Use a Card SIM Reader to Backup Cell Phone Data

If you've ever lost or had your cell phone stolen, you know how devastating it can be to lose all of your contacts and calendar entries. Most of those entries are stored on your SIM card if you have a GSM phone (AT&T and T-Mobile service). So it's a smart idea to back up your SIM card contacts on your computer. You can do this with a card SIM reader.

A card SIM reader is a USB compatible device that you can insert your SIM card into via a slot in the back and then connect to your PC or laptop. It's a cheap, convenient little plug and play tool, similar to a memory stick or SD memory card reader. It comes with software, called a SIM management program, which allows you to perform a number of actions with the card SIM reader (the software capabilities vary).

Read Your Address Book and Transfer to a Computer File

If you have a long list of contacts on your cell phone's you may want to use them in other applications, like the address book on Microsoft Outlook or to use in a Microsoft Word or Excel spreadsheet so that you can send a mailing to your group of friends. The card SIM reader allows you to read your cell phone address book and save it to a file.

Back Up Your Text Messages

Text messages expire from your phone automatically after about 90 days. But maybe you had a long text message conversation with your boyfriend that you want to save it. Or maybe a friend promised to pay you back the money he owes you and you need proof in case you need to take him to small claims court in the future. You can use the card SIM reader to backup these text messages to a computer file.

Write to SIM Card

Some card SIM readers also allow you to write to the SIM card. So you can take a backup file (like texts or contact phone numbers) that's on your computer from one SIM card and transfer it to a new SIM card. Keep in mind that you need to know the PUK pin number (call your cell phone provider for information) for each card in order to access the card information with your card SIM reader.

These are just a few of the key actions that you can perform using a card SIM reader. Bottomline is, if you have a card that accepts SIM cards this is an ideal $10 to $15 investment to make if you want to manage your cell phone's address book, calendar, and text message data.