Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Case

January 09, 2014

I recently saw someone with a cell phone case that doubled as a sort of wallet. It had an opening to keep cards and cash so everything you need is in one place. At first, that seemed pretty neat. Who wouldn’t want to simplify their life?

But then another thought quickly dawned on me. What would you do if your cell phone was lost or stolen? Suddenly, you’ve lost not just your phone but your wallet and everything in it too. Not only could you not contact anyone, you may not be able to buy anything either. That’s a pretty good reason to put up with the minor inconvenience of having a separate wallet or money clip. Here are some other ways to protect yourself from such calamities:

1) Protect your smartphone with a password. If your phone is lost or stolen, you don’t want anyone to have access to your financial accounts or to any information that could be used to steal your identity.

2) Enable remote wiping on your smartphone. This allows you to delete all the data on your phone from anywhere if it’s lost or stolen.

3) Put your contact info on the lock screen. Of course, not everyone who finds your phone will want to do you harm. Many will want to return it to you but they’ll need a way to contact you to do that. In that case, the few seconds it takes could save you a lot of money.

4) Install an anti-virus app. Yes, they make viruses for smartphones now and some of them can be used to steal passwords and other sensitive information.

5) Be careful of where you use debit cards. Debit cards often lack the fraud protection of credit cards and a thief could clear out your entire bank account. For those reasons, I don’t like using debit cards anyplace I have to swipe it outside like gas stations, where thieves can install card skimmers to steal your card numbers, anyplace where someone walks away with my card, or anywhere online. Credit cards make more sense in those situations since your loss due to fraud is limited to $50.

6) Use an RFID-blocking wallet. These can protect your cards from electronic skimming, in which the thief can steal your card data just by being in the vicinity.

7) Carry some cash but not too much. Cash can be useful in case there’s a problem with your card or if power outages make credit and ATM cards useless. But cash can also be lost or stolen without any protection at all so don’t carry more than you can afford to lose.

8) Don’t carry the credit card you use for automatic payments. If you have a credit card with automatic payments, do leave home without it. Otherwise, if that card gets lost or stolen, at best you’ll have the hassle of changing the credit card information with all those billers. At worst, you may miss some and have to pay late payment fees or even potentially have your credit score impacted.

9) Place a security freeze on your credit reports. In case someone does get access to your information, a security freeze will prevent them from opening new credit in your name without a PIN that you setup. Unlike commercial identity protection services, there’s no monthly fee. Depending on your state, you may simply have to pay a nominal fee every time you freeze and unfreeze your credit reports. You can learn how to do this here.

10) Get free credit monitoring. This way, if something does happen to your credit, you’ll learn about it and can start fixing it as soon as possible. Sites like Credit Karma and Credit Sesame offer credit monitoring for free.

How about you? Is there anything else you do or have heard of to protect your phone and cards from thieves? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.