What is ecoATM Kiosk? and How it works?
Don’t be surprised if you happen to see a new addition among the various kiosks at your local Walmart or similar. Sitting alongside movie rental boxes and the kids’ candy dispensers you just might find an ecoATM kiosk as a new addition. What is ecoATM? If you have an old cell phone and smartphones sitting around your house doing nothing, the ecoATM is a great way to get rid of that useless technology and put some cash in your hand at the same time as well.
How Tech Recycling Works
ecoATM takes a variety of obsolete devices for a cash payout on a regular basis. Instead of taking the risk of having to meet up with someone via an online selling ad or going through the hassle of selling your old phone on an Internet auction site, you can simply just bring it to an ecoATM kiosk and let the system price and buy your device for you. It’s easy, simple, intuitive, and you save phones from ending up in the trash as well.
Where do the recycled phones go? Believe it or not, older smartphones are still effective and useful elsewhere in the world. Countries halfway around the planet need recycled phones at a tremendous rate. These are areas where typical banking and finance that we take for granted in the U.S. don’t exist in many areas. So, what many folks have done in these countries involves converting to a phone-based financial system instead. They build up financial credits with their phone and use it like a mobile bank, paying for goods and services by transferring currency with their phones versus with cash or with a credit card. Mobile finance is a huge market in Africa for example, and they can’t get enough older smartphones to meet the market demand.
What Gets Recycled?
ecoATM is not just limited to smartphones, although they are one of the most desired items on the ecoATM list of tech to buy. ecoATM kiosks will also take tablets as well as old MP3 players as well. Located in Walmart, Kroger and Westfield shopping malls, among other locations, ecoATMs are plentiful and located in most suburban and urban locations, and there’s probably one near where you live within a few miles.
How to Prepare Your Phone for Recycling
Obviously, you don’t want to just take your old phone and hand it over. First, remove any sim cards with your personal card data. Second, reset your phone to factory default. This will wipe out any data or information sitting on the phone’s memory file and simply restore it back to the factory software. The procedure will also wipe out any of your apps that might have access to your personal accounts online. Don’t forget to go through this process before recycling; it’s amazing how much info people leave on old phones when they recycle them, forgetting to wipe the devices first.
Conversion to Credits or Currency
Depending on what’s available, ecoATM can pay in either cash or credits on gift cards. Both give a person leverage in taking something useless and turning it into a form that is useful again. And there’s probably at least one if not two used, older phones sitting around in a home at any given time. Businesses probably have, even more, having to upgrade their phones regularly to stay at pace with network requirements. The conversion isn’t pennies either. For example, an iPhone 8 could see values near $100. Additionally, ecoATM regularly puts out codes for additional bumps, which can add as much as 10 percent to the value of a sale as well.
The steps to the sale on an ecoATM are straightforward as well. The kiosk will “check” the phone via connection wires the seller attaches. The phone then gets labeled with a provided inventory sticker, and the seller identifies himself via a driver’s license or similar scan. Once complete, the sale price is offered after the kiosk examines the phone. If accepted, the cash is paid instantly. If not, the phone is returned from the kiosk. It’s that simple. Now you just need to get on the Internet and find out where there are ecoATMs near me.