I have a bit of advice for you today if you use a credit or debit card to pay for things online.
If you do, I’m sure you’ll know that your bank now has to confirm most of the payments you make, either by calling you, sending you a text message with a code in, or using an “authenticator” app on your phone. Now that’s all well and good until your phone gets lost or stolen!
If you find yourself without access to your phone number, it can put you in a bit of a pickle.
I just lost my phone (don’t ask) and I couldn’t order a replacement phone, or anything else for that matter, online because I couldn’t get past the bank’s security checks to pay. I’d ordered a replacement SIM card which would have my old number on it (so this was only a temporary problem) but they were pretty slow about getting it to me.
So here’s what I’ve done to try and protect myself from that issue in the future. I dug out a spare old (non-smart) phone that I’ve had for donkey’s years – I’m a bit sentimental about it so I’ve never thrown it out. Then I’ve ordered a pay as you go (PAYG) SIM from a company called RWG – they’re Welsh, but you can use them anywhere in the UK. They’re one of the very few companies that still offers straight-forward PAYG. The credit never runs out, you don’t have to top it up every three months or anything like that.
Then I’ve given this new number to my bank as a back-up. That way if I’m ever without access to my main number again, I’m not locked out of online payments.
You might want to do something similar.
We had a great time during Life Story Week – thank you for all your lovely comments
Life Story Week is finished now (thank you!) but if you want to come back and read the articles again, or you missed them last week, we’ll be leaving the page up – for a while at least. Here’s the link to the main Life Story Week page again.
I won’t be mentioning the articles again in my newsletters, but please feel free to pass on the link to anyone you think might be interested.
This is also the last time I’ll mention the book that inspired our little week-long event – Don’t Lose Your Story. If you fancy having a go at writing your own story, our book takes you through all the stages one step at a time. Everything from coming up with the ideas and planning your project, to sharing the finished article with your friends and family – find out more about how it could help you, here.