This article was published in 2012 and updated in October 2026.
Imagine riding the bus home and suddenly realising your iPhone is gone. Today that’s more than an inconvenience: your phone holds banking apps, Apple Pay, payment apps, passwords and shopping accounts. The apps we recommended in 2012 — including Apple’s MobileMe, which was replaced by iCloud — are long gone, but the iPhone now has excellent built-in protection. Here’s how to keep your financial information safe.
1. Use a strong passcode and Face ID or Touch ID
Your passcode is the key to everything on your phone. Use at least a six-digit code — or an alphanumeric password — and never share it. Face ID or Touch ID make a strong passcode convenient. Be careful when entering your passcode in public: thieves sometimes watch first and then steal the phone.
2. Turn on Stolen Device Protection
With Stolen Device Protection (Settings → Face ID & Passcode), sensitive actions like viewing saved passwords and payment cards or changing your Apple Account password require Face ID or Touch ID when you’re away from familiar locations — the passcode alone isn’t enough. Changing your Apple Account password also involves a one-hour security delay.
3. Pay with Apple Pay
Apple Pay is safer than handing over your card: your actual card number isn’t stored on the phone or shared with merchants, and every payment needs Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. If your phone is lost, you can suspend Apple Pay remotely.
4. Protect your banking apps
- Download banking and payment apps only from the App Store, using the link on your bank’s official website.
- Turn on Face ID login and two-factor authentication in the apps.
- Enable push notifications for every transaction, so you notice unauthorised payments immediately.
- Never store card numbers, PINs or passwords in Notes or as photos — use the Passwords app or a password manager instead.
5. Find My: locate, lock or erase
Find My (formerly Find My iPhone) is free and built in. If your phone is missing, open Find My on another Apple device or at icloud.com/find to see its location, play a sound, mark it as lost — which locks it and suspends Apple Pay — or erase it remotely. Activation Lock stops thieves from setting it up as their own.
If your iPhone is lost or stolen
- Mark it as lost in Find My.
- Call your bank to block your cards and banking access if you think someone might get in.
- Change the passwords of your important accounts from another device.
- Report the theft to the police and your mobile provider, who can block the SIM.
With these protections switched on, your financial information stays safe — even if your iPhone doesn’t. For more tips, see our guide on how to keep your iPhone and iPad secure.
Bharat
Apr 26. 2012
All these are premium apps, also post some free apps too.
admin
Apr 26. 2012
“Find my iPhone” app is free
Abhisek
Apr 26. 2012
I have tried the MobileMe App and it’s worth it 🙂 Will try the other ones too. But our financial is safe until and unless our phone is with us, if it gets lost then the App will do the work!
Rashmi
Apr 27. 2012
First of all, you have to keep your iPhone safe! Then keep your financial (and not only them, personal information as well) one of these programs will do the job. Sometimes it is worth paying the premium service!
Alex
Apr 27. 2012
oh my, 99$?! this is the most expensive app i’ve ever seen!
TracyAnn0312
Apr 27. 2012
Well seems that this application brings me in the field of interest of many people. What are the capacity of having this from keeping financial info safe. Thanks for sharing this another idea in your blog.
Talaash
Apr 27. 2012
Thanx for your robust post dude
well its neccessary to keep your personal data save.
Ashok
Apr 28. 2012
Your post have the information that is helpful and very informative. I would like you to keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing good post.
Dardan
Apr 30. 2012
Thank you for this article brother. I will subscribe to your blog right now 🙂
Thanks
Rich
May 01. 2012
I actually just lost my iPhone a few hours ago. Thankfully it was under the bed, but still, I was worried I had left it at the gym where I had just come from. I’ll definitely be looking into these apps further; I’ve already had my credit card info stolen 3 times in the last year.
Rashmi
May 05. 2012
Wow i imagine how stressful that was. It has happened to me quite a few times and i recently lost 2 mobile phones (not that expensive) because my jacket’s pockets were not deep enough :/
Jane
May 02. 2012
I’ve used Find My iPhone App and it’s great. Helps you track your phone from anywhere. I did try MobileMe if it would have been a little bit cheaper. $99/month is not worth for the data I’ve in mu iPhone. 😉
milsia
May 02. 2012
Hi Andrew Greene, first of all try to safe your iphone by yourself and this app worth $99 and for me expensive but the features of app are very good, i may use it.
Marty
May 04. 2012
There are a lot of great iPhone apps and these are just some of them. Of course, protecting your privacy is most important.
cms
May 04. 2012
really helpful. these steps must be considered in terms of security.
Nicholle
May 09. 2012
Thanks for the advice. Is this applicable to any Android Phones? I would like to put a privacy protection.
admin
May 09. 2012
Search the play store, you may find one !
Rashmi
May 11. 2012
If you cant find the specific application do a web search. You will find enough applications that do about the same job.
riathomas
May 19. 2012
Thanks for sharing such a valuable information. It’s really amazing.
nice sharing it is helpful me good sharing
Yola
May 21. 2012
I just wanted to have a security protection on my phone for I have quite lost my phone inside our office. I don’t know what happen that I lost it.
Adam
May 22. 2012
Highly cooperative! It’s a common occurrence (though unexpected) to loss the important device while traveling. With the loss of a desired device we have to face bigger than it to loose some very important info. This technique is looking very effective to avoid that suffering. Thanks for the support.
lubna
Jun 12. 2012
it is really helpful……….all these steps must be considered in terms of security ………..