What to Do If You Lost Your Credit or Debit Card While Traveling
Imagine, if you will, Lifehacker staff writer Josh Ocampo standing outside Tokyo 7-Eleven, belly squeezing as he waits with his bank. Josh’s debit card chip stopped working in the middle of his trip, which meant he couldn’t withdraw cash from the ATM. And the local clinic that could treat “the worst food poisoning of my life,” he recalled, did not accept credit cards.
Josh had to tell me this story after he discovered a Reddit post about a user’s debit card that “flew off the stern of the boat into the water” during the Semester sea voyage. The student will not return to the United States for some time, but will only remain in the port for a short time until the end of the trip.
What should an unhappy traveler do when you no longer have access to cash?
Josh ended up using his credit card to withdraw money from ATMs as a cash advance. When he returned home, he was able to get the funds back from his checking account to avoid incurring outrageous interest charges for the cash advance. When his credit card started validating at ATMs on the last day of his stay in Japan, another Lifehacker employee noticed him the money he needed before it returned to the States.
But not everyone is as lucky as Josh. After all, he was holding his cards in his hands, and not lying on the bottom of the ocean, like that very sad Redditor.
I asked Brandon Net, a credit card and premium travel expert at FinanceBuzz , what he would recommend to someone in this frustrating situation. He said that while credit card issuers can usually ship a replacement card overnight if you’re stranded, this isn’t usually the case with a debit card, especially when you’re abroad.
The best solution to your missing debit card problem might be in your hands right now: your phone. But it’s best to check it out before you hit the road.
“Debit cards can be added to some digital wallets,” he said. “Be sure to check with your issuing bank or mobile operator before traveling. If it’s compatible, tweak the feature and see if it works so you have a backup plan while you’re abroad. ”
He also said that you can try using a money transfer service like Western Union to receive money sent to you. You can log into your bank account to initiate a transfer to yourself, or ask your bank’s customer service department to help you arrange a phone transfer with you. “While this is not the most cost-effective way and you have to carry cash with you, it will certainly help you get out of your predicament,” he said.
Colleagues on Reddit have recommended asking a friend to take the money out of the ATM and transfer the amount to them via Venmo or another peer-to-peer service.
Whichever method you end up using, be sure to report your lost card to the bank as soon as possible, even if you think it is safe from scammers at the bottom of the sea.