What to do with barred iPhone 6

[BennyC]

Hey all

Last year I lost my phone, called and had it barred and made a claim for a new one on O2 Insure. A few weeks after I got the replacement, I heard from MET Police saying the old phone had been handed in, and they posted it back to me.

So I now have a perfectly good iPhone 6, which is barred so is basically a paper weight at the moment.

I'm wondering if anyone knows if there's anything I can do to make use of it? Sell it for parts somehow?

Thanks in advance to anyone with info.

Cheers

[jonsie · Accepted solution]

It doesn't belong to you, it is now the property of the insurance company so O2 will definitely not remove the bar. There are ways to use it but if the IMEI shows up on a UK network if the insurance company runs a periodic check....

I could tell you ways to get it unblocked or ways to use it again but as it would be strictly illegal, it isn't right to advise on such things here on the community. Use Google not a website community that is associated with the insurance company. In fact you should be calling them to advise you have had the lost phone returned to you.

[MI5]

Owning that phone now is illegal and it must be returned to the insurance company for disposal.

[PiedPiper]

An intersting aside - a mate of mine, living in the USA, had his month old Range Rover stolen. Within 6 weeks he had a brand new one following his insurance claim. Happy days.

Five hears later, having sold the replacement car and moved back to the UK, he got an email from some sheriff in Texas saying that they had found his old car. From photos and description it looked in excellent condition and that if he could provide proof of purchase then it was his to collect.

We all said the same :- it's not yours, surely it belongs to the insurance company. Apparently not so in the USA. The logic goes something like, but don't quote me, that you were insured for a particular risk, ie stolen car. The risk took place so the insurer paid out, end of. You could say that the insurer calculated their premiums on the basis that the car would not being recovered, and so they have no more rights to claim it as theirs.

PS he did get it shipped back. After paying for that together with conversion to EU specs he sold it to someone in France and I think he ended up making about £15K profit.

[jonsie]

Anything goes in the USA and there are so many legalities that can be argued for and agin. Here it is far more clearcut and the phone rightly belongs to the insurer, cars and all.