nokia 6230 could still sell for £11 not bad considering that you are getting paid to get rid of something you don't want anyway, in an environmentally responsible manner.

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To find out how much you could sell your old handsets for and to whom use MoneySavingExpert.com's comparison tool.

And for more about selling your old phone, see MoneyWeek Saver: how to get the best mobile phone deal.

Ruth Jackson-Kirby

Ruth Jackson-Kirby is a freelance personal finance journalist with 17 years’ experience, writing about everything from savings and credit cards to pensions, property and pet insurance. 

Ruth started her career at MoneyWeek after graduating with an MA from the University of St Andrews, and she continues to contribute regular articles to our personal finance section. After leaving MoneyWeek she went on to become deputy editor of Moneywise before becoming a freelance journalist.

Ruth writes regularly for national publications including The Sunday Times, The Times, The Mail on Sunday and Good Housekeeping among many other titles both online and offline.