Word on the street is that AT&T might be considering a “Phone Trade-In” program. The program would allow you to trade in your old phone for credit toward the purchase of a new handset.

Right now the trade-in program is really just a rumor on the interwebs. Although just a rumor, there are some details that have surfaced about what the plan might potentially entail:

1. The phone you bring to trade must be less than two-years-old, and needs to be in good shape. So, you’re not going to exactly cash in on giving them back you’re a beat up handset from 10 years ago, or that phone you dropped in the toilet at Christmas.

2. Your new phone won’t have any subsidies attached to it. So, you can’t get the discount for signing a contract AND a discount for bringing in your old phone. It’s one or the other.

3. Trade-in’s are going to be valued between $50 and $200, so even if you paid $600 for that iPhone the most you can hope to see from the trade-in is $200, and we imagine most trades will look a lot more like $50.

4. The expected launch date for the program is June of this year, although again there’s been no official announcement from AT&T so that could be moved up/back or just not exist at all.

This really isn’t the worst idea in the world. I imagine AT&T will get tons of gadget nerds who want to get the latest and greatest thing to come in and trade in there handsets that are only a few months old for brand spanking new ones. One would think that AT&T could then refurbish those phones and make a killing selling them again to customers, while keeping those people who wanted to get a new handset happy as well.

Would you use the program if it was available?

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Entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 7:21 pm under Cell phones.

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