What’s the recommended way to do this?
It seems there are outfits that accept these as donations to what are claimed to be worthy causes. In some cases it seems possible to sell them (though ordinary models like what I have appear to be worth little or nothing).
Is there any history of abuse (say, attempts to extract phone numbers for nefarious purposes)?
Any suggestions and/or relevant experiences are welcome.
Last time I got a new handset, there was a donation box right in the store (Sprint), which either recycled the phones or wiped and donated them to causes like women’s shelters or what-have-you. I just made sure that I restored factory settings/deleted my address book before handing it over. To my knowledge there’s never been an issue of unauthorized recovery/use of my address book or anything.
I think most major cities have an electronics recycling center, too (easily found via google), which is another option. I’d still delete everything, but my understanding is that the phones are actually destroyed/recycled, not re-used.
Look into Cell Phones for Soldiers. For every cell-phone they get donated, they donate a 60-minute calling card to a solider stationed overseas. Great program.
Will they (any of the programs mentioned here) take phones if the batteries won’t hold a charge? How about if they don’t have a charging cord? I have a bunch of old cell phones, but I know none of them hold a decent charge anymore. I also can’t say for certain that they all have chargers.