A GIRL’S handbag is her life support system. Take our handbags away and our lives fall apart.

Everything we need is in there. Given the contents of the average handbag most of us could go away for a month and would probably be fine even if cast away indefinitely on a desert island.

And as handbags have got bigger, so we are able to carry even more stuff around. A quick glance into someone’s handbag and you can tell an awful lot about them. And that’s the problem.

If your handbag is stolen, then a thief could find it very easy to get into your house – keys and an address are an absolute gift, a complete DIY kit for burglars. Car keys too – it’s so easy to go round a pub car park, pressing the remote key fob, and waiting to see which doors open.

Talk about easy pickings.

But thieves can also very easily get into your life and bank accounts, before you’ve even realised what’s happened.

It’s amazing what we carry round.

It must be years since I paid for anything by cheque in a shop – most of which no longer accept cheques anyway – but my cheque book is always in my bag.

Mobile phones are a great little treasure for thieves. Not only can they ring their long lost friends in far-flung parts of the globe and talk for hours, they can also find out a lot about you. The number of people who store all their passwords and Pins on their phone is amazing. Men, not generally having handbags in which to cart stuff around, are even more likely to store information on their phones.

Then there’s your diary. Who knows what that might reveal? Even more interesting than your hot dates will be the Pin numbers for the credit and debit cards which are also in your bag. If you carry your Pin in the same place as your cards, the banks could say that it was your own fault that people raided your account – and refuse to pay up for any fraudulent transaction. And so it goes on.

Here are some of the hazardous handbag items, as listed by credit information providers Equifax.

■ Mobile phones – amazing all the information people store on their phones.

■ Cheque book – gives ID thieves account numbers and sort codes, and your address if you didn’t tear off the form on the front.

■ Credit card receipts – could reveal card numbers and information on recent transactions.

■ Payslip – National Insurance number employer and salary. A gift for fraudsters.

■ Bank statements – useful for ID verification.

■ Utility bill – ID verification when setting up a bank account.

■ Driving licence – address and date of birth.

■ Diary – not just for personal details but all those numbers you’ve scribbled in the back.

■ Passport.

So it’s time to sort out all the stuff you carry round with you all the time. Or maybe just buy a much smaller bag.