According to a recent study when phones are either sent in to be recycled or discarded incorrectly there is enough data in them to easily identify the owner. An average smartphone may hold online passwords, other passwords, PIN numbers, cached credit card numbers and banking information so it is vital that all information is wiped to stop it from getting into the wrong hands.

New research has also found that 76% of us would feel more comfortable recycling our phones if we knew that any data was wiped clean. The following explains how to correctly and securely delete any personal data from a standard mobile phone or smartphone:

• Check the manufactures website or the instruction booklet to find full step by step instructions on how to wipe data on your handset.
• If your handset has flash memory then the data will still be stored even if the battery is removed. For these types of phones you should check your manual to find out how to do a hard reset which will delete all your personal data.
• Always remove your SIM card before sending your old phone in for recycling as this may store contact details and text messages.
• Always remove your memory card from your mobile phone before sending it in.
• If you are giving your phone to a charity you could ask them to delete the data for you before you will donate your phone.

If you gave a smartphone its now also possible to install software that will allow you to remotely wipe the data on your handset should it ever be stolen, this software will also allow you to backup all your data at the same time.

One of the UKs most popular mobile recycling sites, Mazuma Mobile offers a mobile data delete tool free of charge on their website. To use the tool you simply enter the make and model of the mobile handset you want to sell, your name and your e-mail address and free instructions on how to delete all the data on your mobile are sent to you within minutes.

Use the free data delete tool and recycle your old mobile for cash at Mazuma here

The online recycler attempted to break the record between the 7th – 13th October this year and beat the previous amount of 6,130 by recycling 10,310 old mobile phones in a single week.

Recycling company Redeem Plc who recycle and refurbish old mobile handsets and partner with many big companies also assisted in the record attempt by collecting and counting all the handsets.

Head of Sustainability at O2 Recycle, Bill Eyres said “This record attempt has helped the environment and recycled thousands of old mobile phones that were previously just sat around in people’s drawers and cupboards.”

As well as breaking the world record O2 Recycle also raised £28,176 for the charity that they support, Think Big. Think Big helps to turnaround and organize training for young people aged 13 – 25 living in the UK. All profits that are generated through the O2 Recycle website are donated to the Think Big charity.

It’s hoped that by taking part in initiatives like this world record O2 Recycle will help people to see that recycling mobiles is good for the environment and can help earn extra money for good causes.

In other news O2 Recycle has also recently announced that since launching they have now paid out a massive £20 million to their customers.

O2 is part of one of Europe’s biggest mobile networks, Telefonica who have over 37 million customers around the world. O2 Recycle has been created in partnership with one of the UK’s biggest recycling companies, Redeem Plc for both O2 and non O2 customers to recycle their unwanted gadgets in return for cash.

At O2 Recycle you can sell old mobile phones, SAT NAVs, digital cameras, MP3 players, iPods, handheld games consoles and tablet computers in return for cash. Both O2 and non O2 customers can sell unwanted items on their site. They pay up to £260 which is sent via cheque, straight into your bank account, added to your O2 bill or there is the option to donate it all to the O2 Think Big charity.

Recycle your unwanted mobiles and gadgets at O2 Recycle here

The money was raised through a firework night display which was attended by staff from RPC Recycle, Comm-Tech and Juice Telecoms. The fireworks were hosted by the managing director of the three companies, Justin Millar and over 200 people turned up to view the fireworks and donate money.

As well as raising money for the charities through the firework night the three companies including RPC Recycle are also raising money by taking part in the popular Movember. Movember makes men grow ‘sponsored’ moustaches to raise money and awareness for men’s health especially prostate cancer.

In 2010 Movember raised £48.5 million for Prostate Cancer charities so RPC Recycle are proud to support the charity again for the second year running. There is now over 1.1 million people around the world taking part in Movember every year. You can learn more about Movember and the charities they support here.

RPC Recycle is a specialist mobile recycling company who will buy old mobile phones, iPods, iPhones and tablets for cash payments. Since launching a couple of years ago they have paid out over £8 million to their customers. They offer competitive prices on all mobile models, Apple devices, Blackberries and tablet computers. Payments are sent quickly and conveniently via cheque, BACS or Paypal within 48 hours of your old handset being received.

When you use the site to sell your unwanted handsets and devices you can rest assured that they will not end up at a landfill site where they will cause much damage to the environment. Any unwanted devices and mobile phones that are received will be refurbished by the company and then either re-sold in the UK or in developing countries where mobile phones are essential for communications. Any handset that cannot be re-used will be broken down and recycled in line with the UK Waste Electronic and Electrical Devices (WEEE) directive.

Earn cash for your unwanted mobile or device at RPC Recycle here

So if you have an old iPhone and can’t wait to get hold of the latest model where are the best places to get hold of your cash? To help you decide we’ve reviewed the top 5 recycling sites below who will buy iPhones for cash, have great customer service and offer fast payments.

Bozowi

Bozowi is a fairly new recycling site but the owners / directors have many years experience in the industry, They offer cash for all Apple products including iPhones, iPods and iPads, as well as all standard mobile phones.

Bozowi currently have a special offer running where if you upgrade to the iPhone 4S for £499 they will buy it off you for £549 which will instantly make you a £50 profit!

Payment: Cash is sent via same day bank transfer, Paypal or cheque. Vouchers hopefully be added in the near future.

Customer Service: Yes

Current price for 16GB iPhone 3GS: £115

Current price for 16GB iPhone 4: £256

Money4urMobile

Money4urmobile are part of Redeem Plc. Redeem Plc are one of the biggest mobile recycling companies with over 10 years experience. They offer cash for iPads, Iphones and iPods and many other mobile handsets.

Payment: Cash sent by cheque or bank transfer within 7 days.

Customer Service: Yes

Current price for 16GB iPhone 3GS: £100.25

Current price for 16GB iPhone 4: £245.50

The other option would be to sell it at auction on a site like eBay, (JOHN EX LINK) although you may get a few more pounds for your old smartphone it can be a pain to set up the auction, wait to see if it sells, pay the fees, package it up and send it off. However if you have the free time plus all the cables / box etc then auction is always an option.

RPC Recycle

RPC Recycle is a specialist mobile recycling company who will buy old mobile phones or Apple iPhones for either recycling or refurbishment. They guarantee to pay extremely competitive prices on all models of mobile and smartphones.

Payment: Cash sent by cheque, bank transfer or Paypal within 2 days.

Customer service: Yes

Current price for 16GB iPhone 3GS: £105

Current price for 16GB iPhone 4: £215

Mobile Phone Xchange

Mobile Phone Xchange is one of the oldest and most popular mobile recycling sites. They pay some of the highest rates for old handsets including Apple iPhones and iPads.

Payment: Cash by bank transfer or cheque. Alternatively if you sell your old device for Argos or Debenhams high street vouchers you will get up to 15% more.

Customer Service: Yes

Current price for 16GB iPhone 3GS: £102

Current price for 16GB iPhone 4: £220

Sell My Mobile

Sell My Mobile is the UKs number 1 mobile recycling price comparison site. They currently compare 26,311 prices on 4,618 different handsets.

Payment: All methods

Customer service: Yes

Current price for 16GB iPhone 3GS: £115

Current price for 16GB iPhone 4: Highest price £261.01

Prices correct as of October 2011

Currently the record for the most old mobiles recycled in one week stands at 6,130. O2 want to break that record during the week of Friday 7th October to Thursday the 13th October.

By recycling with O2 Recycle during that week not only will you get to earn some extra money and help the environment but you will also get to help boost the £500,000 that O2 has donated to their Think Big scheme. All profits from recycling your old phone at the O2 Recycle site go to Think Big which helps to turn around the lives of young people in the UK.

Bill Eyres, Head of CR, Environment and Sustainability New Business at O2 said “The record breaking challenge is a fun way of highlighting how we can all help the environment through responsible recycling. He added “We don’t take any profits from O2 Recycle as it all gets donated to our Think Big scheme.” “Recycle your phone from Friday and become a record breaker!”

At O2 Recycling you can also sell other electronic goods for cash including SAT NAVs, MP3 players, iPods, cameras, games consoles and tablet computers although these other items do not count towards the record attempt.

Help break a record and recycle your old mobile phone for cash here

The new Samsung Galaxy skin will have a flexible screen which means that it can be bent into almost any shape. To do this it will feature a 4” WVGA Super AMOLED screen which will be much brighter and energy efficient than previous displays, bend into different shapes without affecting the image quality and even withstand a blow by a hammer!

The display is made from a special material called Graphene which is said to be the strongest material in the world, 200 times stronger than structural steel.

By bending the screen on the new handset it can be changed into many different items including a mouse, clock, wrist watch or even a projector.

Other features on the new smartphone include a 1.2 Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM, a 16GB or 32GB internal memory, an 8.0 mega-pixel camera on the back and VGA camera on the front, Bluetooth 3.0 and lots more.

The Galaxy Skin will run on the Android operating system but it’s not yet know which version will be used. Internet rumours suggest that it could be either the newest Android operating system called Jelly Bean or a future version will be named after this smartphone’s key feature and be called Android Flexy.

It’s not known exactly when the Galaxy Skin will be available to buy however Samsung have hinted that it will be at some point in 2012.

Mazuma Mobile has been voted the best recycling company in a recent research carried out by customer service auditors, Service Science.

Service Science hired a group of mystery shoppers between July and August this year in order to evaluate 9 of the UK’s leading mobile recycling sites. The mobile recycling sites were evaluated on price, speed of service and customer service standards.

Mazuma Mobile came out on top in the research after providing the best customers service and sending payments within an average of just 3 days from when the sale was registered online. Other recycling companies took between 9 – 15 days after the sale was registered for the customer to receive their payment.

Charlo Carabott, Managing Director at Mazuma said “We are delighted with the results of Service Science’s mystery shopping exercise.”

The results of the survey are completely impartial and although Mazuma was contacted in the initial process, Service Science had the final say in what they deemed to be good service.

Mazuma are one of the most popular mobile recycling websites in the country having paid out over £115m to over 1.5 million customers.

Recycle your old mobile at Mazuma here

Prices will be matched if any handset prices are higher on Mazuma Mobile or the Envirofone site within 7 days of the recycling order being submitted on O2 Recycle. Prices will still be matched even if the order has already been sent in to be recycled.

In order to get the price match all users need to do is recycle their phone as normal via the O2 Recycle site then check to see whether the price is higher on Mazuma or Envirofone if it is then the price match form can be filled in and the difference will be paid via cheque or bank transfer. O2 will not match any high street voucher prices.

As well as offering a price match and highly competitive prices on all mobile handsets other electronic gadgets such as digital cameras, MP3 players, games consoles, SAT NAVs and tablets can also be recycled for cash on the site.

All profits that O2 make via their recycling site will be donated to their Think Big scheme which helps to improve the lives of young people living in the UK. This is achieved by offering mentoring and cash grants for any projects that young people want to take part in.

O2 Recycle is available to both O2 and non O2 customers who are resident in the UK.

Recycle your old handset or other electronic gadget for cash at O2 Recycle here

The survey discovered that a massive 5.3 million people who have changed their mobile provider at least once said they have since spent much less.
The people who haven’t switched their provider said they were put off by them thinking that the process was very difficult. However of the people that have switched nine out of ten said the process was very easy to do.

Of the 5.8 million people that have changed providers 26% said they did so to get a more competitive tariff, 16% said it was for a better mobile handset and for 14% it was to improve their reception.

The survey found for pay as you customers the cost of a the handset is the most important factor when choosing a new one, for contract customers most said it was the features.

Also the survey surprisingly found that nine out of ten people would rather go into a mobile phone shop to get a new handset rather than buying one online. This is despite the fact that salesmen in shops will often convince customers to take unnecessary extras including insurance, more often than not insurance is not necessary as it can be covered under people’s home insurance or through their bank.

In other news popular up and coming mobile network giffgaff is calling on people to break free from their mobile contracts, unlock their phones and join their network. For each customer that joins with an unlocked phone giffgaff will donate £4 to Wood Green, The Animal Charity to cover the cost of freeing a battery hen. The network hopes the nhew campaign will help consumers as well as chickens to go ‘free range.’

Giffgaff costs less than other other networks, their standard rates are less than half of what the ‘big’ networks charge and their bundles of text and minutes (Goodybags) are a great way to save even more.

Get a free Giffgaff sim and a much better deal here

The advert showed a teenage girl and boy dancing to a song about recycling mobile phones for up to £150 cash.

The advertising campaign that ran in April this year was banned after 13 complaints were received by ASA. The complaints said that the advert was irresponsible as it made it look like teenagers could trade in their own mobile phones on the site without parental consent being needed.

However Mazuma said that the advertising campaign was not targeting children and had a strong appeal with adults. They also said that the children’s channels that the advert was on had delivered less than 10% of their target audience. Mazuma also stated that their website makes it clear that trade ins from under 18’s can only be submitted under the supervision of an adult. In the actual advert Mazuma say that the actors used were over 18.

Despite all this ASA still banned the advert as it says that due to the music and young actors it was still likely to appeal to under 18’s. ASA also said that Mazuma Mobile would be unable to verify whether a parent or guardian is supervising when a trade in order is placed on their website.

Trade in your old mobile for cash at Mazuma Mobile here