You may have heard a lot about burner phones over the years as a cheap replacement for a normal phone, but what is it exactly used for, and who uses it these days? If you have similar questions in your mind, I’m going to dig deep into this topic and explain everything about that in this post.
Stay with me for a few minutes, and you’ll learn about the uses, purpose, and where to buy one If you want to purchase it. Without wasting any more time, let’s jump right into it.
What Is A Burner Phone?
A burner phone is a low-cost mobile phone that has been primarily designed for temporary use, and it can be used anonymously for personal and professional reasons sometimes. You can’t access the internet on a burner phone because it doesn’t have the function to access it.
You can use a burner phone only for calls, texts, and nothing more. If you want your ID to be protected by someone you feel threatened in any way, a burner phone is the best way.
Still, in the past years, burning phones have become a main way for criminals for their illegal activity, and I would highly recommend you stay away from doing stuff like that If you don’t want to land in jail anytime soon.
The burner phone is prepaid, and you can dispose of it anytime once you have done the task for which you have bought it. As I said, burner phones come at a very low price tag, and that’s the reason why people prefer it so much when they want to use a phone for a short period.
If you need a phone for a short time and don’t want to spend a lot of money on that, a burner Phone is the way to go but don’t ever misuse it.
It is pretty simple if you are wondering how the name “Burner” came even to exist. The most common use of a burner phone is to use it when they feel it’s a requirement, and after using it for some time, they “Burn it” and that’s how the name of the burner came into existence. I hope now you understand why people call it a burner phone.
Also, I want to mention an important here, Burner phones have a longer battery life than traditional smartphones, which most people are using these days because it doesn’t connect to the internet and requires minimal power to operate it. It is one of the many reasons to use a burner phone over a smartphone.
Are Burner Phones Illegal?
No, not all. Burner phones are perfectly legal if you don’t use them for any illegal purpose, such as threatening someone, blackmailing, or planning to do something illegal. Burner phones are pretty useful If you don’t want to reveal your identity to someone who is blackmailing and threatening you.
The first thing that comes to the mind of a lot of people when they hear about burner phones is it is even “Legal” because you may have seen that people use them so many movies and TV shows like Breaking Bad for illegal purposes; however, using burner phones for a legal purpose is perfectly fine, and there is nothing to be worried about that.
If you want to protect yourself from a hacker so that your personal information doesn’t land in the wrong hands, you must try to use a burner phone, and it’ll surely do the job.
Where To Buy A Burner Phone?
The best way to buy a burner phone is from a local store like a Walmart or Target, but you must buy it only with Cash.
If you are wondering why I suggest you buy a burner phone with cash instead of a credit or debit card, here’s the answer.
“When you buy a burner phone with a credit card/ debit card from a store or purchase it from any online store such Amazon, eBay or Walmart, they can easily track you, which will easily break your anonymity”.
The main purpose of purchasing a burner phone is to be anonymous, and If you want to be that way, you should only buy that with cash which isn’t traceable. You should also avoid buying the burner phone from any website as people with authority to access such websites have data that track you, which I think you don’t want.
The cost of a burner phone is between $10 and $50, and If you want more features, you’ll have to spend a little extra. Still, I would suggest you not do that because there is no purpose in buying burner phones with additional features as you get it as a disposable phone. It would be best if you only used it for calling and texting. That’s it.
Pros And Cons Of Burner Phones:
As everything has advantages and disadvantages, let’s look at the pros and cons of a burner phone.
Pros:
- Comes at an extremely low price.
- It can be used to stay anonymous for personal reasons.
- There is no contract for burner phones, and they are easily disposable anytime you want.
- Battery life is relatively longer than a normal smartphone.
- Easy to carry anywhere you go.
Cons:
- Getting a burner phone sometime might be hard for obvious reasons.
- There is no Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or GPS to navigate a location.
- You can’t access the internet with a burner phone.
If you are okay with these things, you can try a burner phone for your use or else you may need to find any other way to hide your anonymity.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Burner phones don’t have an Internet connection and are not designed to use the Internet at all.
The main purpose of using a burner phone is to be anonymous, and that’s why you don’t get Internet on that. Your location and identity can be easily detected if it gets internet functionality.
There is no limit to keeping a burner phone because you don’t get involved in any contract with a phone carrier, and you can keep using it as long as you want.
One of the best parts of using a burner phone is there is no contract with a phone carrier, and you can use it without any limits.
There are various reasons why someone would want a burner phone, such as to prevent a hacker from hacking your phone, to be an undercover agent, or to hide your identity from someone threatening you.
Apart from that, there are many reasons to use a burner phone for personal and professional purposes.
Burner phones are pretty inexpensive, and you get it for as low as $10 and up to $50.
It also depends on how many minutes and SMS you want to include in the phone, and If you want more minutes, you’ll have to pay a little high price.
Conclusion:
Being anonymous has become a necessity in the modern day for multiple reasons, and one of the best ways to stay anonymous is by using a burner phone instead of a fancy smartphone that can be easily traced in a few minutes. I hope you may have understood what a burner phone is and the purpose of using it from this short and simple post.
If you have any other questions regarding this topic, let me know in the comments below, and I’ll get back to you with your answer very soon. Thank You.
Since 2014 I have been writing about tech and helping others to fix tech issues related to Android, Windows, iOS, Chromebook, and more.
I love to help others to fix any technical issues they might be facing.
