Two months ago, I wrote about a Samsung S21 deal where you had to trade in an iPhone SE to Costco and you’d get $400 credit. At the time, I wasn’t sure if T-Mobile would accept my Xfinity Mobile locked iPhone SE. I was even more worried because I mistakenly gave the Costco rep the esim IMEI instead of the physical IMEI. Even worse, the reason why I went with Costco because I was hoping to avoid sending the phone into the same center as T-mobile online trade-ins (heard they can be picky about phones.)
Well good news all around. After 2 weeks of mailing in the locked and still under financing Xfinity Mobile iPhone SE, T-Mobile gave me the default $160 credit. Then 2 months later, I eventually got a text from Costco saying my $240 electronic Mastercard was ready, so I did get $400 credit for my SE. Xfinity Mobile still thinks I own the phone and giving me my monthly credits, so everything worked out beautifully… except for the fact I never resold the Samsung S21 and it’s being devalued every day. I think I’ll call T-Mobile to have it unlocked now since I did pay full price for it and then it’d be a much easier resell.
What next? Well I have 6 more Xfinity Mobile iPhone SE’s, so I’ll wait for the next T-Mobile or Costco trade-in promo and trade them all in for $400 credit (you won’t get that much reselling the locked phone.)
I purchase a phone on eBay for a similar trade in promotion. It was from a new seller. He shipped it the same day. T-Mobile gave me full credits but that phone later turned out to have defaulted the financing, Swappa’s database showed almost two months later.