What should you do if you lose your free sim card?

Bearing in mind how small mobile phone SIM cards are these days, itâs no surprise people end up losing them. Losing your phone can be annoying - after all, phones are expensive pieces of technology - but the real hassle comes when you have to sort out your missing SIM card as well. With a new SIM comes a new number, then you have to let your friends and family know you have a new number - itâs all very time consuming business.

Thankfully, given that a lot of SIMâs come free with mobile phone handsets these days you wonât be losing out on too much money. It may set you back, but as long as you've still got your contract details to hand, you won't run into too much trouble. If you do lose your SIM, go ahead and get in touch with your service provider directly. You can either call them up, and they'll send you out a replacement, or you can pop into your nearest store and get a replacement SIM right there and then.

If you lose the SIM with the phone, which, quite frankly, is far more likely, you'll need to cancel or block the SIM straightaway. If someone has stolen your phone, they might start using it. This is a potentially costly scenario. Often thieves will steal phones and make fraudulent calls - the longer you go without blocking your phone, the bigger your bill can get.

So, if you lose your phone, always get in touch with your service provider as soon as you realised your handset has gone missing. Tell them that your phone has been stolen, and then go ahead and block the SIM. Next, they will either send you out a new SIM, or you can go into the store and get it.

If you only lose your free of charge SIM card, you'll be happy to know that your data will be stored on your phone itself. So if youâre lucky enough to still have your phone, your pictures, contact numbers, videos, and whatever else you have on there. Losing your sim, therefore, isn't a huge problem, while losing your phone and sim together can be enormously frustrating, particularly when you have compiled a lot of data.

So, regardless as to whether you only lose your SIM, or you lose your phone as well, get in contact with your service provider straight away, report your loss, and block your phone. In order to avoid identity theft and abuse of personal connections and data, this should be done immediately. Do this, and you'll limit the damage that can be done if someone starts using your sim.