We’ve all done it– carelessly left our mobile phone on a bus or in a pub with all those important contact numbers inside. We’re forced to start all over again, purchase a new handset and go about re-entering the numbers.

Expensive and inconvenient, but what if there was a simple system in place that allows you to prepare for this eventuality, safe in the knowledge that you may well retrieve both the phone and the contacts?

Internationally-recognised online service www.yougetitback.com has come to Ireland and not before time for the 2000 people who lose or have stolen, mobile phones in Ireland every week.

Add to that the estimated 300 laptops left in Dublin taxis every year, while Dublin Airport recovers 500,000 lost items alone each year– so clearly we badly need someone or something to look out for our valuable items when they go walkabout.

yougetitback.com describe themselves as “a straightforward, no-nonsense, 24/7 lost and found service that makes it easy for people who find lost items bearing yougetitback.com security tags, to return them.”

A novel idea but how does it work– and what will it cost the service user? Basically yougetitback.com is a lost and found service that mediates between owners and finders of lost or stolen items to arrange their safe return to the rightful owners.

It’s a scheme that will largely depend on people’s honesty. Research shows that up to 75 to 78% of lost items are returned by finders if it is easy for them to do so, and if it does not cost them anything.

The items registered with yougetitback.com come with a tag featuring a Finder’s Freefone number. As an additional incentive, all finders of yougetitback.com tagged items receive a small reward. Once it has been confirmed that the found item has been returned to the owner, yougetitback.com send the finder a yougetitback.com gift pack to the value of €20, at no cost to the owner. However owners may offer a cash reward if they wish.

Yougetitback.com is surprisingly inexpensive with two tags which remain valid for up to three years for just €9.99. Tags can be purchased on the website and are then attached to the item you wish to protect.

Users then activate the tag via the website or by telephone and you’re ready to go, safe in the knowledge that should you be the victim of a theft, there’s a good chance that some honest soul will return it to you.