selling an old cell phone

[polluxmr2]

I have an old cell phone i want to sell. I have found several people who have said not to sell it with the sim card. But, no one says why. so why should you not sell a cell phone with its sim card?

[NeoGen]

I would speculate that the sim card holds your relation to the mobile operator, and the mobile operator has your data... therefore any wrong doing done later with that sim card will be traced back to you....

[polluxmr2]

thats what i thought. i will just sell it without the sim card just to be safe. Also, it doesn't appear to bring down the resale value of the phone all that much anyway.

i still cant believe how much a four year old phone is worth.

[Beerknurd]

what kind of phone is it??

[polluxmr2]

what kind of phone is it??

motorola i730.

[Jim_Clark]

The SIM card (Subscriber Identification Module) is a memory card that stores your account number and account information such as what options or services you are allowed to use. If you get a new cell phone, you can transfer the SIM to the new phone (if it is physically and electronicly compatible) and make calls on your old account. If you give the SIM to someone (or they steal it), they can put it into their cell phone and make calls charged to your account. It's something like a credit or debit card.

[polluxmr2]

so i should probly destroy the SIM card if i dont plan on using it ever again?

[NeoGen]

Yes... that would definitely do the trick. :)
But I think there's a more diplomatic solution... I'm guessing that you might also be able to call to the customer care section of your mobile operator and ask them to cancel your sim card on their databases, so that even if you don't physically destroy it, no one else that gets it can do anything with it, because it will be invalidated at the mobile operator.