Lost or stolen phone

If your phone goes missing and you are with Three, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, EE or O2 for mobile services, you should only be responsible for paying up to a maximum of £100 for any unauthorised usage outside of your allowance- if you report your phone as missing within 24 hours.

If you are with Vodafone and you miss the 24 hours but report your phone as missing within five days, you should only be responsible for paying up to £500 for unauthorised usage outside of your allowance. See the Government's announcement here

Always treat your phone as carefully as you would your bank or credit cards.

Take care when using your phone in public, don't let it out of your possession. Make sure you put a passcode on both your handset and SIM to make it more difficult for thieves to use.

These video guides show you how to do this on some popular handsets.

iPhone

Android (ICS, Samsung Galaxy)

Android (4.2, Jelly Bean)

Windows Phone 8

Blackberry

There are a number of other steps you can take to keep your mobile safe and prevent against unauthorised use

• Make a record of your phone's IMEI number, as well as the make and model number. The IMEI is a unique 15-digit serial number which you will need to get the phone blocked. You can get your IMEI number by keying *#06# into your handset or by looking behind your phone battery.
• Consider barring calls to international and premium rate numbers to limit the usefulness of your phone to thieves.
• Some mobile insurance policies may provide some cover for unauthorised use so it is worth checking the terms and conditions of your existing policy, or when considering a new policy.
• You can download an app which can trace your phone if it is lost/stolen and can enable you to wipe details from it remotely - such as findmyiphone and Android device manager.
• Register your phone with Immobilise, a database which helps the Police to identify the owners of property, such as phones, that they recover.

Ofcom's guide on keeping your smartphone secure and the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit are also useful sources of advice on how you can protect yourself from becoming a victim of phone crime.

What if your phone is stolen?

• Contact your provider as soon as possible, try to do this within 24 hours.
• Your provider can then bar your SIM to stop calls being made on your account. Your provider can also stop anyone else from using your phone by blocking its IMEI.
• Remember, if you have mobile phone insurance, you may need to let them know within a certain time frame too.
• If findmyiphone/Android Device Manager was activated on your phone, you may be able to locate your phone and remotely erase content