What To Do If You Lose Your Credit Card

Lost your Credit Card? Don’t lose your cool. Here’s what you need to do.

A Credit Card certainly comes to your rescue during an emergency. But the same card can cause a lot of trouble if  you lose it. That’s where you step in and avoid it from being misused. If you have lost your Credit Card or your wallet has been stolen, there are a few steps that you MUST follow in order to steer clear of fraudulent activities.

Additional Reading: How To Protect Your Credit Card From Skimming

As difficult as this might sound, stay calm and then follow the below mentioned steps:

Notify Your Card Issuer Immediately!

The first thing that you should do is contact the card issuer. For this, always have your bank’s customer service details handy. If you haven’t saved the details on your phone, you can find them on your account statement. Hurry!

Once you notify the bank that your card has been lost/stolen, give them your last transaction details (date and amount of your last purchase). This will help the bank detect any fraudulent activities.

If you have subscribed for notifications or alerts on your transactions, you will be able to find details of your last purchases on your phone or e-mail.

Here’s a list of helpline numbers of some of the major banks in India

Additional Reading: What To Do When Your Financial Data is Stolen

Request Replacement

After notifying your bank, you can also request for a replacement. This can either be done over the phone or online, through your bank’s official website. You may be charged a nominal fee for the replacement card which will directly be deducted from your credit balance.

Your card issuer will suggest that you block your existing card, and you should go ahead and give them the permission to do it . This will ensure that your card is not misused.

Additional Reading: Top Of The Chart Credit Cards For 2018

Inform Via Email Too

To be on the safer side after your call, shoot an email to the Customer Service centre, reporting the loss of your card. This will help you maintain a record of your communication with the bank. The email will come handy if your card has been misused so that you are not held accountable for those transactions.

File A Police Complaint

Visit the police station in the locality where you suspect that you lost your card. Report the loss of your card. The police will lodge an FIR in case of theft. In case the card has been misplaced and not stolen, the police will record your statement in their daily report. Request a copy of the report as you may need it to send it to the card issuer.

Additional Reading: Hit And Run By Credit Card Fraud? Here’s What To Do

Review Your Credit Card Statements

Check your Credit Card statements every month even after reporting the loss and getting a replacement. This will help you track unauthorised transactions, if any.

Additional Reading: Managing Credit Cards E-statements

Why Is It Important To Report The Loss Of Your Card?

You can argue that for your transactions to go through, the thief will require your card PIN or an OTP (One Time Password). Well, fraudsters are good at what they do and will manage to use your card even without the PIN or OTP.

What’s more, you will be liable for all transactions done even after you lose your card. In case you are unable to repay the amount, your Credit Score will be affected. A lot is at stake, so don’t ever take the loss of your card lightly!

Better safe than sorry. We bet you’ve heard this before. It’s a good quote that can be applied in life. Wondering what we are talking about? Well, you can protect your Credit Card from being misused by opting for a Card Protection Plan (CPP).

Additional Reading: All You Need To Know About Secured Credit Cards

Want to know more about CPP? We have several partners onboard that offer a card protection plan on Credit Cards. Go ahead, find a secure card for yourself today!