Lost the phone? Suspend the SIM first
In one line
The order is: suspend the SIM, lock the phone remotely, change email and payment passwords from a computer, file a police report, then freeze cards if you need to. You can call the carrier from a borrowed phone.
What it costs
Free. The whole pass is ten minutes or so.
What you get
Suspending the SIM first removes the inbox for your codes. The FCC also says to lock the phone remotely even if you think it is only misplaced, and to tell the police and the carrier if it was stolen.
How strong the evidence is
Source
U.S. FCC. Protect Your Mobile Device. The order follows book item 14-4.
Watch-outs
The Chinese carrier numbers in the book are not listed. Write down your own carrier’s lost-phone line before you need it. Grade C.
Adapted from HowToLiveBetter item 14-4.
Next habitRelated
Best valueTurn on two-step verification. Prefer the prompt
In a Google study, device prompts blocked over 94% of phishing takeovers and 100% of automated ones. Prompts beat text-message codes. Start with email.
A lock screen on the phone, a PIN on the SIM
A lost phone still has a SIM. Someone can move that SIM and receive your codes. A SIM PIN stops that at the moment they move the card.
The email password is used nowhere else
A password leaked from another site can open your email. Once email is open, every account that recovers through it can fall together.