Mobiles For Cash

There’s a quick way to pick up some extra spending money of which most UK residents are completely unaware: mobile phone recycling.

That’s right, there are several private companies serving the UK that give consumers the chance to recycle their mobile phones for extra cash. The sums of money consumers receive aren’t necessarily huge – Mobile phone owners can expect to receive anywhere from 15 pounds to 120 pounds, depending on the make and model of their unwanted phones – but getting at that money requires barely any effort.

At the same time, recycling mobile phones allows consumers to perform a good deed on behalf of the environment. Too much of the UK’s landfill space is now taken up by old and outdated electronics. By recycling their old mobile phones, consumers are doing their part to keep this new waste stream from growing even larger.

Unfortunately, not enough UK residents are aware that they can recycle their old mobile phones for cash. Consider the results of a recent study by mobile phone maker Nokia: According to it, about two-thirds of UK residents admitted that they had no idea how to recycle their old mobile phones. This helps explain why the same study found that only 3 million mobile phones are recycled each year in the UK.

Hopefully, though, this will change as more people realize that they can turn their old mobile phone into easy cash.

How much can consumers get by selling their old mobile phones? That depends on the make and model of the unwanted phones they are turning in. In general, though, consumers can expect to receive anywhere from 15 pounds to more than 100. That’s a big spread, so it’s important for consumers to do their research, and to shop around a bit, before accepting an offer for their old mobile phones.

To see how much additional spending money they can receive, consumers should log onto the Web homes of the dozens of private mobile phone recycling companies that currently do business in the UK. Some of these sites include EarthMobile.com, Envirofone.com, SellOldMobile.com and MobilePhoneXchange.com.

Each of these sites allow visitors to scroll a long list of mobile phone makes and models. Users then select the mobile phone they own to find out what the recycling firm is offering. If consumers like the offer, they can accept it. If they don’t, they can move onto the next online company that offers mobile phone recycling services.

There are certainly enough companies out there to choose from. Consumers should never feel pressured to accept a specific offer for their mobile phone. Yes, the main goal here is to prevent mobile phones from ending up at the bottoms of area landfills. But there’s no reason why consumers shouldn’t end up with a financial offer with which they’re happy.

Once consumers do find that right offer, they can either mail their mobile phone directly to the private recycling company on their own, or they can wait for the company to send them a padded, pre-addressed envelope. Once the phone is mailed, consumers can expect to receive their agreed-upon payment within seven business days.

As more companies enter the phone recycling business, and as these companies continue to offer fairly generous cash incentives for old mobiles, there is hope that a greater number of consumers will refrain from tossing their old mobile phones in the trash. Free money is a great motivator. Let’s hope that more UK residents, then, will realize both the environmental and financial wisdom of selling their old mobiles for money.