Sitting somewhere in the back of a drawer is buried treasure. It’s a byproduct of our near annual ‘mobile phone upgrades’. We instantly jump to the newer sexier model, leaving our old mobiles dumped in drawers.

If you’ve got an ex-mobile lying around unwanted and unused, then you can ditch it for quick cash. Now this may come as no surprise, because there are plenty of adverts from firms offering cash for your mobile, but don’t just jump to the first you see.

There are mammoth differences between what they pay. It varies site to site and from phone to phone. For example, I found the amount offered for a Samsung Z700 ranged between £55 and £5, meaning that you could lose 90% by picking the wrong site – or perhaps even more on ebay (see below).

Speedily get the best price

Self- evidentially, the key is to go to as many sites as possible to see who’ll pay the most. The easy way to do that is to use the comparison site. You simply tell it your phone make, and it’ll tell you who’ll pay what.

Now I should declare that it’s no surprise I think this is cracking, as I designed it and had it built, after it frustrated me to see such price variance.

How mobile recycling works

Once you’ve got a price, you log on to these sites, and they’ll send out a padded envelope to post to them.

At this point, it’s advisable to send it `Recorded, Signed For’, which will insure it for up to £39, for an additional 75p.

Before sending off the phone, it’s important to make sure that you’ve wiped off any data such as names, addresses and numbers.

You should make sure that the phone is fully charged, but switched off, that you’ve taken the SIM card out and removed any security numbers or PIN numbers that could make it difficult to test.

The recycling firms expect phones to be in decent working condition, with only mild cosmetic damage. Anything worse and you’ll lose at least ten per cent of the value.

You should bear in mind that about one in five phones is rejected once it’s been received. If that happens, you can choose to accept a lower price, or ask for it to be sent back to you. If you’ve got an expensive phone that’s just missing out, it may be worth paying to get it fixed and sending it in again (often it can just be a broken battery).

Even if you can’t get a price, remember that old mobile phone batteries should be recycled responsibly. Don’t just put them in bin, as they can be harmful to the environment.

You may be able to get even more

Before you even think about using one of these sites, you should consider whether you want to recycle your phone at all. You may be able to get more elsewhere, though often it’s more hassle.

• Consider eBay. Often you‘ll get more for it by selling it through the likes of eBay, particularly if it’s a high-value handset.

In that case, rather than sending the mobile to the developing world as they usually do, the recyclers themselves may sell it on eBay, so you just cut out the middle man.

Though of course that is more hassle. The difference is small for low value handsets, so in that case recycling companies are a better bet.

• Sell it to a friend. Even if you don’t want your phone anymore, a family member or friend might. If you don’t want to just give it to them, then sell it.

Deciding on the price might seem tricky, but my advice would be to take the best price being offered by the recycling sites and add ten percent.

If your friend wonders how you decided on that figure, show them this article!

• Don’t give it to charity. I’m not being churlish, it’s just I’ve never seen a recycling site that gives a decent amount to charity.

They often get a great deal less than you’d get for the phone by recycling it yourself.

So you’d be far better to recycle the phone yourself then donate the money to the charity – that way it’d also be able to claim Gift Aid tax back on top, meaning it gets much more.

Of course the reason why charities don’t do that is most people would just pocket the money for themselves.

But why not go half and half if that’s tempting? It’s likely the charity will still end up with more than otherwise.

Finally …

Before you give your phone away or recycle it, consider whether you really want to get rid of it.

You could get it unlocked, so that can use it for cheap calls when you are abroad, or use it with a Pay As You Go SIM that gives you a cheap text package.

Think carefully before disposing of something that you might still have a use for.