How I lost my cell phone and what you can do if you lose yours

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When I hung out with my friends on Saturday, I somehow or somewhere dropped or left my cell phone. I never realized how stressful it could get when you lose the things you take for granted. I felt really stupid because my mom kept telling me to watch out because my cell phone is very small and smooth so it could pop out of my pocket really easily. No matter how geeky its going to look, i’m going to invest in a belt clip so my phone will never slip out.

Anyway, I found my phone! I left it at the apartment lounge downstairs and someone turned it into the management office. The thing is I had my phone for maybe 2 weeks. Its the LG Fusic phone which retails for $350 dollars without a plan at sprint so it could tempt a lot of people to just keep it and sell it or make international calls. I’m glad that people in the complex are honest. Read this story about a lost cell phone in new york and you’ll understand why i’m glad that there are honest people here.

So after I momentarily lost my phone but about 24 hours, I went about thinking about what we all can do when something like this happens so we don’t end up spending too much money to replace our phone or pay for fraudulent phone calls!

1. if you are concerned that someone may use your phone to make 5000 dollars worth of international calls, immediately report it stolen: you are responsible for all calls made to your phone regardless of the fact that it was made my someone else until you report it stolen! By law your credit card cost is 50 dollars if it is lost and people rack up charges but there are no laws like that for cell phones. Read this story on CBS news about this exact event. A way to check if people are using your phone is that a lot of plans give you online access to your account, check the minutes and if they go up…then you have a crook that has your phone!
2. try to look for a new phone to replace your phone or cancel your plan: I’m not sure if a lot of people buy insurance for their phones but at sprint it costs 7 dollars a month and if you had this policy for the full 2 years it would run you $168 dollars. Sprint also has a 50 dollar deductible if you lose your phone also. It is cheaper though than if you lost your phone and bought it again from your carrier if you had a LG Fusic that cost 350 dollars. You could just cancel your plan for 150 dollars to 200 dollars which would be cheaper than buying that 350 dollar phone you got for 10 dollars or for free.
3. you can also buy a used phone or replacement phone. there are websites out there that specialize in factory unlocked phones so that you can immediately use it. The key to this however is that you need to know that some companies use GSM (Global Systems for Mobile communications) and others use CDMA (code division multiple access) which are different standardizations for transmission. You need to know that if you buy a GSM phone you can only use it for GSM phone companies. You can’t buy a GSM phone and use it for you cell carrier if they use CDMA. Make sure before you buy your phone. Here is an interesting article on the difference b/w GSM and CDMA.
   1. GSM companies = AT&T, Cingular (now AT&T), T-mobile
   2. CDMA companies = Sprint, Verizon

   Daydeal.com has some good deals for new unlocked phones that is expensive but cheaper than if buying directly from your company. Note that daydeal has a lot of GSM phones so it may be harder to find a sprint or verizon phone. Be care about buying a used phone though because it may be stolen and a lot of stolen phones are “locked” meaning that if they were reported stolen, it can never to unlocked. I’m not too knowledgeable about the whole locked , unlocked thing but ebay has some advice about buying used phones

If anyone else has any advice on the topic of lost phones, I would love to hear them. Thanks for reading

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