Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of people surveyed don’t back up their contacts before shutting their suitcase, which means they have to rebuild their network of friends from scratch if their phone is lost, stolen or broken. Vodafone’s survey found that over half (51 per cent) of people take more than a week after their holiday to rebuild lost or ‘wiped’ contacts.

Given that those surveyed could only remember around five phone numbers off by heart, but have approximately 16 times this number saved on their phone, capturing all the details again can take days.

41 per cent of people use Facebook to rebuild their contact list, but the most popular way (50 per cent of people), is simply to rely on friends to help. Vodafone’s 360 provides a secure place to store contact numbers from your phone online, regardless of which network you’re currently on.

“The message is simple: back up before you pack up!” said Julian Bessey, Head of Internet Services, Vodafone UK.

“We’re encouraging everyone - whether they’re a Vodafone customer or not - to sign up to 360, which offers a free single, secure address book that backs up your contacts from your phone, social networks, email and chat accounts. It’s available for over 550 phones!”

360 is easy to set up, simply head to www.360.com to get a free account and follow the instructions as part of the registration to back up your contacts from your phone.

You can use 360 to create a single online address book too by adding social networks, email and chat accounts. With the right mobile you can use this to bring the address book to life on your phone so you can see Facebook profile pictures and status updates next to your contact’s details. To sign up or for further information, visit www.360.com.