Dear LPG,

I am not sure if anyone has written about this subject before but I have been thinking about a few other ways that your mobile phone can be of help to you. 

The other day I went out for the evening and my car broke down.  I had one of my smarter handbags with me and had left all my plastic cards at home but because I had my mobile phone where I keep copies of many of my little plastic cards, I was able to find the RAC one and all was well.  I am sure that they would have found my details without the information on the card but the picture also has their telephone number on it which made calling them that much easier.   The picture really helped in a situation where it would have taken me so much longer to get the result without the information pictured on the card. 

Ever since I have had a smartphone, I have always kept a picture of things like passes just in case I need the numbers or codes when I am out and forget to take the original with me. 

When you take a look at the number of store cards, cards that allow entry into places like the local gym or swimming pool, gift vouchers cards, library cards, rail cards, season tickets and freedom passes we seem to have so many bits of plastic and identity cards that we need to carry around and that we can potentially lose when we are out and about.   I have to say that I feel safer having the picture with the real document left safely at home, especially when it comes to carrying things like my passport around with me.

I was talking to a friend the other day who pointed out that, as far as he knew, having a photocopy of some cards, is illegal.  He was talking about driver’s licences and passports in particular.  This got me looking up the facts on the internet and what I found was really just limited to the more important cards that we have.  I also found it all a little confusing because you are never quite sure which country the information comes from and national laws vary somewhat.

But I think that the point is that if you are going to take pictures of your cards it is important that they look like pictures and not an attempt to create a copy of the original.  From what I have learned there is nothing to stop you taking a picture as long as you realise that you can’t expect anyone to accept the information on it.

One thing to note is that it is important not to let anyone else get hold of the information on your cards; there are so many situations where you can have passed the serial numbers over the phone these days, especially with debit and credit cards. I still think that it is helpful to take a picture of such cards as long as you keep it for your own use and it doesn’t look like an attempt at a forgery.

You can tell mine because I am usually holding the card when I take the picture and my thumb gives it away…

KY, Forest Hill

KY shares a little related information…

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