Optus announce new trade-in scheme to give you credit towards your new plan

If you’re into gadgets then chances are you have a number of Smartphones lying around gathering dust, and Optus would like to take them off your hands in exchange for giving you credit on your next Optus My Plan phone bill when you sign up to a new contract or re-contract to a postpaid mobile plan.

The requirements of the scheme are pretty simple, firstly the phone has to be working, next you will need to take the phone along with your driver’s license or passport into an Optus store where it will be assessed by an Optus representative who will make you a credit offer. You have up to 7 days after you sign your new contract to trade an old phone in, but the offer made on the day is only valid for that day, take it in any other time and it will be re-evaluated.

Rohan Ganeson, Managing Director of Sales at Optus said,

Trade In, Trade Up is a first for Australian telcos, nothing like this has ever been done by an Australian telecommunications carrier. Now is the perfect time for customers to trade in, with so many exciting new smartphones hitting stores across the country.

This offer puts our customers’ front of mind by making it cheaper for them to upgrade and making it
easier for them by saving time and hassle of selling their old phone themselves.

Unfortunately the list of phones accepted by the program is pretty small, as Optus advise on their trade-in website :

Unfortunately not all devices are available through this program. You could check out other trade-in companies (do a Google search), or place this handset into the Mobile Muster program for recycling.

Optus are looking for phones that have been looked after, and are in good condition, the better the condition the phone is in the more credit you will receive, the credit you are offered is also based on the popularity of the phone as well. The list of phones as mentioned is quite small :

It’s an odd list and it seems that strangely, the Samsung built Nexus S has been branded an LG phone by Optus. Other phones never released in Australia – Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, HTC One X+ and LG Optimus 4x – have made the list over other handsets that were released here, like the Sony Xperia X10 to name but one.

If you’re interested in this scheme, then it’s probably good to rememebr, if you have data on your phone you would be best off backing it up and wiping it before you even think of taking it along to a store to trade it in. For Android phones – Settings > Security > Backup and Reset > Factory Reset – and you should be right, also remember to wipe any microSD cards in the phone as well.

As to what Optus actually intends to do with traded in handsets is not cleareHead over to the Optus Trade-in website to check out the details.