What’s the deal?

Orange’s Recycle & Reward scheme pays cash for old mobile phones, laptops and personal music players. The scheme, run through Orange stores, could pay £40 for a laptop, more for some mobiles and a few pounds for CD players.

Sony is offering discounts of up to £150 on its Bravia flatscreen televisions to buyers who trade in an old TV set. And PC World is giving customers who trade in an unwanted laptop up to £100 off a new Windows 7 PC or laptop.

These offers follow the government’s car “scrappage” scheme, which gives discounts of £2,000 on new cars for buyers who trade in vehicles that are 10 or more years old.

Sony’s offer runs through retailers including John Lewis, Comet and Sony centres, with the discount depending on the selected Bravia model. With PC World’s deal, the discount depends on the value of the traded-in laptop.

Is this good?

With the Orange scheme, there is no requirement to spend the cash in-store.

The Sony and PC World discounts could be useful for households looking for, respectively, a new TV or computer.

Any TV brand and even broken sets can be traded in for the Sony discounts. Some retailers will pick up the old TV when they deliver a new set.

What’s the catch?

Even with the scrappage discounts, it may be possible to get a better deal on purchases by shopping around, particularly online.

What’s the alternative?

The British Retail Consortium is calling for the chancellor to waive VAT on energy-efficient appliances and introduce an electrical scrappage scheme in his forthcoming pre-Budget report (PBR).

If you ask, councils must pick up unwanted large electrical products and some may do this for free. A new online tool from Which? also gives information on how to recycle electrical items.

How do I find out more?

Orange stores for Recycle & Reward

www.sony.co.uk/hub/bravia

www.pcworld.co.uk

www.which.co.uk/recycle