7 Simple Steps to Protect Your Mobile Phone
Statistics show that around 88% of us don’t leave home without our mobile phones. Clearly reliance on these devices means that losing one can be a real nightmare.
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.
We must also consider the very real possibility that a phone may be stolen. More than 2 million mobile phones are stolen in the United Kingdom every year. This means that around one is stolen every 12 seconds and this frightening figure 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. Then there is the impact of lost data, especially contacts.
It has been estimated that as few as only 1 in 5 mobile phone users bother to back up their SIM card data to a separate secure storage device. Although most phones come with software that makes it easy to backup data from the phone to a computer few people take advantage of this.
So what steps can we take to help keep hold of our mobile phones?
- The first thing is to make it difficult for a thief to actually steal your mobile phone. Never leave your mobile phone unattended in the car and always keep it secure in a closed handback or backpack.
- Make certain to record the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number from your mobile phone. This is a unique number applied to each and every mobile phone that can be used to disable the mobile phone in the event that it is lost or stolen.
- You can set your mobile phone to only operate after a configured PIN has been entered. Having to enter a PIN each time you want to use your phone can be a bit of a nuisance but it will prevent a thief from running up significant call charges on your account.
- 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.
- You might like to engrave your name and your car registration details onto your mobile phone and its battery. Alternatively there are systems 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.
- It is worthwhile establishing a backup routine, copying your valuable SIM card data to secure storage location 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.
- 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.
Hopefully you and your mobile phone will not become one of the future lost or stolen 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.
