Verizon offers promotional savings when you trade in your old phone for a new one. This is an exciting way to upgrade to a new device without having to wait for your phone to depreciate.
How to prepare your phone for trade-in with Verizon? Make sure that your phone is in its best condition, fix what you can to raise its value, delete all your personal data from the device, reset it back to the factory settings, remove the sim card, choose your trade-in benefit and ship the device to Verizon.
However, before you do so, read the information below to get some helpful tips on doing each of these steps properly.
Step-By-Step Guide To Trading In Your Device
You first need to understand that Verizon accepts trade-ins, but they do not simply throw away the device for you. Instead, the company aims to recondition your old phone into a new one, perhaps as a response to be more eco-friendly.
Whatever their purpose is, the device should still be in good condition. No one wants a useless device. This is why Verizon has several requirements and steps you have to take if you wish to exchange your phone for a new one.
The company understands that you will not trade in your old device without a benefit for you. So, Verizon provides incentives and promotional savings in trade-in credit, Paypal credit, and Verizon gift cards.
To get the offer, here is the process:
1.Determine The Current Value Of Your Device
Knowing the current value of your used phone is a bit tricky. It would be best to consider several factors, such as the market prices of secondhand phones, brand, model, age, repair history, and performance.
Verizon calculates it based on the classification of a phone’s condition. For instance, an iPhone 11 trade-in value (265 GB) in good condition has an appraised value of $318 and $159 if the screen has a crack, while it’s only $57 if it can’t even turn on.
You will be asked to fill out Verizon’s Device Appraisal Questionnaire to determine where your phone is classified. You will choose options that will provide you with a series of questions, like the network you are using, the storage capacity, color, etc.
Some questions will determine whether or not the device turns off, if the battery still works fine, and if the case has damage. You have to be honest in your appraisal since the estimate is not final. Verizon will still verify the unit once they receive it.
2.Choose A Trade-In Benefit
The good thing about trading with Verizon is that you are not locked into choosing a particular device. Instead, you can select any new phone and pay a little less along with your old device, or convert the value of your old device into Paypal credits and Verizon gift cards.
In other words, Verizon is buying your old phone and paying you in the form of credits that you can use to purchase new devices from them at a promotional rate.
3.Ship Your Device
After filling out Verizon’s Device Appraisal Questionnaire and selecting your trade-in options, Verizon will send you an envelope, a box, and a prepaid shipping label. Put your phone inside the envelope and the envelope inside the box. Make sure that both the envelope and the box are entirely sealed. Then, attach the return label to the parcel.
You can send the box within 15 days from the date you received it. After that, you have an option to send it through UPS or dropbox. Then, you will receive a confirmation that Verizon has received it.
It is recommended that you seal the box with bubble wrap or packing tape. If you decide to print the label online, only place the label on the box so you do not confuse the carrier. Do not forget to keep the tracking number.
Another important thing to remember is to wipe your phone before sending it.
How Do I Wipe My Verizon Phone?
Wiping your Verizon phone entails factory data resetting. Unfortunately, it means that all your data, like contacts and files, will be permanently deleted. So before wiping the phone, make sure to save that information elsewhere.
Performing factory data resetting is easy if the phone is responsive. But for devices with Android Device Protection, you have to get Google’s sign-in credentials by visiting https://www.google.com/accounts/recovery and reset the password there.
Here are the steps to wipe your Verizon phone:
- Sign in to a Google account.
- Power off your device.
- Press and hold the Power button and the Volume Up button at the same time for about 10 seconds.
- Wait for the blue screen to appear that says “Installing System Update.”
- Continue to hold and wait for the recovery screen to appear.
- When the recovery screen appears, look for Wipe Data/Factory Reset.
- Scroll down using the Volume button.
- Tap Wipe Data/Factory Reset using the Power button.
- After tapping, wait for the confirmation question.
- Select Yes.
- Wait for another list of options to appear.
- Among the options, tap Reboot System Now.
- After the reboot process, the phone has been reset to factory data.
How To Wipe An iPhone
Wiping your iPhone is much easier. Follow these steps:
- Back up your data.
- Go to Settings > iCloud > Sign Out.
- Sign out of iCloud
- Go back to the Home screen.
- Go to Settings > General > Reset.
- Select Erase All Content and Settings.
- Select Erase iPhone.
- Wait for the phone to reboot.
- After the reboot process, you have successfully wiped your iPhone.
Should You Remove The Sim Card?
When trading in a phone, you must remove the sim card because it represents your network service and is not part of the trade-in. Keep in mind that you are only exchanging the hardware, not the service.
Conclusion
If you decide to trade in your phone with Verizon, follow the above process.
Wiping the phone is needed not only to prevent the phone from crashing, but also for added security. Therefore, make sure that you have already decided on a trade-in before you get started.
I’ve been working with technology in one way or the other all my life. After graduating from university, I worked as a sales consultant for Verizon for a few years. Now I am a technical support engineer by day and write articles on my own blog here in my spare time to help others if they have any issues with their devices.
