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Statistics show that around 88% of us don’t leave home without our mobile phones. Given that most of us rely on these ubiquitous devices every day losing one can be a disaster.

But mobile phones have become increasingly compact and lightweight and people often misplace them or they fall out of pockets without our knowledge. 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.

There is also the growing and worrying risk of theft. More than 2 million mobile phones are stolen in the United Kingdom every year. This equates to around one every 12 seconds and this figure is on the increase.

Initially, when a phone is lost, there is the cost of buying a new one. But there may be some significant call charges arising between the time when the phone was stolen and when it is 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. Even though most modern mobile phones come with software that makes it simple to transfer data from a phones SIM card to a computer relatively few people do this routinely.

So what steps can be take that will help protect us against loss or theft of our valuable mobile phones?

1. The first thing to do is not to make it easy for a thief to steal your mobile phone. Never ever leave your phone unattended in your car and always store it securely.
2. Make certain to record the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number from your mobile 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. 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.
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 like to engrave your name and your car registration details onto your mobile phone and its battery. Alternatively you might like to use a system for attaching unique serial number stickers to your phone (as provided by trackitback.com) to your mobile phone as this will help identify the phone if it is lost or stolen.
6. It is worthwhile establishing a backup routine, copying your valuable SIM card data to secure storage location as often as possible. As a rule, if you are adding new contacts and appointments or notes to your phone every day you really should be backing up your 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.

Hopefully, by following these simple steps you will avoid becoming one of the 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.

Tags: cellphone, mobile phone, mobile phone insurance, protection

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 11:27 am and is filed under iPhone Mobile Cell Phone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.