BillyB3256
Lurker
Hi, Im looking to sell my virgin mobile galaxy s5 and cancel my account and service. My question is do I need to remove the sim card before I sell it or will the person that buys it need it to activate the phone?
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Help Selling a Galaxy S5 from Virgin Mobile. Help!
- Thread starter BillyB3256
- Start date
There are "Virgin Mobile" networks in more than one country, and their procedures will vary. Since you've not said where you are I'll have to try to cover all cases.
I assume that you've fully paid for the phone, i.e. either originally bought it outright, or if the handset was subsidised by a contract cost you have completed the minimum contract period. If not then you should not sell the phone, because the carrier will block it if you fail to pay any outstanding bills (and in the UK, where I am, that means that it will be blocked on all European networks at least). I'm sorry to have to even bring that up, but we see this happen often enough that I need to make sure that you know.
Secondly, will the buyer be using it on Virgin Mobile as well? If the phone was bought through them then it's probably locked to them (or possibly them plus the parent network) unless you've had it unlocked.
With those 2 caveats out of the way, Virgin over here uses GSM technology, so while the SIM may need activating the phone does not (just stick your SIM in and that's it, as long as the SIM is compatible - see note on unlocking above). Virgin in the USA I believe piggy-back's on Sprint's network, which means it's CDMA. In that case it will need activation, and as we don't have CDMA networks I can't say much about that. However, a SIM is a Subscriber Identity Module, so your SIM is linked to your subscription (your contract) rather than your phone, and I would expect that even for a CDMA network (where the SIM is just for LTE) the buyer would have to get their own SIM as yours will be deactivated when you cancel your contract. But as we don't have CDMA networks here I can only be 99% certain of that.
I assume that you've fully paid for the phone, i.e. either originally bought it outright, or if the handset was subsidised by a contract cost you have completed the minimum contract period. If not then you should not sell the phone, because the carrier will block it if you fail to pay any outstanding bills (and in the UK, where I am, that means that it will be blocked on all European networks at least). I'm sorry to have to even bring that up, but we see this happen often enough that I need to make sure that you know.
Secondly, will the buyer be using it on Virgin Mobile as well? If the phone was bought through them then it's probably locked to them (or possibly them plus the parent network) unless you've had it unlocked.
With those 2 caveats out of the way, Virgin over here uses GSM technology, so while the SIM may need activating the phone does not (just stick your SIM in and that's it, as long as the SIM is compatible - see note on unlocking above). Virgin in the USA I believe piggy-back's on Sprint's network, which means it's CDMA. In that case it will need activation, and as we don't have CDMA networks I can't say much about that. However, a SIM is a Subscriber Identity Module, so your SIM is linked to your subscription (your contract) rather than your phone, and I would expect that even for a CDMA network (where the SIM is just for LTE) the buyer would have to get their own SIM as yours will be deactivated when you cancel your contract. But as we don't have CDMA networks here I can only be 99% certain of that.
funkylogik
share the love peeps ;)
Yup tl;dr keep your sim 
it's of no use to the buyer unless you want to pay for his service
it's of no use to the buyer unless you want to pay for his serviceBillyB3256
Lurker
But ive allready canceled my account its deactivatedYup tl;dr keep your sim
BillyB3256
Lurker
Im in the usa and my account was paid up and phone was paid off when i canceled my service
funkylogik
share the love peeps ;)
Just bin the sim then. It's useless
Plus by keeping the SIM it lessens the chance of the phone somehow remaining linked to your old account. Even though you say you canceled you never know what can happen.
This would be analogous to selling a car and letting the new owner drive away with your old license plates still on it.
This would be analogous to selling a car and letting the new owner drive away with your old license plates still on it.
Of course in the UK the number plates stay with the car 
Of course in the UK the number plates stay with the car
Yeah and you drive on the wrong side of the road too.