Will ATT remotely shut down a locked phone used on Cricket?

If you don’t pay it off, the chances are high. It wouldn’t be because it’s locked, ATT locked phones work fine on Cricket. It would be because it’s not paid off. In fact, you might not be able to even activate it on Cricket.

They wouldn’t shut down the phone, as in you couldn’t even turn it on, but could blacklist it, which means it won’t work with any cell carrier.  It could still function on Wifi.

I appreciate the answers, thank you. I thought blacklisted only referred to lost, stolen or fraud cases involving phones. I've tried to unlock the phone with an unlocking website (which didn't work) and I've tried using a sim unlock chip but my current carrier is a CDMA not GSM and my research says sim unlock chips won't work with CDMA like Spectrum and Straight Talk. Any suggestions on how to unlock the phone without the obvious of paying it off?

No one here on an AT&T forum is going help you bypass AT&T’s carrier lock.

AT&T has started blacklisting phones if you skip out on payments.  Arguably, not paying for the phone you bought from them could be considered fraud.

We understand your concern of wanting to unlock your device @BulldogTrucker.

Thank you, @sandblaster and @dwill05 for your positive feedback.

As they are correct, you must complete your contract or installment plan (including early termination fees). Or, pay off an installment plan early. This is one of the many requirements for AT&T to be able to unlock your iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Feel free to review the Device Unlock Requirements for further information.

We hope this helps. Please feel free to reach back out with any other questions.

Ashley, AT&T Community Specialist 

dwill05, thank you for your response. I would prefer to pay off the phone but, losing my job last Nov. makes that impossible for me to do. Thank you everyone. I appreciate your constructive criticism.

Well it's within the realm but I have not seen them do it lately.  With iphones they are easier to blacklist so I won't say they wouldn't do it.

Your current carrier is not CDMA. CDMA has been shut down, there are no CDMA networks operating in the US anymore.

Aside from possibly blocking you from activating that phone on any other service provider, if you don't pay off AT&T they will do one heck of a number on your credit. We see people post here all the time that their credit score took a 200 point dump because of a piddly little bill that they owed their service provider.  

If they already canceled their AT&T service, as stated in the first post, that credit ship has probably already sailed.