Make sure the radio matches your service provider.

Other than that I have done it a couple times. i found refurb from walmart was the best deal but was buying 6plus phones. You can buy refurbs direct from apple now but not sure they have 5s.

Do you have the sim card from old phone? If not you need a sim from your provider to put in the phone.

 

Got one (a 5s) on eBay a few months ago....32GB (unlocked) and the guy even threw in a used Otterbox case that he had. Great Deal!
Cost: $150 + a few dollars for shipping.
Works great

 

What cell service do you use? If it's a GSM service (AT&T, T-Mobile, Straight Talk, metroPCS, and quite a few others)... Just hop on eBay and look for an Unlocked GSM phone.

If you use Verizon or Sprint... I'm not really sure what you'd have to look for... other than phones sold for those services.

 

Got one (a 5s) on eBay a few months ago....

Which dealer did you buy it from? Or was it an individual sale.

What cell service do you use?

Verizon.

 

If I were to do it over again, I would have a non smart phone for communications and a decent tablet for web, email, and whatever apps I felt the need to have.

As far as I am concerned, tablets have rendered smartphones irrelevant.

With a smart phone, you either have to struggle with a small touch screen to use your apps, or deal with a clipboard sized phone stuck to your head when taking phone calls.
And then there is the joy of butt dialing!

Right now I have an iPhone 5s, but only because I mount it on the dash of my Goldwing to have access to weather radar and as a backup GPS. If not for that I would have a flip phone.
I use an iPad mini in a Liifeproof case with a neck strap for everything else.

 

You'll have to find a Verizon phone then I do believe... eBay or Amazon should yield you a decent deal on an older phone like that.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

Make sure the damn thing isn't apple ID locked. No way around that, it's a brick at that point.

 

Used smartphones are the wild west. I would not use ebay or amazon, too many comments about fakes and international software and locking and refurbished phones.

I bought my S3 at Swappa. They at least check the ESN / IMEI to make sure it's clean and require pictures of the devices and certify the sellers. Still there is a risk buying this stuff used, but mine has been flawless and my sister's been through 2 new iphones in the same time period. Use a trusted seller that has many sales and reviews, it is their business instead of just a guy selling a phone.

The other stuff I'm sure you know or can research. GSM vs. CDMA. Locked vs. unlocked, carrier branded vs non, SD card vs. internal memory, removable battery vs. not. Get a good case, love my Otterbox. Good luck.

 

Not really a direct answer but if you want durability, a motorola droid turbo 2 has a shatterproof screen and huge battery. They're an older model so can generally be found cheap. I would not buy a used phone unless you know the person or it's a trade in refurbished from Verizon or Apple.

 

Yeah be sure FindMy iPhone is turned off so that you do not end up unable to use it. That is the biggest thing with phones, if that is on you are not getting in, there is no way around it.