| The question stolen wallet what to do is a common issue. The things that you do immediately after losing your wallet or having it stolen are very important.
If you do the right things right away, you can almost always diminish any problems that will arise from your information falling into the wrong hands.
The longer a crook has with your personal information, not to mention your credit cards, without you knowing it, the more damage they can do. So, the sooner you catch the situation and notify the right people the sooner you can stop the bleeding.
In this article I will go over some easy things that you should do as soon as you realize that your information has been compromised. Again, do these steps as quickly as you possibly can once you realize your wallet has been stolen.
Start here:
1. The first thing you need to do is to make sure all your credit and debit cards are canceled. This will be a slight inconvenience for a while, true, but there is nothing else that you can do. It will be even worse if someone racks up huge debt on your credit card.
There will be 24 hour access to your credit card company, usually a phone number. The numbers are usually on the back of the card, though that won't do you any good if you have lost your card.
So, make sure you write down these numbers and keep them somewhere safe just in case this ever happens to you.
2. Next, you need to contact your bank. Let them know that your wallet has been lost or stolen. They will probably want to keep a close eye on your account.
One thing that crooks like to do is to add themselves to your account. They will pretend that they are an owner on your account so they can take all the money out of that account.
They may be able to use some of the information they find in your wallet to add themselves to your accounts. Let the bank know that your information is floating around out there somewhere.
3. Contact each of the three credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian and Equifax) right away. They will need to know that someone has stolen your wallet and could possibly try to steal your identity.
If your wallet is stolen you can usually get a fraud alert placed on your accounts. This will make it a lot more difficult for anyone to use your information to open up some sort of credit, whether a loan or another credit card.
4. The last thing you need to do, but by no means any less important, is to file a police report. This too will help you establish a time line. That time line can come into play if there is any damage done to your credit or loans or credit cards taken out in your name.
This step will make it easier for you to prove that you really aren't the one who did the spending.
Hopefully this information will help answer the question "stolen wallet what to do" if you ever find yourself in that situation. |