Buying a used cellphone-- questions

[Jim Bancroft]

I'm with t-mobile and I want to change my phone. I'd prefer not to sign a new contract with them, so I wouldn't mind a used phone off eBay. However, I've never done this before so I was curious about what I need to know. Does my phone number move along with my sim chip, for instance?

I understand that some phones are locked to particular carriers, and to be honest I'm not interested in hacking one so it'll work with t-mobile. Just want a phone I know will work with my chip. For the record, I have a Motorola V188. Thanks guys.

 

[pm]

Yes, your number moves with the SIM. Just pop it out and move it to a new phone and the new phone will make/take all of your calls.

Depending on the type of phone and how the phone is set up, you can often store all your contacts on the SIM as well and then your address book will move over as well. On a lot of phones, there's a "copy contacts to/from SIM" setting buried in the menus.

You will definitely either want an unlocked phone or one locked to T-Mobile in the US (not to be confused with T-Mobile in the EU, a locked EU T-Mobile phone won't work).

 

[Jim Bancroft]

Thanks for the advice-- I'll look into copying out the address list (I thought they were stored on the sim chip by default, but I guess not.)