Are you scared enough to buy the Skyminder 500 personal alarm?

Gemma Cartwright writes...

How much are you willing to pay to stay safe? This is something I found myself wondering when I was introduced to the Skyminder 500 safety alarm a couple of weeks ago. It looks like an old mobile phone, but in an emergency, it could just save your life.

To be honest with you, I'm a bit of a scaredy cat. I don't live in the nicest area, I often walk home in the dark on my own and even now, five years after first moving to London, I get frightened. I've always been a fast walker, but now I have the run very fast walk from the bus stop to my front door down to a fine art.

The skyminder 500 is perfect for single girls like me who just need a bit of reassurance, but has also been created with other ‘at risk’ groups in mind. The elderly, extreme sports enthusiasts, shift workers, people living or working alone, those with a medical condition...even celebs at risk of kidnap could benefit from this technology.

The alarm is activated by pressing two buttons on either side of the device. This will connect you to the Emergency Response Centre, where an operator will be able to hear what's going on (up to 2 metres from the device itself). They're trained to keep quiet at first and assess the situation, before talking to you if it's safe to do so. Once you’ve activated the device, they can also access a file of personal information about you. It's up to you to update this - online - with any information you see fit: medical conditions, allergies, next of kin and so on. Those extreme sports enthusiasts I mentioned earlier can even update with news of where they're going, what they're doing and any possible dangers ("going climbing, may fall down cliff" - that kind of thing). If your problem is outside the remit of the emergency services, Skyminder can even send out a private response team instead. Your GPS location (also tracked by the does-it-all device) will tell them who's the closest to you. It's a very impressive service and does seem very appealing if you tend to worry (or have family who worry about you).

So now comes the downside. Peace of mind comes at a cost, and the fees associated with the skyminder are a real kick in the teeth. The handset itself will set you back £199, and there's a monthly subscription to pay too. At £19.99 a month (minimum 12 month contract) you run the risk of feeling like you're not getting your money's worth unless you actually get attacked / injure yourself. It doesn't end there, either. If you do have to use the service, the calls you make to the response centre are charged at 25p a minute. Finally, you'd better hope the emergency services consider you worthy of their time, because calling out the private mobile response unit instead will set you back a massive £80 an hour.

But is paying out all that money worth it for the peace of mind and reassurance? One would hope, of course, that you'd never need to press those two buttons at all, but is it worth having the device in your bag just in case? I must confess while I found myself gulping at the associated costs at first, when I considered the fact I’ll happily blow £20 a week in Starbucks / down the pub, it’s actually not as bad as it seems considering how much it could help in an emergency. I’d love to know what you guys think about this service. Is it something you’d consider, or will you take your chances with your mobile phone and 999?

The Skyminder 500 is available at Send4Help.com