Have you ever had that sinking feeling when you reach for your credit card and discover it’s not there? At first, you probably think it’s in another pocket, maybe in your car, or at home in a drawer. But after searching and not finding it, what should you do to make sure you don’t end up with charges that aren’t yours?
Immediately report your card lost
After you’ve looked in the usual places for your card, contact the card issuer and report it as lost. If you find the card, great – you can shred it and start using the new one. But no matter what, by contacting the card issuer you are stopping any fraudulent charges because the number will no longer be active.
It’s easy to do – find the customer service number on an old statement or go online; some companies may even have an online reporting form. They will cancel your card and send you another. When you call, make sure you know the account number, when you realized your card was missing, and the last purchase you made (if you can remember it). This will help them determine the cut off between your actual charges and those that may be fraudulent.
If you are in a bind, you can even have the new card overnighted, but that usually involves a fee. Make sure you really need the card before you pay $15 or more to have it overnighted.
Note: Some credit card issuers allow you to lock or disable your card temporarily. Basically, this keeps new transactions from being approved. You might want to do this if it’s Saturday and you think you left the card at work – you can lock the card, see if you find it Monday morning, then contact the issuer and order a replacement if it’s still missing.
Recurring bill payment on that card
If you are paying bills automatically on your credit card, you should take two steps to make sure you still make the payments on time.
If you just paid the majority of your bills and none come due for several weeks, you can wait until you’ve received the new card to set up the bills for automatic payment. If you have some coming due soon, pay them using a separate credit card or do online bill pay through your bank.
When you receive your new card, move any bills that you temporarily paid from your other accounts back onto the credit card. This is a good time to reevaluate those charges to make sure that you still need the service and it still makes sense to pay them from your card.
I didn’t buy that TV
After you receive a new card and the bills are squared away, it’s important to closely review your statements. In fact, it might be a good idea to log into your credit card site weekly in case any bogus charges show up. If you see any, contact your card issuer immediately.
And don’t stop with just one billing statement. Perhaps the fraudulent charges spanned two billing cycles. Watch your statements for several months at a minimum.
Card management
I don’t carry every credit card I have in my wallet. I keep two on hand but have others that are used for small automatic purchases to keep my credit utilization low. Limiting the number of cards you carry will help you quickly discover if one is missing.
If you don’t save your monthly statements, it’s helpful to keep a list of contact information for all your cards. We made one for our trip to Europe just in case we lost a card.
Finally, consider using notifications from the credit card company. You can sign up to be texted every time you charge something. It will seem like overkill until you learn someone else is using your card.
Photo by N.