By Gail Marsh
What is it that most of us carry no matter where we go? Our smartphones, of course! We may leave our purses or wallets behind, but that smartphone? No way! Where you go, it goes. And for that reason, it’s important that you always keep six critical pieces of information in the form of photos on your phone.
So, what are these photos? Read on to find out.
Six critical photos to keep on your phone
Identification
Driver’s license or official state I.D. card. Take a picture of your official identification. This may be a driver’s license or your state-issued identification card. This card is often needed for proving your identity when picking up a prescription, retrieving prepaid tickets, picking up your child or grandchild from school, writing a check, and more. It’s often easier to pull up a photo of your I.D. than to wrestle the paper version out of your wallet. Plus, if you lose the physical copy, you’ll have a photo on your phone.
Insurance
Health insurance cards. Take a photo of your health insurance cards: medical, dental, and prescription. They’ll be easily retrieved from your smartphone when needed. No more hectic scrambling for cards when you visit your doctor, dentist, or pharmacy.
Auto insurance card. We were happy to have taken a photo of our auto insurance card before our RV was destroyed in a violent windstorm. My purse and my husband’s wallet were both inside our totaled RV and, therefore, not accessible.
Personal health
Prescribed medications. Take a photo of the medicines you take regularly. Refer to the photo when you must relay this information to a doctor, when ordering a prescription, and more.
Vehicles
Vehicle license plates and VIN numbers. This information may be needed if your vehicle is stolen or involved in an accident. Unless you have a “vanity plate,” you probably can’t rattle off the license information off the top of your head. You may need this information when securing insurance, checking into a hotel, and more.
Picture of your RV and tow vehicle. A photo will give law enforcement a jump start in locating a stolen rig (heaven forbid). It may also prove useful if your rig is more than ten years old. Some campgrounds require a photo of older rigs before reserving a campground site for you. If your RV or vehicle has any special defining features (bumper stickers, dents, etc.), make sure you photograph those, too.
These are the pictures I consider critical photos to keep on my smartphone. Can you add to the list?
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RVT1248
Senior National Park Pass
Everything important…..It takes way too long to get items replaced today.
Great suggestions Gail! I keep a lot of those photos already on my phone but going to add the one about medications. I have way too many photos so I made a collection/album just for the important ones and also keep important VIN /license and insurance numbers in the notes section on my phone. Those are particularly handy when registering for a campsite.
Add pet registration, microchip, and current shot records.
Also a good picture of your pet, in case they get lost.
A lot of these items, if not all, can be stored in Google Wallet. I assume Apple has this ability as well.
I didn’t know this. Thanks for the tip.
Not a bad idea with that said if you use your phone like many do to access the internet you also need to consider the information you are putting in picture form where you are storing it on the phone and protection from hackers/scammers.
There is a way to hide those photos in a folder and requires a pin or like many now using facial recognition to access those photos. What we do with ids, credit cards, medical and pup records
Too difficult for this old-er dude. Hard to find any relatives in the 6-10 yr old groups in my family today.
One extra step is to create an album (folder) on iphone and move those images to one secure location in your photos.
In Louisiana we have an app called LAWALLET that allows for some of those pictures, and they are valid as ID.
Also our insurance companies app. shows scannable cards if needed.
I agree that a group of pictures may be quicker to show. Also details matter.
These are great ideas to have handy. I am only an occasional user of the cell fone and only have it as an emergency device. With that said, I marvel at the info and uses I see others get or do. My question is “how do you secure this sensitive info”? Is there a security program or app. Thanks for any advice!
I have notes on my iphone that include all our meds/physician info/lab destinations for both my husband and I. I’ve also done the same type of document for my dog, who is a reactive pet and if something happens – an emergency vet needs to know what best to use to medicate him to treat him. We have a class A motorhome and I keep a note about any codes that get thrown that mysteriously go away as we travel so if we have to go to a truck stop for problems, we can advise what we’ve seen.
Looking on the internet, in several different places, millions of smart phones are lost every year. I believe in paper and ink.
Most phones have a “Medical Info” button for any medical information that you want to include.
It is there for 1st responders use if you are unconscious during a medical emergency.
On my Samsung Galaxy, if you push the Side Button, the Med. Info icon appears.
Tap the icon, and your
Medical info appears.
The phone remains locked for all other features.
Tim
I don’t trust showing anything on my phone to police, ICE or any other law enforcement personal.
I keep photos of my credit cards front/back. If one gets stolen or I lose my wallet, I can call and quickly cancel them.
Good Idea, Thanks.
I’ve always taken all those same items to the library and copied them and put them into my safe in case my wallet vanished.
Pictures on my phone would work too, unless I lost both of them at the same time.