Samsung announces more flexible trade-in program, no purchase required

Samsung has announced a change to its Galaxy Trade-In program that allows consumers to trade in select Galaxy smartphone models to the company year-round, without the need to make a new purchase at the same time.

The new program is set to start today in South Korea and France, with other markets to follow later in 2025. The company says that its aim is to “boost the value of Galaxy devices” in the long-term by providing “amazing savings” through the trade-in process.

There are two key changes to the program, which will be operated by insurance and repair company Likewize. The main change is the purchase requirement: before this policy shift, trade-ins to the company have required a new purchase from samsung.com or the company’s app, with the option to start a trade-in only appearing during the checkout process. 

The second change is “year-round” availability. Trade-ins are already available at any time in the US and most other Western markets, but in South Korea they’ve previously been locked to specific windows — usually just after major new product launches like next week’s S25 reveal, for example.

There’s still one big limit to the scheme however: you can only trade in specific Samsung flagship phones. Right now, that’s limited to the Galaxy S20 series through to the S23, and foldables from the Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 through to the Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5. Curiously, last year’s Galaxy S24 and Z Flip/Fold 6 aren’t included, so you can’t sell anything too recent.