Can you sell your phone whilst still on contract?

lin49

I am 12 months into a two year contract with talk mobile and would like to change my phone. They said I could pay off the remaining 12 months but won't let me upgrade even paying more a month!
Does anyone know if I can buy another phone and put my sim in and carry on paying. Would they know and is this legal. Apologies if this question has been asked before.

keith1950

Hi, the phone is yours straight away....you can sell it and buy another phone to use with your sim....however make sure you either buy an unlocked phone or one from the same network as your sim.

cookie365

And remember that if you get into arrears on the contract, talk mobile may block the handset, so keep up the payments to be sure you won't have to refund the buyer.

lin49

Thanks very much for your help.

macman

It was yours to do as you wish with from day one of the contract.

ste_wilko

The phone isn't yours to do what you want with from day 1 at all. The phone is yours once you have covered the cost of purchasing it, and that is at the end of the contract (hence why operators will charge more per month for reduced or nil upfront handset costs). Vodafone and EE make provisions for this in their general terms and conditions. Also, I once heard that EE have gone further and stated that if they detect that the handset is being used on any account other than the one for which it was originally aligned to without their consent they can bar it from use on any network.

It might be worth checking your T&C's to see what your network have got in them. Failing that, give them a call to see what their policy is on selling the handset to help pay for the cost of a new one

keith1950

It was yours to do as you wish with from day one of the contract.

And remember that if you get into arrears on the contract, talk mobile may block the handset, so keep up the payments to be sure you won't have to refund the buyer.

The phone isn't yours to do what you want with from day 1 at all. The phone is yours once you have covered the cost of purchasing it,

The OP specifically states " and put my sim in and carry on paying " so if he complies with that it is his to from day one !

spinybif_2

I did exactly that with Talktalk, had Huawei phone on £5 pm contract, hopeless. Bought Moto G from Tesco and unlocked. Talktalk quite happy to send me a micro sim for new phone, all works well. Old phone kept as backup, haven't sold but Talktalk had no issue with what I did.

mobilejunkie

I always sell the phone as soon as it arrives. It IS my phone at that stage, to do with as I wish. I am unsure about 3 - I think they may be a little different. Not a problem with any other network, that's for sure.

lin49

Just to let you know I phoned talk mobile and they are ok with me buying a new phone and putting my sim in for the rest of the contract. Even said carphone warehouse would be happy to help if I needed help transferring the sim or had problems with it!

macman

Why would the network care what handset you use, as long as you continue to pay the due amount owing under the contract?