Should your wallet ever get lost or stolen, having copies of everything that was in it will minimize your stress. It will save you a lot of time when you need to call to cancel credit cards and follow up to request replacements of medical or insurance cards.
It will help if you make notes on the credit cards in your wallet that are set up for auto-payments for other services. A few things you should know about this:
- Some credit card companies will ask that you pay for charges made on a lost card if you never called to report it missing. When they added the chip to our credit cards, they now have the ability to know if the credit card was physically used. If your card is not in your possession, but you did not report it missing, the credit card company fairly has the right to hold you liable for those charges.
- Many larger vendors have dozen’s of 800 numbers linked to the specific credit card account. If you have a copy your card you have quick access to the direct number to report the card lost/stolen as well as the identifying information they may request from you about your card.
If you are incapacitated when your wallet is missing, this gives your loved ones an easy way to step in and help you.
Recently, I had a client whose wallet was stolen while he was in the hospital. Unfortunately, I had not made a copy of everything in his wallet and had to wait until he was well enough to talk through and figure out what he was carrying in his wallet.
It’s now one of the first things I do when I work with a new client now. Warned.