DISAPPEARING PLASTIC: I can't find my purse, my wallet, or my credit card(s) Okay, it finally happened. Your back-pack was "borrowed" at the library, your purse disappeared in the campus cafeteria, your wallet got lost at a party. The reality is that your credit card is gone and you don't know what to do. Of course, it may end up with campus security or maybe a friend will find it and call you with the good news tomorrow. The bottom line is that you can not take any chances. Besides, you are fully prepared after following the step-by-step guidelines of this module. Call your credit card company immediately. Visa, American Express, MasterCard, and Discover all have 24-hour customer service. Many retail cards (Sears, Gap, CompUSA, Shell, Victoria Secret) may not have late night customer service so you may have to call them during normal business hours. The key is to contact the appropriate companies AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE in order to prevent fraudulent use of your credit cards. This means that if you lose a Citibank VISA, you must contact the Visa department of Citibank. The toll free numbers of the major credit card companies are listed in Table 1. Note, when you call customer service and explain that your credit card is missing, your account will be immediately CANCELED. You can not call back an hour later and say that you found the "missing" credit card. TOO LATE! So remember, you can NOT "cry wolf" to the credit card companies. After your phone call, you should receive a new credit card with a different account number in approximately 7-10 business days. In the meantime, your account will be suspended and you will not be able to use your credit card for any reason. In fact, if you find your card later, destroy it. Any attempt to use the old card will generate a merchant "alert" and lead to its rejection and even confiscation. Look, who wants this kind of attention. Talk about embarrassing! It is imperative that you have the necessary information for de-activating your card. You will be asked for your account number (make sure that you do NOT confuse the account numbers of different credit cards!), verification code that was selected when you opened the account, such as mother's maiden name (it isn't any of the bank's business, so make one up!) or the last four digits of your social security number (You CAN scramble them if you wish), and the current mailing address of the account (make sure that you update this information each year!). You may wish to look at Table 1 which offers a convenient format for recording this information. REMEMBER, it is important that this financial account information be accessible to YOU and yet not be easily obtained for fraudulent purchases. Keep it in a safe place. For ways of storing this personal information electronically and modifying it so that it can not be used by unauthorized persons, see Part Two. On to Financial Liability   On to Part I   Copyright Newtonian Finances Ltd. © 2000-2024 (disclaimer)