If your cell phone service gets shut off, will the phone activate if I sell it?

If you have AT&T or T-Mobile all the person has to do is place their sim card in the phone and they're good to go. If you have a Sprint or Verizon phone you have to cut off the service yourself, and make sure your esn is clear before you sell it. Otherwise the person you sell it to is gonna be very displeased with you.

Well, sure, provided you have the debt settlement transaction registered with the cell-phone service provider in advance. That means that if you mail the payment to the service provider on the same day as you sell the cellular telephone, it probably will not activate unless the BUYER pays your bill!

But this really does not make any sense. Why are you selling the cell-phone when your debt is more than your cell-phone's value? Why not just pay off the debt, keep your cell-phone service, and this time do not run up an irresponsible debt?

There is probably already a "block" on your cell phone identity code, so you have to pay off the debt first before your cell-phone can be used by YOU or by your BUYER or with a new service provider. Moreover, your NAME probably is registered with a block as well, so that you cannot obtain cell-phone service through any other newly-purchased cell-phone or by going to a different service provider. OR, I do not know what your selling price is, well, GIVE the cell phone away if the new owner is willing to pay part of your debt in the amount of the value of the cell-phone, but you have to pay off the remainder of the debt pronto (immediately if not sooner) so the new owner can use the cell-phone! You will need to have impeccable integrity and the new owner will have to implicitly be able to trust YOU in order for that to work out!

When you own a cell-phone, which I always do, then the prepaid service goes to the cell-phone, not to the owner per-se. That is true whether with or without prepaid services. But there is a "stolen and lost" list of cell-phones that cannot be provided with services pre-paid or not, and I am presuming that is also probably the list for people who do not pay their bills!

Depends on the service, I will call your carrier and ask.