People from the UK are often portrayed as being cautious and careful about their belongings, yet theft of what are considered hand-items are the ones most likely to be lost or stolen whilst on holiday abroad. It used to be cameras in the 60s and 70s, now it is mobile phones. It is therefore important to remember when insuring your mobile phone, that you have adequate cover for when you go abroad on holiday or on business.

I do not want to be a statistics junky, but think about this; there are about 40 million mobile phone users in this country alone and there will be 8 million phones lost or damaged. We do not know the exact number lost or damaged abroad, but you can bet that it is about 25-30% of that figure!

The favourite one happened to a friend of mine who is otherwise careful and cautious at home. She had gone to Spain with her husband for a get-away holiday for a week. No kids, just the two of them chilling out.

Within hours of landing and getting settled in at the hotel, they decided to take a stroll along the beach front, perhaps stop at a bar and have a nice stress free drink. They were looking out at a wonderful sunset and decided it would be a nice idea to send a picture of it to their friends back in the UK. Off it went back to the cold UK! They decided to go back to the bar, have another quick drink and then go back to the hotel.

After dinner, they decided to check whether they had received a response from their friends back in the UK to their picture. Well if they had, they would never know, because they had left the handset on the harbour wall after having sent the picture. Was it still there when they rushed back? No such luck! Just another statistic. Another Brit abroad not thinking about what they were doing. Fortunately they had taken the precaution of getting correct insurance cover before they went away, so the handset was replaced when they returned.

It is easy to be critical, but even when insuring your mobile phone in the first place, it is still sensible to remember to keep it safe just as you would when in your own country and not get lulled into a false sense of security especially when doing something as natural as just having a drink on holiday.