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How to Buy a Burner Phone

Here's how to keep in touch with voice and text while remaining (relatively) anonymous.
By Lifehacker Staff
An illustration of "match" lit with a construction paper flame being held to a "candy bar" style cell phone
Credit: Marie Maerz, Photo: David Stewart - Shutterstock

If want to remain as anonymous as possible while still keeping in contact with the broader world, consider buying a burner phone. It’ll cost a little cash, but keeping yourself a little less connected is worth it for many reasons, whether you want to avoid a mobile contract with a big company or you have...private reasons of your own.

(A word of caution: while burner phones may offer a level of privacy that “normal” phones do not, they are not wholly untraceable.)

What is a burner phone?

A burner phone—if the name didn’t give it away—is a phone that someone buys with no intention of keeping or using over the long term. Burner phone companies don’t track personal data, and burners can be purchased with cash—for both the phone and a prepaid plan—so you can walk out of a store and start calling and texting with no credit card or address connecting you to your phone.

When is it a good idea to use a burner phone?

I’m sure you’re an upstanding, law-abiding person, so I won’t detail the potential illicit uses for a burner, but here are some above-board scenarios where a burner phone might come in handy:

  • You’re going somewhere where your real phone might get stolen or damaged.

  • You’re concerned that authorities are overstepping their bounds and might target you for constitutionally protected activity like protesting.

  • T=You want to save money on the handset. (You can get a burner for very cheap compared to an iPhone, even though pre-paid plans are generally not a good bargain if you’re using them for awhile.)

  • You’re traveling and don’t want the hassle of caring for your expensive phone.

  • You haven’t got a credit card or bank account.

  • You want a backup in case your primary phone stops working.

  • For an emergency, as you can dial 911 on a burner that doesn’t even have a SIM card.

  • To disconnect yourself from the time-sink of a smartphone but still be able to communicate.

  • To give to a child as a “first phone” to see if they can handle the responsibility.

  • You’re just really into personal privacy.

If you just need a temporary number, use a burner app

There was once a case for using a burner phone if you were trying to avoid spam that comes with posting your number online for some reason—like trying to sell a futon on Craigslist. While burner phones are still a way of getting a second phone number, there are apps, both free and paid, that accomplish the same thing. Try “Burner” as a starter, for iPhone and Android, if all you need is another set of digits to give out to potential dates or something.

How to buy a burner phone

How you purchase a disposable phone—and a prepaid plan to go with it—can range from tin-foil-hat paranoia to “reasonably private” levels of anonymity. For most people buying a burner, the “pretty good” privacy afforded by not being connected to your handset will be enough, but you could go ultra-anonymous and pay someone else cash to purchase the physical phone and a gift card for you, then use that gift card to buy Bitcoin, and then use Bitcoin to buy a prepaid SIM. That seems like a lot of work though.

Getting some money, heading to a Wal-Mart and purchasing a burner phone—or a burner phone with a prepaid SIM already installed—is a reasonable compromise between ultra-privacy and convenience. (You can even wear a hat and sunglasses—alongside your mask, naturally—if it helps you feel better.)

Keep your eyes on the prize: A true “burner” isn’t a phone with features; it’s a phone that is incredibly cheap and will allow you to call and a text. That’s it. If it even has a “display” that you tap, rather than simpler menus you navigate with buttons—we’re talking a smartphone versus an old-school flip phone, basically—consider yourself lucky. But you don’t really need even that level of sophistication for most burner uses, unless you think it’ll help you text a lot faster.

What should I look for in a new burner phone?

If you’re looking for a phone you can use and then disassociate yourself from forever, you want something cheap that you won’t care about. You can save yourself some trouble if you pick up a burner phone that comes with a prepaid SIM. You’ll still have to activate your prepaid service somehow—something you should do with a separate phone number, rather than online, if you’re privacy-conscious—and make sure to be creative with the details you’re required to provide as part of the activation process.

Where can I buy a burner phone?

You can buy burners just about anywhere. I mentioned Walmart above only because Walmart is everywhere and they carry burner phones, but you can also try looking at local convenience stores like Rite Aid, your nearest 7-Eleven, any kind of “dollar” store, supermarkets, Target, Metro PCS, etc. Expect to pay around $10–$40 for the phone and to purchase a prepaid plan on top of that.

If you’re at the store, the prepaid plan—or “phone card”—should come from the same company whose phone you purchased, simply as a matter of convenience. Otherwise you could opt for something like the OneSimCard, which you’ll can refill online using Bitcoin or credit card gift cards—not your regular credit card if you want to keep more anonymous. Other solid options (and the networks they work with) include:

Once you’ve got the phone and your plan, you’ll have to do some activating to link the two together. If you’re diligent about protecting your privacy, you could make a burner email for this process and do it over a VPN/Tor at your local coffee shop. Don’t use your credit card at any point in this process, and try not to associate anything you’re doing with your burner phone to any preexisting accounts. Although for most of the purposes listed above, this is overkill.

If you need help with deeper privacy-protection, check out this overly comprehensive Reddit thread that walks you through a typical (very anonymous) process of buying a burner phone. Honestly, though, it’s not hard to do. Just remember the basics:

  • You’re buying a very cheap phone that you can throw away when you’re done.

  • You’ll need some kind of prepaid service as well—ideally a card you buy and activate with your device, not a monthly plan you sign up for. (It wouldn’t be very anonymous to tie your cell service to your regular credit card.)

  • Whenever possible, pay in cash or use cash to buy credit card gift cards, Bitcoin or some other currency you can use to purchase your phone and calling plan anonymously.

How traceable is a burner phone?

Tracking your phone’s whereabouts is still going to be relatively easy for authorities if they have a reason to care, but if you’re trying to disassociate yourself from the phone, don’t install anything on it that would tie it to your identity—a social media app, for example, if your cheap-o phone even supports them. Don’t carry your burner phone around as an everyday device if you don’t want to be connected to it, as doing so will tie the phone’s whereabouts to locations you typically frequent (likely with your “real” phone in your pocket, too).

To stay as private as possible, you’ll want to keep your phone turned off until you’ve left your house and are in a location where you plan to actually put it to use. When you’re done, turn the phone off again. If you don’t plan on using its Bluetooth connection or wifi connection, you can turn those settings off too (if possible).

Don’t think of your burner phone as an “alternative phone” to your primary device, think of it as a dumb instrument for texting and calling, or an “emergency only” device. Disable any communications-related features that don’t relate to texting or calling. If your burner phone is fancy enough and it runs some form of Android, you could even go so far as to install a Google-free OS on it instead. Or just get a cheap flip phone, which will give you much less to worry about, since all you’ll be able to do with it is text and talk.