A credit card can become a real painstaking worry if lost or stolen.
Having experienced both lost and stolen credit cards the worry sets in when I realise something is missing from my pocket or from where I last had placed my credit card.
I attended a nightclub with little cash and also the card. I was drinking a few glasses of alcohol and out of no where a young woman comes to me and gives me a kiss on the cheek. It is only hours when I leave the club do I realise the card is gone missing. I did not do anything at the time, though when I received my statement from the card company I was amazed and shocked to find a bill from zero in the space of two days had jumped to almost a thousand pounds approx ($2000). I noticed transactions from wine merchants, petrol companies, mail order you name it any grocery items.
So upon this discovery I phoned up the card company phone service center and I described that I had unauthorised transactions debited to my own credit card. My first result was having the account frozen, though it was not enough. I was then told I had to go to the bank to request a print out of the past 2 months credit card transaction history details. Also in this process I then needed to go to the local police station to list every fraudulent item listed on the statement. Upon doing so, I was given a crime reference number and also the police station recorded the fraud on their database computer.
Later I had to write the bank a letter along with attaching the police crime number and the fraudulent list of transactions from the bank printout. Upon sending, it meant me agonizingly waiting for many days whilst the interest was accruing day by day. Time progressed, and it took me one week before I got a reply from the card company service manager, who replied by saying that the fraudulent use activity had been written off, or in effect cancelled, also the interest charged for the usage for these transactions where also adjusted accordingly.
Upon lost card discovery this is a more complex scenario. A misplaced card at home might really cause no immediate threat or concern. The best way in this instance would involve having a tidy up of the room, and search for the card systematically. This involves starting in a room where you have been in. Then search each room corner by corner, all wardrobes must be checked and looked at carefully, it might have fallen under a chair, a bed, left inside some clothes.
These are other possibilities, and there are plenty more. The easy way is to think to yourself, “Where have I been”?, “have I gone outside my home”?, and was my card in my pocket at the time? If answering to myself that i have stayed at home all week, and I saw my card yesterday or the day before and I have not left the house. Then in this case there is no cause for concern. If however, I have left my house, gone to the store, or on the train, and knowingly I had my card pinched unknowingly and returned home to realise my card has dissapeared, I would immediately phone the card service center.
Also these days where card details can be used by a criminal for use in identity theft, a good tip would be to contact all other card companies, including personal bank account service departments to inform them of this situation. This would be helpful to some extent in being proactive in informing the institutions of possible fraud elsewhere in the future.
In conclusion I feel that these steps would help in any case, the main mental area of suggestion would be to stay calm at all times even during these quite shocking and potentially nerve racking days. The banks will write off these fraudulent activities providing the evidence is provided to support this.