Samsung Confirms New Money-Back Scheme For Your Galaxy Phone

After 12 months of staggeringly high trade-in prices for old phones, Samsung is doubling down on its trade-in pricing with a new money-back scheme for Galaxy devices.

The Korean company announced today that it will launch a new trade-in program that doesn’t require the purchase of a new handset. The “Galaxy Easy Compensation” scheme will pay Korean Galaxy phone owners money for their old device, with values fluctuating depending on the condition. Crucially, no purchase of a new phone is needed.

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Samsung says that it will grade used phones on three scales; excellent, good, and recycle, with payouts adjusted depending on which category the used phone falls into. The company hasn’t released pricing for phones yet, but the list of accepted devices might give us some insight.

• Galaxy S23
• Galaxy S22
• Galaxy S21
• Galaxy S20
• Galaxy Galaxy Z Fold5
• Galaxy Fold4
• Galaxy Fold3
• Galaxy Z Flip5
• Galaxy Flip4
• Galaxy Flip3

These are all newer phones that were released in the last five years and, crucially, they’re all still within their update window. They all receive some combination of security patches and operating system updates. The scheme, which launches on January 14th, is only available in Korea for now, with expansion to other countries planned for the future.

In recent sales, Samsung has valued some of these phones highly when trading in for a new device. For example, the company was offering $800 for the Galaxy S22 Ultra when buying the Z Fold 6. It will be interesting to see what the Korean company will pay for these devices when a new phone isn’t being bought.

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It seems that Samsung is planning to resell these devices, with the announcement explicitly stating that the company plans to “purchase used smartphones that customers do not use and use them for future resale.” Presumably, this means the recovered handsets will be refurbished.

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I don’t know how much value there is in a five-year-old Galaxy S20, but I can see newer handsets still fetching a decent price. Especially with Samsung’s new seven-year guarantee of software support. This also explains why Samsung extended software support last year to at least four years of updates for devices released after 2019.

Samsung is clear, it wants its Galaxy phones to be as valuable as iPhones, regardless of how old the device is. “Samsung Electronics plans to preserve the market value of Galaxy smartphones,” the press release explains. That is a tall order for any Android phone.

With that said, the Korean company may be inching closer to rehabilitating the image of Android handsets in the public consciousness. Recent data from Sell Cell revealed that Samsung phones are depreciating at a slower rate with every release. For example, the Galaxy S22 series lost on average 66.7% of its value in the 12 months after launch. However, the Galaxy S23 only lost 61% in the same time frame, which is a 5.6% improvement.

A dedicated trade-in portal, which officially states what a phone is worth from Samsung’s position, adds some security to buyers who typically see the price of their expensive phones crater as new handsets are launched. But that security depends on what Samsung is willing to pay for said devices. We will have to see if Samsung maintains that high pricing for old phones when a new device isn’t bought.

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