Cricket, Boost Mobile, Straight Talk and Tracfone unlock policies in 2026

Prepaid phones are where the lock bites hardest. They are cheap at the counter because the carrier expects a year of service to pay for the subsidy, so every prepaid brand holds the lock for as long as the industry code allows: one year. This page covers the four brands that show up most on a repair or buyback bench, with the rule in each brand's own words where we could read it, and a clear flag where we could not.

Last reviewed 2026-10-28. Written for shops by STACKS. Not affiliated with any carrier.

The ceiling for all of them is the CTIA Consumer Code, under which carriers "upon request will unlock prepaid mobile wireless devices no later than one year after initial activation, consistent with reasonable time, payment or usage requirements" (source, FCC order DA 26-43 footnote 11). In 2026 every brand below sits at or near that ceiling.

Cricket Wireless (AT&T)

Cricket's Device Unlock Policy was revised on July 1, 2026. Cricket will unlock a device on request if (source):

• the device "has been active for at least 365 days of paid service on that device";
• it "is designed for use on and is locked to Cricket's network";
• it "has not been reported lost or stolen"; and
• it "is not associated with a fraudulent account".

Deployed military personnel who cannot reach 365 days can have one device unlocked with acceptable deployment verification (source). Cricket reserves the right to deny any request it concludes "may result in abuse of this policy or assist in any way in an effort to perpetrate fraud", and to change the policy without notice (source).

Note the change. Guides written before mid 2026 still describe a six month rule, with a request by phone, chat or the My Account settings page (source). As of the July 2026 revision the clock is 365 days of paid service, counted on that specific device, so a phone that sat in a drawer for six months of its year does not qualify.

Boost Mobile

Boost publishes its Unlocking Policy with separate postpaid and prepaid rules (source):

Postpaid. Boost says it unlocks a postpaid device once any financing plan is complete, and right away if the device was paid in full at purchase. Either way Boost unlocks remotely within two business days of qualification, with no fee, and notifies the customer if a remote unlock is not technically possible.

Prepaid. For current and former customers in good standing, Boost will unlock a prepaid device "one (1) year after initial activation, after a reasonable time, and after you have met all payment or usage requirements", again automatically within two business days. "Reasonable time" and "payment or usage requirements" are defined: any financed prepaid device balance must be paid off in full; an account in suspended status at the one year mark does not qualify until it is out of suspension; and a device already unlocked at the customer's request, for example for international travel, is not automatically unlocked again at one year.

Two further lines matter for shops. Boost says "We're not able to unlock Devices from other carriers", and it may refuse any request it believes "would result in an abuse of these policies ... or that it is part of an effort to defraud us or our customers" (source). Customers who believe they qualify can call 833-502-6678. Deployed military personnel can request an international SIM unlock by the same number.

Straight Talk and Tracfone (Verizon Value)

These two brands, with Total Wireless, Simple Mobile and Walmart Family Mobile, came to Verizon in the 2021 TracFone acquisition. The merger condition forced Verizon's 60 day automatic unlock onto them, and from November 23, 2021 a Straight Talk phone on Verizon's network unlocked itself 60 days after activation (source).

The FCC waived that condition on January 12, 2026 (source), and the brands changed policy within days. As reported (source; source):

• Phones activated on or after January 20, 2026 are unlocked on request after 365 days of paid and active service. Inactive periods pause the count. The device must be powered on and working, must have had qualifying airtime purchased and redeemed on that device, and must carry no lost or stolen report.
• Phones activated on or before January 19, 2026 stayed on the earlier track, automatic unlock 60 days after activation and 60 days of paid service.

This "reverts TracFone's policy back to what it was before it was purchased by Verizon in 2021" (source). The parent policy on verizon.com confirms the direction: Verizon prepaid devices "will remain locked to the network until the completion of 365 days of paid and active service" (source).

Unverified: the shared Verizon Value unlock policy page sits behind a bot wall and returned no text when we tried to read it on 2026-10-28, so the January 20 cutover date and the exact wording above come from press coverage and forum quotations of that page, not the page itself. The 365 day figure is consistent across every source and matches the parent Verizon policy.

How the four compare

For the three national postpaid carriers see T-Mobile and Metro, AT&T and Verizon.

What this means for a trade-in desk

A prepaid phone under a year old is locked on the carrier side. The 365 day clock is a condition the carrier applies to the IMEI; there is no qualification to claim early. The carrier does not unlock it early. Our services for these brands, and the condition each one applies, are listed near the top of this page as The STACKS App sells them.

A prepaid phone past its clock is often still locked. Cricket and the Verizon Value brands unlock on request, not automatically, so a two year old Cricket phone that nobody ever asked about arrives locked even though it qualifies. Boost pushes the unlock, but only to a device that was on the network at the time. These paid off, account holder gone devices are the wholesale unlock case: the IMEI goes in and comes back permanently unlocked.

Check the pedigree before you buy. Prepaid brands tie the lock to paid service on that device, and a phone that was never activated, or was activated and abandoned, does not qualify no matter how old it is. A prepaid phone with a financed balance (Boost offers financing) is locked until it is cleared (source). And a lost or stolen report blocks every brand above. Run the free CTIA check described on the financed and blacklisted page first.

Value the gap honestly. Swappa's October 2026 data puts the trade-in gap between unlocked and carrier locked phones at 25 to 57 percent with a typical 32 percent (source). On a $150 prepaid Android that is $35 to $50, which may or may not clear the unlock cost; the arithmetic is on locked vs unlocked value.

If it is your own phone

Call the brand. Cricket, Boost (833-502-6678), Straight Talk and Tracfone all unlock free once the device qualifies, and Boost will usually have done it already (source). Unlock STACKS sells to approved businesses; see how approval works.

Questions shops ask

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