Losing a smartphone is a common but stressful experience, and one of the biggest risks is that the device's digital wallet gives an unauthorised person access to payment cards, loyalty accounts, tickets, car keys and even a digital ID. Fortunately, users can remotely disable this access from another device such as a tablet, laptop or a family member's phone, without needing to physically recover the lost handset immediately.

The exact steps depend on the operating system. Android users can mark the device as lost via Google's Find Hub, which logs it out of the Google account and clears Google Wallet, or use Remote Lock at android.com/lock; Samsung Galaxy owners with SmartThings Find get similar protection for Samsung Wallet. iPhone users can enable Lost Mode through Find My to block Apple Pay, or remove Wallet items entirely via device settings. The article also recommends checking account sign-in activity and contacting banks to freeze digital cards if the phone cannot be recovered quickly, since reissuing a physical card is far more disruptive than re-adding a digital one.