Can I Sell My At&t Phone If I Still Owe Money

Brandonjr36

Hey guys I'm wanting to sell my iPhone X when the galaxy S10 comes out and get it. But I want to continue making payments on the iPhone as I get a credit on it and my directv. Am I allowed to do that? Would the people I sell it to have any issues? I will definitely pay it off after the months end. I just don't want to lose both my credits.

I owed 400 on my iPhone 8 Plus and I upgraded to the XS Max. I sold the 8 Plus and paid Verizon what I owed. Keep in mind I purchased my XS Max at target not a Verizon store

I'm fairly sure when you switch to a new device and deactivate the iPhone you will have to pay the remaining balance. I assume you have ATT since you are getting directv credits so maybe when you put a new phone on there you can keep those, but I know with Verizon I would have to pay the remaining balance on the phone if I deactivated it, which you would obviously have to do to sell it.

From my experience with the AT&T Next program, you can sell it anytime you want and keep paying the monthly payments. Have done this many times without any problems.

This.

It's more than a little shady to sell the phone without disclosing it's still on payments.

Has no affect on the buyer

Unless it's through apples upgrade program it would be locked. And locked devices typically demand a considerably lower sale price. Otherwise I see no issues.

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge

Unless it's through apples upgrade program it would be locked. And locked devices typically demand a considerably lower sale price. Otherwise I see no issues.

Verizon's are typically unlocked, for example.

Newtons Apple

I would not buy a used phone without knowing it was paid in full .

Last edited: Nov 29, 2018

It completely does.

Would you buy something knowing the person had not paid it off, and if they stopped it would be labeled as stolen property that you would then be liable for possessing?

I'm not saying OP would, I'm just saying it's shady. Don't owe money on things your selling. In the future avoid carrier deals that credit every month over a period of 24 months if your an early upgrader.

This exactly. If you want to sell your phone on Swappa, they run your IMEI (or one of those numbers) and check if your phone is still on a payment plan. If it is, you can't sell it on Swappa. Last year I got a new X so I was swapping phones around between my mom and dad and I. Mom's got sold on Swappa and when I went to list it, it had a couple more payments left so I had to go my At&t account and pay it off to sell it on Swappa.

This exactly. If you want to sell your phone on Swappa, they run your IMEI (or one of those numbers) and check if your phone is still on a payment plan. If it is, you can't sell it on Swappa. Last year I got a new X so I was swapping phones around between my mom and dad and I. Mom's got sold on Swappa and when I went to list it, it had a couple more payments left so I had to go my At&t account and pay it off to sell it on Swappa.

Swappa is very good at getting those results but it's not always accurate. I have sold several devices on Swappa that passed their tests but still had payment credits left on them.

This exactly. If you want to sell your phone on Swappa, they run your IMEI (or one of those numbers) and check if your phone is still on a payment plan. If it is, you can't sell it on Swappa. Last year I got a new X so I was swapping phones around between my mom and dad and I. Mom's got sold on Swappa and when I went to list it, it had a couple more payments left so I had to go my At&t account and pay it off to sell it on Swappa.

Same thing here, tried to list a phone on swappa that still had payments and I had to pay it off before being allowed to list it.

OP, do what you want but IMO you're going to have a very hard time selling a phone that still has money owed on it, unless you don't disclose that you still owe money. If that happens and the buyer has issues they could possibly dispute that charge and then you might have to refund them.

Overall I think you're just asking for trouble selling a phone you don't actually own yet.

Pay the phone off. Then do what you want with it.

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge

Pay the phone off. Then do what you want with it.

That will likely make the phone more expensive as it would get rid of the monthly DirecTV discount/credit.

That will likely make the phone more expensive as it would get rid of the monthly DirecTV discount/credit.

Not sure I'm following you. The new phone would come with the same discounts. The discounts go with the account not the phone.

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge

Not sure I'm following you. The new phone would come with the same discounts. The discounts go with the account not the phone.

There are at times offers that come at the time of getting the phone. It sounds like at the time the iPhone X was obtained it came with an offer that while it was on a payment plan there would be a monthly discount for it, so paying it off early wouldn't get the full benefit of that discount that is stretched out over the period of the payment plan on a monthly basis.