One of the suggestions that we make to travleres and readers on this site is to go ahead and buy a burner phone before you travel. Therefore, it made sense to us to talk about a burner phone, where to buy one, and what you could expect from the whole process. When many people think about a burner phone they think about a very cheap, almost disposable phone. Like stepping back into 2005 and buying a flip phone. To the surprise of many that is actually a possibility when buying a burner phone. You can go ahead and get a very vintage style of phone. Doing so could bring forth some issues. Especially if you do plan to use the phone for some time.
We want to point out that the term burner phone has received a negative connotation. Since some people buy cheap phones and prepaid coverage to make fake accounts and trash people on social media. The more sinister use for some of these phones has to do with extortion. We are by no means promoting any of these uses. We’re just using the term because that’s how these types of phones have become known. These types of phones though have a ton of positive uses. Particularly if you’re going to be traveling abroad, or you want to give the phone to a young kid. Ironically these types of phones can ensure that you stay safer when you travel or also when they serve as a means of communication for kids. With that out of the way, here are the real topics that we want to cover.
- Burner Phone Where To Buy – What Really Is A Burner Phone
- Burner Phone Where To Buy – The Quick & Easy Purchase Route
- Things To Account For When Buying A Burner Phone
- You Can Buy A Decent Phone
- Can You Turn An Existing Device Into A “Burner Phone”?
- Is There A Negative Aspect To Having One Of These Phones?
Burner Phone Where To Buy – What Really Is A Burner Phone
We mentioned that sometimes people’s perception of a burner phone is a cheap flip phone that you can get at the wireless service provider store. That’s not necessarily wrong. A lot of these phones that Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T have on the shelves and promote to activate their prepaid plans are technically burner phones. Where we would actually draw the line though is that some of these phones are just cheap. However, they are not unlocked phones. Therefore, they could be a burner phone that you use for some of the local uses that we talked about. However, they are not going to be a great option for travelers. If you’re looking for a burner phone as an avid traveler the phone just has to be unlocked.
Ideally when looking for a “burner phone” the first thing that we would advise you to do is get an unlocked phone. When it comes to deciding on a burner phone where to buy it, going to Verizon and AT&T may not be the best place to search. Instead, buying an unlocked phone directly from Walmart, Amazon or other marketplaces and stores that aren’t directly affiliated to wireless service is a better idea. These spots will provide a decent variety when it comes to unlocked and true burner phones.
The Quick & Easy Purchase Route
The quickest route to buy a burner phone would literally be to step into your local Walmart and pick out one of the phones that they have available. Make sure that when you’re making the purchase the point in the direction of the unlocked phones. Even if you enroll directly on a prepaid plan right at your local Walmart you can still ask for an unlocked phone. The reason why this is the quickest option out there is because you can literally walk in with nothing and walk out with the phone. As we mentioned the phone may even be active once you walk out.
If you don’t want to head over to the store at this particular moment you can explore some of the market places that are online to get a burner phone. This method may be easier than the Walmart route that we just talked about. It’s probably not going to be quicker. The main benefit though of looking for options online is that there are literally going to be more options available. This is the case with virtually any online purchase that you make. You can search multiple marketplaces that include even Walmart online. To find the right device for you and get it delivered straight to your door. You may have to step out though to get the phone activated!
Things To Account For When Buying A Burner Phone
Could you just go out and get the cheapest phone that you can find? Yes, you certainly could, but doing so could backfire. We could make the argument that even before getting the phone it’s a good idea to do some research on the network that you want to connect to. Even if that’s an international network. Let us illustrate with a tangible example. Metro by T-Mobile is one of the most popular prepaid networks in the US. If you look through their site there are “burner phones” that you can get to connect to the network. These are what we could call “soft” burner phones because if you buy directly from them there’s a good chance they come locked to that network. What happens though is that if you get the cheapest phone available you’ll have limited access to their network.
If you get a very old phone you’ll only have access to 3G speeds and not the maximum 4G speeds that the network offers. When the company opens up its 5G network access your phone is going to be 20 years behind the 8 ball. That’s virtually the main thing that you need to account for. It’s a good idea to want to save some money on the phone itself. That being said, it would also be a good idea to look for a phone that you can get at a low price, but that still offers full access to the service. By the way, one of the best methods of checking device compatibility is to access the Metro by T-Mobile page for example, and look at the phones that they sell that are compatible with their network. Then buy that phone from another seller to make sure it’s unlocked.
You Can Buy A Decent Phone
Again we know that some people’s idea of a burner phone is the type of phone that you can get for 20 dollars or whatever the price tag may be. You’ll use that phone to just take out in specific situations. In fact, if you’re going out clubbing, and you don’t want to put your regular phone at risk it’s a nice back up plan to have. You don’t have to, though, have a beat up phone as a burner phone. Especially if you are going to be using it for trouble. We understand that you also may not want to be carrying around a phone that thieves may be interested in. However, the network compatibility situation actually makes it a better deal to look for a decent phone.
We just talked about this with the Metro by T-Mobile example. There are phones on there that are compatible with the T-Mobile prepaid network that may not be compatible with the networks in other countries. There are certain European countries that have already phased out 3G coverage. If you don’t have a device that is 4G or even 5G compatible there is a chance that you won’t be able to use that phone abroad in certain countries. Before you go out and you buy the cheapest thing that you can find at the store, be sure to take that into account. Particularly if you are looking for a burner phone for travel purposes.
Can You Turn An Existing Device Into A “Burner Phone”?
There’s no real reason to figure out the perfect selling place for a burner phone, where to buy these or anything like that if you have a phone on hand. Especially if the phone that you have on hand is compatible with 4G and 5G networks. A burner phone though is typically not just a phone that’s unlocked or one that you don’t care too much about. With a burner phone what you also want to limit is the amount of personal data that you are exposing on the phone. What do we mean by that? Well, it should be a phone that you don’t add your personal email on, let alone credit card information for online shopping. That’s the last thing that you want to do on a burner phone. It has to be a device that if you lost tomorrow you’d be cool with it.
What do we suggest then to make an existing device into a burner phone? If you have apps active on that phone that use up personal information delete those. Log out of your personal accounts that you may have active on the phone. Never connect a burner phone to your email account, your iCloud account, and things like that. If you do, and you compromise that phone for whatever reason you better believe that your data is going to be at risk. Does that mean that your data on your personal phone is currently at risk? A bit, particularly if you’re not using two step verification methods to access your accounts. But, the idea is that you can essentially put a burner phone in harm’s way without having your personal data exposed.
Is There A Negative Aspect To Having One Of These Phones?
What’s the downside to having a burner phone? We actually thought long and hard about this, and really couldn’t find something that we would say is bad about having one of these. The thing is, certain people use these phones so that they can’t get traced to spread hate and do all sorts of negative things. As we mentioned at the beginning of the article. That’s why a lot of times people raise their eyebrows at the idea of having a burner phone. When you think of the practical uses that these types of phones have, it’s overall not so bad.
All you may have to do is keep track of your new number. Make sure that you pass on that number to the people that you’re going to be contacting the most. You know so that they don’t get that scary text from a number that they don’t know, but somehow is spilling a ton of personal information. If you use the phone in good faith we can certainly say that you don’t have anything to worry about.
Burner Phone Where to Buy – Conclusion
When it comes to actually buying the phone we would suggest that you look at Amazon, or the Walmart marketplace. As we mentioned before it’s important that the phone is unlocked when you buy it. Yes, you can unlock a locked phone at a later date if you mess up with that request. If you’re already going to go through the trouble of buying the phone then why not make sure that it’s unlocked in the first place right? Whatever you buy, make sure that it’s fully compatible with the network that you’re trying to access. If you follow those rules you’re going to be fine.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with using a burner phone. We mentioned this plenty of times. The thing is, there are people out there that have given these types of phones a sketchy use. That doesn’t mean though that you have to be prank calling people and things like that if you happen to have one of these types of phones. These days if you want to get the most of your burner phone be sure to buy a recent model phone. That doesn’t mean that you can’t get a good deal.