What really is a bad ESN? Does my situation mean I have one on my IPhone?

Do I have a bad ESN? I fully own my phone. I got it through sprint free when I signed up for my plan and we also got a Note 3 for 100 bucks (we paid it upfront ) on the same plan. But we left our provider for AT&T. We did not pay our final bill yet but there's no charges at all for our phones on the bill.
So if we fully own our phones, but did not pay the final bill yet (and is way past due in a collection agency… Unfortunately… ), do we have bad ESNs?

You don't fully own it if you haven't paid your final bill yet. It will eventually become a bad ESN otherwise, and you won't be able to make phone calls on it anymore, but once you pay off the final bill you will be clear.

  • What does it mean if an iPhone has a bad ESN and can I buy it? My iPhone 5s was stolen and Verizon as usual is not taking any pity from anyone nor would they offer me a replacement at a discount so if I want the replacement I would have to buy it at full price. I looked online on ebay and saw some iPhone 5s that were really cheap selling but when I look it says bad ESN. I read somewhere that you can't activate this with your provider is that is the case. Is this true and what exactly is bad ESN on an iPhone?
  • Is buying a iPhone with Bad ESN bad? I want to buy an iPhone 4 or 4s but it says bad esn. I'm not going to activate the phone to any provider. I just want it for Wi-Fi for home use. Is it bad to buy it or okay?
  • If your iphone have a bad ESN can you connect to Wi-Fi and download like a ipod? Because i saw that a iphone i want online has a bad ESN but will i still be able to connect to Wi-Fi and download games and more like song and just use it as a ipod cause i have a ipod well 2 but i want a iphone just to say i have one and i don't want to activate it so i don't care if the Esn is bad or not i just want to know if i can connect to Wi-Fi and stuff?
  • I have an iphone with bad esn. What happens if i jailbreak it? The iphone has a balance of 1000 dollars on it. It wasn't mine before but i want to keep it and connect it into my phone line. I have sprint. Does jailbreaking give me a nrw serial number? If not how can i get a new serial number?