If you’re going on a trip, you’re likely going to bring your phone. If it’s a business trip, you’ll need it for things such as reporting to your bosses back home. If it’s a vacation, you’ll want your phone for taking photos that you can share with loved ones. Smartphones are a common sight around the world. More than half of the 5 billion people with mobile phones have smartphones. These smartphones are an expensive investment. Most people can’t afford to simply buy another one if their original breaks. Before you leave, you need to plan what you’ll do if something happens to your phone while you’re away. Here’s a couple of possible scenarios worth considering.
If your phone breaks
Modern smartphones are pretty sturdy, but they can still break. One report said that two smartphone screens break every second across the United States. That adds up to more than 50 billion cracked phone screens every year. That sounds alarming, but the good news is that an entire phone repair industry has sprung up to help panicked smartphone users who just want their phones to get back to normal.
If you’re traveling in New York City when your phone goes kaput, you don’t have to wait until you get back home to fix it. Look for a same-day repair shop such as uBreakiFix. They’ve got qualified employees who are more than capable of figuring out the problem and patching up your phone. They’ll fix you up regardless of whether you dropped your phone on the subway or dropped it in a puddle in Times Square.
A lot of things can ruin a trip, such as food poisoning or a fight with your traveling companion. But it’s 2019, so your broken smartphone shouldn’t derail anything. The sooner you can get your phone repaired, the sooner you can get back to enjoying your time spent away from home. If your phone gets lost or stolen
Before smartphones, most people didn’t carry around items worth a few hundred dollars in their back pocket or purse. Yet the stakes are higher now. You don’t just have fitness apps and fun games on your phone; you have a significant chunk of your life on that tiny device.
The experts at Consumer Reports say that 3.1 million people had their cell phone snatched in 2013, an increase from 2012. That number has likely gone up in subsequent years. Perhaps more alarming is that 1.4 million theft victims never managed to recover their phones after they were stolen. Stealing a phone isn’t exactly like stealing a grand piano: a phone is portable and easy to hide, and you can’t look at someone and tell they’re carrying it.
Once your phone is out of possession, it’s a lot harder to control what will happen to it. Take steps ahead of time like creating a strong password that’s hard for thieves to crack. You wouldn’t create a weak password for your online bank account, so you also shouldn’t create one for your phone. A passcode that’s four characters is the default for many people, but you should use at least eight characters for maximum security.
Make sure you at least look into smartphone insurance and see if you can find something that covers stolen or lost phones. If that seems too overwhelming, research insurance guides that will clearly lay out your options. You can be cautious and keep an eye on your phone, but you can’t keep an eye on it 100 percent of the time. It only takes a second for someone to grab it and run away. If that happens, make sure you’re protected by insurance.
