Can I sell my phone but carry on paying my contract?

[abbiwillixms]

I started a pay monthly contract in May 2019 for an iPhone XR. I didn’t like the phone much when I first got it and considered returning it straight away but didn’t want to go through the hassle and decided to at least give it a try. Without realising - I stupidly missed the 14 day return cap to cancel my contract and allow me to choose a different device. I am now stuck with a phone that I really cannot get along with for another 28 months. I understand this is completely my own fault for not double checking the return policy before purchasing, but I was wondering would it be at all possible to sell my iPhone, put my current SIM card into another phone and carry on paying my contract? I really don’t want to have to keep this phone for another 2 years!!

[Bambino · Accepted solution]

@abbiwillixms  You can use your sim card in any phone you choose. If it's an Android phone you'd have to change the data settings.

Technically you're not meant to sell the phone while you're under contract. Whoever you sold it to would have trouble as the IMEI is registered to your contract. You could, however, sell it and then use the proceeds to pay off the device part of your contract if you're on Refresh, and then just continue to pay the air time part. If you did that you could also cancel the air time with no extra charge and take a sim only contract which might cost you less. Take a look at the guides below. It should give you the answers you need.

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-Guides/Cancelling-Your-Contract-A-Guide/ba-p/566774

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-Guides/Cancelling-your-contract-An-updated-guide/ba-p/1234852

[djbsuffolk]

If there is still device payments to be made and you are unable to clear the balance before you sell and just want to keep making the device payments you need to look into if you legally own the device to sell it - may be a hornets nest of hassle!