Should I Remove SIM card before selling phone?

Yes. If you’re selling your phone, looking to trade in your phone, or donating your phone, you should remove your SIM card.

While SIM cards don’t store a lot of data, they can contain your phone number and potentially some linked account information. By removing the card, it eliminates the possibility of any information being accidentally or purposefully accessed.

Once removed, you may also find that the SIM card fits into your new Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy phone, which means it can be used straightaway without the need to purchase a new SIM Card. However, if you’ve got no use for the SIM card anymore, then this can be destroyed. To do this, simply take some scissors and cut the card into several small pieces.

Black Samsung SIM Tray ejecting from housing with SIM tray dimensions

It is also important to remember to remove any SD cards that may be in the handset on phones such as Samsung Galaxy’s. Similarly to above, removing the SD card will prevent any personal data being accessed by a third party.

Samsung SIM Tray with SIM and Memory Cards

Once you have removed your SIM card and SD card, if your device has one, it is important to erase all your personal information too. The process is easy to do on both iPhone and Samsung phones:

iPhone

Settings – General – Transfer or Reset iPhone – Erase All Content and Settings – Confirm

Before you sell your iPhone, check out our full guide on how to remove your iCloud account, on our blog here.

Samsung

Settings – General Management – Reset – Factory Data Reset – Reset

A full guide on how to remove your Samsung and Google Account from your Galaxy mobile phone, before you trade it in can be found here.

After you have removed your data, SD Card and SIM Card from your mobile phone, you are then ready to sell your phone for cash. Or donate your phone to charity, family member or friend, or to trade in your mobile phone for the very best price.