Every bank has different rules for what to do if you lose your checks.Īnd if you lost your debit card, make sure you report that as well. If you had checks inside your wallet, you need to alert your financial institution. In addition to reporting your credit cards stolen, you also may need to call your bank. Once you have your new credit cards, you can update the account information. That way, you won’t get a late fee if your payment doesn’t go through. If you have auto pay set up for your credit cards, alert those companies as well. There are many free options to monitor your credit which will help ensure that your cards are not being used without your permission. To make sure no one is using your account fraudulently, consider signing up for a credit monitoring service. If you wait beyond two days after your loss, you may be liable for up to $500 in charges you did not authorize on your credit accounts. The longer you wait to report your loss, the higher your liability. But if you report your card lost or stolen before any charges are made, you may not be responsible for them. This way, you won’t be held liable for purchases made by third parties using your card.įor credit card charges, you may be liable for unauthorized charges up to $50 according to federal law. Make sure to flag any suspicious activity on your account when you call the card issuer. This should not affect your credit limit, rewards, APR and so on. You can ask the financial institution to issue your new credit cards with different account numbers. Or if a bank or a credit union issued the card, make sure to call them. Here are the phone numbers for the four major credit card issuers: To find the phone number for your credit card issuer, log into your online account. Instead of canceling your account, they can suspend your card to keep your account safe until the issue is resolved. This is different from canceling your accounts, which is what some people try to do when they lose their wallets.Įvery financial institution has a different process when you report a lost or stolen credit card. The next step is to call your credit card issuers and report your card as lost or stolen. But if you delay, your risk of being held responsible (and the likelihood of adverse effects) increases with each passing day. When you act quickly, you limit your liability if someone does use your accounts. This way, you can flag those transactions to the financial institution when you call to make the report. Log into all of your bank accounts to check for any unusual or suspicious activity. Use your list to make a plan of whom to contact (in order of importance) to report the loss. This includes but is not limited to all credit and debit cards, health insurance cards, dental and eye insurance cards, gift cards, checkbook and so on. First, make a list of every item that was in your wallet (from what you can remember). Once you’re sure you have lost your wallet and not just misplaced it, it’s time to get down to business. Make a List of Everything that Was in Your Wallet So make sure you check every possible option for your wallet before giving up and declaring it lost. And this can be particularly painful if you find your wallet a few days later. Once you start going through the steps that are listed below, you will probably end up with all new account numbers. Call stores, restaurants and other retail establishments you have visited.Pockets of any clothes you have worn recently.Check your car and all bags (purse, backpack, etc.).Ask your housemate(s) if they have seen your wallet.Here are ideas of where to start looking: I can’t tell you the number of times I thought I’d lost my wallet only to find it a day or so later in a different purse or the bottom of my closet. The first step you need to take if you lose your wallet is to figure out if you really lost it. Determine if it’s Actually Lost or Just Misplaced If you have the unfortunate luck to lose your wallet, here are the steps you need to take to protect yourself. Report Your Social Security Card as Missing and Consider Freezing Your Credit Report Your Driver’s License as Missing to the DMV
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