I know someone who left her purse in the car, while she went in to an aerobics class at her gym. She came out an hour and a half later to find that her car had been broken into, and her purse stolen. She had the checkbook and her credit cards in the purse. She immediately called and began the process of reporting the incident to the police, and to her bank. She later found out that in that 90 minutes they had managed to spend thousands of dollars. It seems this theft was completed by a group who split up and went shopping in different stores, while one person carried the cards from store to store. The transactions were only a few minutes apart. Fortunately she had taken the appropriate steps and was not liable for any of the charges.
At some point you may lose your checkbook or have your credit card or debit card stolen. This can be a real hassle. It is important that you act as quickly as you can once you realize that you have lost or had your cards stolen. This simply means less paperwork on your part. Fortunately in most cases you won’t be held responsible for fraudulent activity on your account, but you do need to complete all of the following steps to cover yourself.
If you know that your card has been stolen you will need to fill out a police report. This will cover you in the case that you have to dispute anything with your credit card company. It is important to make sure you do this as quickly as possible, so that you will have full coverage.
Once you have done this, or think you have lost your card you need to call your bank and report the card stolen. They may ask you when your last charge was. You should be able to tell them. They will then cancel the card, and then send you a new card.
If you have lost your checkbook or it was stolen, then you need to call your bank and ask them to freeze your account. Your bank will issue you a new checking account number, and open you a new account. It is important that you know what checks you have written in the past few weeks, because if you give them a list of the checks, then they can have those clear your account, and will not return them. This can save you money in fees from your bills and mortgage. Your bank may require that you fill out a police report to verify that your checkbook was stolen.
If you follow these steps you should not be held accountable for the money that was spent. If you neglect to do so in a timely manner the banks may not be as willing to work with you. Many policies state that they require a notice within twenty-four hours of discovering that the item was stolen.
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