7 Simple Steps to Protect Your Mobile Phone

Statistics show that around 88% of us don’t leave home without our mobile phones. Reliance on these incredibly popular and useful devices means that losing one can result in some serious headaches.

Increasinglly compact and lightweight mobile phones mean that they are easily lost, misplaced or fall out of pockets. There are some interesting statistics from 2008 including: around 200,000 mobile phones were put into washing machines, around 600,000 were dropped down toilets and 55,000 were left in the back of taxis.

Then there is the growing risk of theft. There are over 2 million mobile phones stolen in the UK every year. This means that 1 mobile phone is stolen around every 12 seconds and this worrying trend is on the increase.

When a phone is lost there is, of course, the initial financial headache of getting a new replacement. But there may also be phone bills accrued by a thief between the time the phone was stolen and the time it was eventually disabled. There are also the problems that can be caused by losing contact details and other data from the phone.

It is estimated that fewer than 2 in 10 mobile phone users keep their phone SIM card data backed up to a separate device. Although modern phones come with software that makes it simple to transfer data to a computer still people don’t take advantage of this simple facility.

So what can we each do to protect ourselves and our valuable data against loss or theft?

1. The first thing is to make it difficult for a thief to actually steal your mobile phone. Never ever leave your phone unattended in your car and always store it securely.
2. Make certain you record the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number of your phone. This is a number that is unique to every mobile phone and can be used to disable a phone if it’s been lost or stolen.
3. You can set your mobile phone to only operate after a configured PIN has been entered. This can be a bit of a nuisance but it will prevent a thief from running up substantial bills on your account.
4. Another simple step is to switch your phone to vibrate mode when in a busy public place in order to ensure that nobody else is alerted when your phone rings.
5. You might consider labelling your mobile phone by engraving your name and car registration details onto your phone and its battery. An alternative is to use a system for attaching unique serial number stickers (as provided by trackitback.com) to your mobile phone as this will help identify the phone if it is lost or stolen.
6. Get into the habit of backing up your SIM card data as often as possible. If you are adding new contacts and appointments every day then you should be backing up your mobile phone data every day.
7. Finally, make certain that you have some mobile phone insurance that provides the protection that you need. Not all mobile phone insurance policies are the same so make certain that the one you choose provides the protection that you need.

By following these steps hopefully you and your phone will not become part of future lost or stolen mobile phone statistics.

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You may also like to protect your income with income protection and don’t overlook the need to protect other devices with some useful gadget insurance.