How to trade in your iPhone 8 for an iPhone X

Your iPhone 8 ($849.00 at Apple) is the latest and greatest iPhone right now, but it won't be shortly when the iPhone X is released. Are feelings of buyer's remorse starting to creep in? You aren't alone. iPhone 8 trade-ins are a thing. Here's what you need to know about swapping out your iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus ($981.00 at Amazon.com) for the iPhone X.

You'll have to pay it off

If you purchased your iPhone 8 on an installment payment plan, then you will need to pay off the balance before you can sell it. If you're in the iPhone Upgrade Program, you can upgrade but will need to do a little legwork.
Read the Terms & Conditions of the Upgrade Program and you'll notice that the Early Upgrade Option states you can make advance payments to become eligible six months after enrolling. That means iPhone 8 owners, who are only a month or so into their upgrade program, would need to wait nearly another five months before becoming upgrade eligible.
That didn't seem right to me, so I called my local Apple Store and asked a representative if I could upgrade my iPhone 8 as soon as the iPhone X is released. The rep informed me that, yes, I could upgrade as soon as the iPhone X hits, but I would need to call Citizens One (1-888-201-6306) to pay off my loan. And after paying this sum to bring me up to the equivalent of 12 installment payments, I would be upgrade eligible and could trade in my suddenly outdated iPhone 8 for the shiny and new iPhone X.

Back up, then erase

Before you box up your iPhone 8 and ship it off, you need to prepare it for sale by removing your personal information. Here's what to do:
If you have an Apple Watch ($900.00 at Amazon.com), unpair it from your iPhone. Open the Watch app, tap the My Watch tab, tap your watch, tap the little "i" button next to it and then tap Unpair Apple Watch.
Perform one last backup of your iPhone to iTunes or iCloud so you have a recent profile to grab when setting up your new iPhone X.
Sign out of both iCloud and iTunes & App Store. Open Settings, tap your profile at the top, scroll down to the bottom and tap Sign Out.
Erase your personal information. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.

Gather the accessories

Since you've had the iPhone 8 for only a month or so, it shouldn't be too difficult to gather all of the accessories that came with it. Here's the list:

• EarPods with Lightning Connector
• Lightning-to-USB Cable
• Lightning-to-3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter
• USB Power Adapter