Rachel Thomason | Executive Director

4/05/02

It happens to everyone, and if it hasn't happened to you yet, you can bet it will sooner or later. At one time in your life you will lose your wallet. Here are some tips and tricks to dealing with this potential credit disaster. Following these four steps may determine whether you end up with a $5000 phone sex bill, or only a minor hassle with your credit and bank companies.

Step One: Place the contents of you wallet on a photocopy machine. Make sure you copy both sides of your driver's license, credit, bank, social security card, and any other items with your name or money tied to them. If your wallet gets stolen, you will know what you had in your wallet and will have the account and phone numbers of the companies to contact. Make sure you keep these photocopies in a safe place.

If your wallet gets stolen:

Step Two: Immediately call your credit and bank companies to cancel the cards. If you made a copy of your card's contact information, you won't waste valuable time hunting down 800 numbers from the phonebook and looking though old statements for account numbers.

Step Three: Call the local police department and file a report. While filing a report probably won't get your wallet back, the report may be needed by your credit companies for investigation and may prevent personal liability for fraudulent charges already made to your accounts.

Step Four: Call the three national credit reporting organizations to place a fraud alert on your name and social security number. This makes companies call you to authorize any changes to your account. This will make a fraudulent online or phone order harder for the crook to process. The credit reporting numbers are:
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289

Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271