My wife has actually lost 2 phones and it was just a matter of logging into my wireless ATT account and deactivating the phone. I bought her a cheap phone off Ebay and ATT sent us a new SIM card.

I would add to your list syncing your phone with your PC you can store all your phone info. There are a number of 3rd party applications that make this pretty painless.

Enter I.C.E. (In Case of Emergency) into your contacts so that when someone (police, fire, restaurant, etc.) finds your phone they know who to call to report it.
People used to leave phones at my restaurant all the time and if they didn’t have ICE on their phone I’d usually call “Mom”
(But then you’re going to get a call from Mom about where you were…haha)

Or you can get an iPhone, which has an online remote turnoff feature you can do yourself.
Also, your phone can have a password so no one has access to your info.
And the best part?
When you sync your phone with your computer all your data is automatically backed up so all you need to do is get a new iPhone, plug it in your computer and all your data gets transferred to your new iPhone.
No manually entering info, etc….
Bliss!

Thanks for a great article.

John DeFlumeri Jr