The website www.mopay.co.uk offers payment in High Street shop vouchers which are accepted in a range of stores.  Argos vouchers are the voucher of choice for a number of firms.  Mazuma mobile offer them as a payment option, as do Envirofone. 

Tesco customers who recycle their old phones through them can receive clubcard points.  This is probably a better option for phones that are considered to have no cash value, as the points are not worth a great deal, but a few points are better than no cash.  Some deals with Tesco offer a gift card for the store or airtime for mobile phones depending on the value of the handset. 

Boots also offer loyalty points to customers who recycle their phones through them.  A total of up to 5000 advantage card points are on offer depending on the make and model of the handset and consumers will also be entered into prize draws and competitions. 

British Gas customers who recycle their phones with them can put the cash towards their utility bills, and sites such as www.musicmagpie.co.uk take not just mobile phones but also old CDs, DVDs and games in return for cash.

It is very simple to use their websites; all you have to do is to enter the make and model of the phone you wish to sell and you will be given a price. If this is acceptable to you, just fill in your details and you will be sent a padded envelope in which to send your phone. Most mobile phones that are under four years old will be listed on these sites, but if yours is not you may still be able to sell it if you contact the customer services section on the site.

Keeping outdated mobile phones in cupboards and drawers actually loses you money. Many people will not sell their phones because they do not think they are being paid enough for them and so they leave them where they are and end up with a totally worthless phone, literally throwing money away. The point here is that if you have old phones, you will get a better price if you sell them right away.

You can still send very old phones for recycling so that they do not end up in landfill sites and this helps reduce the carbon footprint of your phone, but you will not be paid for them.

Mopay, which has an official site at www.mopay.co.uk, has paid over £2 million to customers since 2009. Mopay.co.uk is regarded as the original website for phone recycling and offers multiple payment options to its users. You can get paid not only by cash but also by Marks and Spencer vouchers, electronic transfer, Arcadia Group Gift Cards, and music credit. Over the counter cash collection is also possible at any post office branch.

Another feature of Mopay is the company’s offer to let you earn cash back for shopping. For every purchase your have made with Mopay partners, you will be receiving cash in your Mopay bank account.

The “Sell Mobile” button on top of the homepage will bring you to a list of over 30 alphabetically-listed phone manufacturers. You then click on the logo corresponding to the maker of your phone and select the model from the pictures of handsets. You will then be offered a price list where you can choose cash or vouchers as payment. There are also different prices for working and non-working models. If it is indicated that a non-working model will fetch a price of £0.00, then you need not bother going any further.

Mopay also requires entering your phone’s IMEI number, which is a 15-digit serial number found if you enter *#06# into your old unit; it is also located on the back of your phone when you remove the battery.

According to Mopay standards, a working phone has no broken or missing parts and is free from marks and scratches. The rest are classified as not working.

Most people when they change their mobile phones will keep the old one to use ‘as a spare’.  In reality they get tucked away in a box or at the back of a drawer and are forgotten about.  This is partly because many people are not aware that they can actually sell their mobile phone, earn some cash and help the planet.

Many of the components of a mobile handset can be recycled or reused.  This is especially important as they often contain chemicals which could leach into the soil if the phone ends up at a landfill site.  By making use of mobile phone recycling we can all go green with very little effort. 

The companies that pay cash for mobiles are aware that the mobile phone industry is an ever growing one.  New handsets are being introduced to the market regularly and many users will update their mobiles often in order to keep up with the latest innovations.  Those who do will have quite recent models in their possession that they are not using.  And the more recent the handset, the more it is worth. 

Mobile phone recycling firms can be sure of an endless supply of handsets that they can refurbish and sell on, or strip down for a supply of valuable spare parts.

Mazuma’s offers depend on your mobile phone type; they offer £140 for your Sony Ericsson Satio and as much as £280 for an Apple iPhone 3G S 32GB model. The official site of the company, www.mazumamobile.com, has a ‘Sell Mobile’ button where users can type in their mobile phone unit model, review the order, enter personal details, and finally, confirm the order. If you are unsure of what model your mobile phone is, you can also select from among 28 manufacturer logos in order to browse through model images.

The company site also features a 24-hour live online support and a section called “Being Responsible” where you are given the essential facts about recycling presented in a very simple, easy-to-read format with the happy-looking Mazuma mascot – a funny-looking red mobile phone unit with hands, legs and ears and a relatively large oval-shaped human face that occupies the screen.

Mazuma was voted in 2009 as the Best Mobile Phone Company in the UK based on a study conducted by an IBM business research company, Service Science. With a satisfaction score of 89.1 percent, Mazuma has beaten eight of its rivals in terms of speed of transaction as well as consumer price expectations.

The promises that Mazuma makes include satisfaction or your phone is returned, a 48-hour payment schedule, a free mobile data delete tool, free postage for 10 or more units, an SSL registration and the promise of being environment-friendly.

Going to a phone recycling company is a good and easy option.  There are other ways you could try, such as selling the phone yourself on an auction site such as eBay, but these other methods offer no guarantee of a sale.  If your phone is in reasonable working condition then that should translate into a reasonable offer from a mobile phone recycling firm. 

If your phone is damaged in any way (and hardly anyone has a mobile phone in pristine condition) you may still earn cash from it.  Offers will vary between companies and some may not make an offer, but it is worth a try.  At the very least you will know that the phone will not be rotting in a landfill site polluting the environment. 

So what happens to them afterwards?  More recent models are shipped out to other countries such as India and China and sold on to consumers.  Those that can be easily repaired may be refurbished.  Some phones may be stripped down and their components recycled.  The parts that cannot be reused in some way are passed on to organisations that can ensure they are disposed of responsibly. 

Older phones are dismantled and the parts are used to build new ones. This is environmentally friendly and cheaper than using new components. There is money to be made from these if you have large quantities of them. For example, a charity could collect old mobile phones and sell them to one of these companies. Generally speaking most mobile phone recycling companies will help here.

Phones, which are over four years old usually, have no value, but they will still be accepted by charities that will sell them on for recycling. Oxfam has a scheme whereby you can send up to twenty old phones in a pre paid jiffy bag and they will sell them on to recyclers. Office Green Technologies also have schemes where they will collect phones and donate money to charity for old mobile phones that nobody else wants to buy. This is an excellent way to make money for your favourite charity.

So, once mobile phone models go out of fashion, many of them can be refurbished and sold abroad. Damaged and very old mobiles are usually stripped down and the components reused to help the environment.

If you have a mobile phone that is less than four years old, it is worth checking a comparison site to see how much you can sell it for. However, don’t just throw the very old ones away because they have no resale value; charities like Oxfam can benefit from them.

If you have a damaged phone this is likely to significantly reduce the price that you will receive, but it is still worth sending it in. The type of damage that may result in less money being paid includes a casing that has been badly damaged, inability to switch the phone on or a locked PIN. It is likely that any phone which has been water damaged will not qualify for any payment. It is best to be upfront about the damage when researching online.

It is worth remembering that a phone should not just be disposed of with your household waste for environmental reasons. No matter how much your old phone is worth, recycling is also worthwhile for environmental factors.

There are agencies that recycle mobile phones by cleaning them up, making a few adjustments, and then selling them in lots to companies located in other countries.  The technology you no longer care for may be ideal for someone in another part of the world.  With a small investment and the chance for a significant return, companies that are in the business of selling phones for cash are doing quite well today by reselling what others no longer want.

Other organisations are not after the phones per se, but the components that can be harvested from them.  Those inner workings are still perfectly usable, making the purchase of older phones a cost-effective alternative to buying new components.  When you sell your old mobile, there is a chance it will be disassembled and everything from the casing to the wiring used in some new device.

Don’t assume that because your old mobile has been collecting dust for a few years that it is of no value to anyone.  Check around with different buyers, and you are highly likely to find someone who will offer a little something for the device.  You’ll make a little money, and the buyer will have one more unit to use in whatever way he or she wishes.

Well, Envirofone actually strive to reuse all mobile phones that are in the proper working order. When Envirofone receives a phone, they actually carry out a number of tests to make sure that the phone is not broken. Each phone is then given a grading depending on its state. Some will actually be able to be sold on to another user straight away; others will need some refurbishment before they can be used again. Of course, there will be others that cannot be used again and these particular handsets will be recycled.

Obviously, when you opt to sell to Envirofone you will be quoted a price but this is dependent upon the phone meeting their terms and conditions. Sometimes, after testing, Envirofone may need to alter their quote and they would email you regarding this. You can choose whether or not to accept the revised offer.

Once payment is made, Envirofone will list working handsets for sale on their website. Any phones that are damaged will be sent for refurbishment. However, the handsets that are broken beyond repair will be reprocessed. This is a system by which all valuable components of the phone are removed. This includes the flash memory. The remaining components are then melted down for energy recovery.

Envirofone also works hard to maintain its environmental credentials and offset its own carbon footprint.