How do I check if a phone is paid off?

[holden j caufield]

Getting bored with my phone and about to buy an ATT S4 or S5 (hopefully I can flash a tmobile rom on it) seller says it's paid off, swappa check says it's not blacklisted. How do I go about protecting myself in case (they said they are switching to verizon) choose to stop paying on their plan?

Edit actually found a way for those in the same spot. Go to ATT unlock request as a non customer and request an unlock request. They will reply right away that it's denied because it still has payments and that will answer my question.

 

[poofyhairguy]

If you are buying on swappa you are safe. This isn't like a car, the phone won't get repoed if they don't pay the bill.

 

[paperwastage]

If you are buying on swappa you are safe. This isn't like a car, the phone won't get repoed if they don't pay the bill.

but the phone can still get blacklisted on the original carrier if the original owner doesn't pay or reports it stolen

these blacklists may be shared with other carriers as well

 

[Artdeco]

Pick someone on Swappa with good feedback, I've yet to have a bad experience using them.

 

[cpacini]

Also IIRC swappas terms require the phone to have the eip paid off. If it's not you can file a dispute with PayPal