Dead cellphone - lessons learned

First thing that I learned was that without my phone I can't do anything at work, banking, medical, or most online shopping. Everybody has my number and wants to authenticate my by sending a text.

I had to buy a new phone with the old number.
Young people with smartphones are thinking, "My Address book is in the cloud, no biggie.". Well, I'm not young, and my phone wasn't that smart. It was dead.

I might've set up a Google account years ago, but I didn't know how to access it. Took me a week to remember it. Address book restored! This was great, but it got me thinking, what if I lose my phone or forget my account information? My wallet too. What if I lose it?

I'm thinking it's a good time to buy an old fashioned address book and start filling it with contact information. Call people, get their address, maybe I can start sending Christmas cards again.

Wallet would be a nightmare if lost. Less so if I knew what was in it. Cards, ID, licenses, permits,
Access cards. That stuff would be hard to replace especially since I can't remember half of what's in there.

30 minutes at a Xerox machine and I'll have it all copied, front and back. Lock it in the safe. Update it occasionally.

Prepared. That's what it's all about.

 

Wife was in nursing home and I had to do the paper work for Medicaid in case we run out of money, $11,300 a month for my cost. She has since passed so it didn't get to that point, but I had to show papers to apply.

Marriage license, car titles, house deeds, last 5 years of checking account, 401k, cash on hand, income, birth certificate, all reacuring bills, all insurance payments, tax payments, any gifts or property sales or transfers in last 5 years, and a whole lot more. Yep keeping good records and keeping track of things is a really good idea.

 

Being old, retired, disabled and homebound, my smartphone is my only connection to the outside world. I do all my bill paying and financial needs on it, as well as communication with friends and family and entertainment. Once my phone had a battery-swelling issue due to overheating, threatening to leave me with no comms. I bought a second smartphone, on a different carrier. I then replaced the bad phone. Now I use one for all "official" needs and the other is my backup, with all the same apps. At times, I have had trouble with each phone - service outage, phone OS getting old and no longer wotking on certain updated apps, etc. But I always have the other to fall back on. I even have a couple newer 5G phones now as backups for when these current phones get too outdated. I just change the SIM cards and activate the new one - ten minutes has me back online, though reinstalling all the apps can take longer. I'm a 68 year old geezer, if I can do it anyone can. I also don't spend a grand or more for the latest whizzbang topline model. I usually pay around $250 per phone, a generation or two behind the current ones.
I also took an idea from my late Mother - I have a small bound book with blank pages, in which I have enterred important info. Financial accounts, utility accounts, Urls/logins/passwords for various online sites, family members info/phone numbers, etc. It's come in very handy at times. On one hand I hate being so dependent on these gadgets, but on the other hand, they do make life easier for us Auld Pharts. I don't have TV, landline phone or home internet, so this is the best I can do. But as with other aspects of prepping, always have backups!

 

PASSWORDS! The bane of my existence. I started a system two years ago after my phone crashed due to an Apple update and I lost everything. Every 6 months I open notepad on the computer and make a list as I change the passwords. Print two copies, one in the safe and one hidden out in the radio room. Keeps me on my toes for changing passwords too.
I hate electronic storage. History will remember us as the generations that digitized everything and then lost it forever. Come to think of it, was there another civilization before us, maybe even more advanced, that died off and we have no idea why because all of their history was on their computers?

 

a printed list of regular accessed internet sites are also a good idea - my drop down links also have phone #s and account info as part of the labeled title .......

 

every year or so, take a picture of the contents of your wallet, spread out where it's all readable.
A password manager like BitWarden keeps a lot of info. An entry for this website, for example, has a link to the site, my username and password, any recovery codes or secret questions and answers, a passkey if there is one, in fact it knows my password because it created it, I have no idea what it is. It has entries for each credit card with phone number to call in case of lost or stolen card, the website to disable the card, etc.
All I need to remember is the password for the password manager. If it uses a PIN from an authenticator, there will be backup recovery codes in case I lose the device with the authenticator on it.
I've been led to believe that the "security" of receiving a code in a text message is BS, it isn't secure at all, so if I can I use an authenticator app, and if that isn't offered I'll use "send a code to my email". I gather it's probably not much better, but I have considered it at least.
[ETA]
and yes, a notebook with the password to the password manager, with it's recovery codes, and some other things is stashed away. That is a good place to put addresses and phone numbers, insurance policies, account numbers, etc. but passwords will change often enough that it'll quickly get behind.
Since there's not a whole lot of info filling up this notebook, it does no harm to write everything in there twice, to make sure it's all readable.
And there's a copy of that in another stash.

 

Hmm...you are definitely correct. I have backed up my phone contact list. I do it about every 3 month so. Since my phone takes an SD micro card for extra storage, I back it up there plus I place a copy on my computer. I suppose my wife phone would have be to use to cover me to pay bills and etc. which is good thing to have. However, losing my phone would shut me down solid since almost everything has a 2-step authentication...which I have always wondered about since bad guys can spoof your number. All my passwords are different for every account, make no sense and are saved on USB flash drive with AES 256 encryption and self-destructs if password is entered 6x incorrect. I have 3 of these drives and I need to get one off site...need to think about that and get it done.

This was a very good post to make people think about their security. I am now going to go back up my contact list and get that flash drive off site.

 

I guess I am even more in the Stone Age. Well, paper age. I have always had a printed address book and have written down all passwords, phone numbers, etc. I have never kept excessive personal information stored on a computer. Never owned a "smart" phone and don't want one. Just a flip phone I only got in 2021 for roadside emergencies. Currently don't have a landline - what I call the "real phone" but want to get one again. I even have an old Western Electric rotary dial phone I wanted to use as a landline, but since the old analog phone systems have been made obsolete over digital ones, I unfortunately can't use it.

 

Yep, Apricorn, that's what I have. I am on my 6th one. I had only one fail due to a battery finally getting too old to take a charge. Excellent product and the only thing I will use.

 

i have not had a cell phone, smart or other wise for two years. i b/u my passwords and websites as a csv file on a thumb drive. what i get with a smartphone is not worth what i would give up.

 

I really miss the days of no cell phones. I could get my first assignment and go work on it until done, then call (on a land line) and get my next assignment and go do it. No interruptions, no checking email, no passwords, no online banking or bill pay. No employees taking a two hour dump because they are scrolling NSABook. Maybe even the best thing, the wife couldn't call and have me pick up this or that on my way home. Suddenly you're not on the way home, you are on your way to the store. Cellphones have set back productivity in this country by 100 years.

 

i had not heard of them. the usb for 170 looks interesting.thanks