I have a problem with my phone. Say I buy a replacement phone on eBay. What do I do next to replace my current phone with the new phone?
My brother was able to use my old phones when he broke his by putting his SIM card in the replacement phone. We never had the same model phone but we had the same carrier.
My current phone does, as I recall, use a SIM card. Is that really all there is to it? Transplant the SIM card?
If the new phone is the same carrier as your old phone, you can switch sim cards and that’s it. So if you’re on AT&T and you buy a phone linked to AT&T, you should be good. However, if you buy a phone for a different provider, it probably will not work. Most of the time the providers will lock the phone so it only works on their service even if you swap sims. There are unlocking services, but it may be more hassle than it’s worth. If you buy a phone, buy one that’s the same provider you have now and you won’t have any problems.
Yes, make sure the new phone is advertised as “unlocked,” or that it’s advertised as being on the same network you’re using. Unlocked is obviously much better because you can use it with any network’s SIM card. Some phones can be unlocked yourself, like older versions of the iPhone and most Windows Mobile phones and whatnot, but you’re better off just getting it pre-unlocked unless you know what you’re doing.
ETA: The SIM card has some built-in memory for contacts and text messages, but it’s pretty basic, as in just name and phone number; if your old phone was a fancy Palm or Windows Mobile phone or had a contacts list with more than just “name and number” slots, you’ll need to back up the contacts somehow and copy them to the new phone, or only the information that got stored on the SIM card will show up on the new phone.
Thanks, all.
If you have Verizon and the online account manager, you can log in and enter the new phones ESN and activate it yourself. I’ve done it a couple times and it’s surprisingly easy. Takes all of a couple minutes.
It really is that easy. I did exactly this a few years ago when I was on T-Mobile. I accidentally laundered my phone, ordered a replacement off Ebay, switched the SIM card and that was that.
I think SIM card based phones allow you to store your phone numbers on the SIM card or on the phone, with the ability to copy between, so you should be able to move them about to get them onto the new phone. Luckily mine was stored on the card, since the phone was destroyed and I wasn’t getting anything off it.
I also have a MicroSD card in mine, which gives me some more options for storing some things, though I don’t know if everything can be copied there.