I mean, over and over again. I just don’t get. I’ve had plastics in one form or another for over 20 years and in all that time I’ve lost them to the point of needing replacements issued exactly once. My wallet slipped out of my pants pocket in my car and I thought I’d lost it on the road. And if I’d waited a day I would’ve found it and not had to replace the cards. Yet as I sit here at work I take call after call from people who’ve lost cards over and over again. Just got off the phone with someone whose card was issued initially in June 2006 and she’s on her 12th card. So she’s losing them at the rate of one every six weeks.
Is it carelessness? Stupdity? The feeling that, since for these particualr cards there’s no cost to replace them (although now there is for some states including this woman’s) there’s no urgency to keep track of them? I seriously don’t get it. Then they bitch because they can’t get their money.
I’ve had to call for replacement cards exactly three times (once on a debit, and once on each of my credits). The reasons for these were as follows:
Debit: Stopped at the ATM in a panic one day. Thought I left it in the machine in my haste. Found it a year and a half later; it’d fallen under my car seat.
Credit 1: Never activated the original card. Probably shredded it.
Credit 2: Used it for something online. The computer room swallowed it. Recently found it while packing up to move.
I have had several cards replaced (nowhere near 12, I don’t think but probably as many as 6 over the last 10 years). More often than not I miss the card and spend a day thinking it’s in the pants or jacket I wore the day before. If it doesn’t turn up in a pocket I typically call the last place I remember using it. Next is tearing through all the assorted piles of paperwork at home and work. If that still doesn’t produce results I start to get a little panicky. I give it another day usually and by then I need money so I ask for a replacement because it must really and truly be lost, maybe it was flung out of my pocket when I put my coat on at the movies or some strange thing. Typically a day or two after the replacement arrives I find the missing one in an unusual spot (in the umbrella stand or the freezer).
Is that carelessness or stupidity? What I recognize in myself is that I’m easily distracted and when that happens the thought “I shouldn’t keep this card in my pocket or I’ll lose it” is eclipsed while I’m acting on it by “Hi Mom, what’s for dinner?” before I finish acting on the first thought. I didn’t say it was a good excuse or anything, but it does seem to be what goes on in my brain.
Often during searches (obviously it’s not just bank cards that go missing for me) I have a vague memeory of putting something down and having the thought “this probably isn’t a good place for this”.
I’m with you on this one, Otto. I think it’s just because some people don’t pay attention. When ATMs first came out, they didn’t make any noise if you didn’t remove your card at the end of your transaction. Now, they all squawk at you if you don’t.
One every six weeks, though? Just dumber than dirt and unable to learn from her mistakes.
I’ve only called for a replacement card once, which I found in my suitcase about three months later. My problem is destroying them. I’ve left them on the dash, and the sun warps all the numbers off. The most recent, and embarrassing, was when I was standing at the bar to pay my tab, and was fiddling with my card. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but I snapped it in half lengthwise with my right hand!? It was kind of awkward asking the barkeep to accept a broken card!
Free replacements is my guess. Because if I lose mine for a half day since its free I’d probably call for a new one just for peace of mind, in case I lost it outside. But if there was a 20.00 fee or so I’d make sure it was definitely lost before I asked for a new one. My guess is if free, most people ask for a new one, then find it in their pants pocket, under the car seat, etc the next day.
Last time I lost a card (about three months ago), it was because I left it in the drive-through ATM. Come to think of it, I think that was the only time I’ve lost my card.
Once, while stopping to get money from the ATM, I found a card still sticking neatly out of the machine. I picked it up, pocketed it and did my transaction. When I got to work that day, I did a few searches online for the name appearing on the card and called the family. It was a man’s name and he was quite surprised that I was calling to tell him I had his bank card – he honestly was in such a hurry that he thought he had grabbed the card when he hadn’t. I suggested that he call and report the card missing, just in case. I gave him my home address to pick up the card after work. He thanked me profusely and was a very nice guy. Sometimes, things happen. I’ve had my purse stolen once and had to report a whole slew of shit stolen, but aside from that, I haven’t lost my cards.
Do you keep your cards loose? Mine are always in my wallet, which is harder to lose than a single card. Plus it helps prevent the “leaving the card in the ATM” thing, because if I haven’t put my wallet back in my pocket, it means I still have to get my card back.
I stayed in a youth hostel in Helsinki, and had my debit card stolen (but NOT the protective case it was in). The thief took the card to a city some distance away, and withdrew over €1000, succeeding after two failed attempts.
The bank said it’s my fault for not protecting my PIN (right, like I told it to every damn stranger in Helsinki? Wrote it on the back of the card, maybe?), and has refused to refund the money. Which is to be expected – what the hell do they care? I sure didn’t give my PIN away, though, so who knows how that chump form Turku got around the security. What I DO know is that the card has some form of the code recorded on its microchip, so if he’s Captain Clever, maybe he can bust the encryption on it.
It’s not the first problem I’ve had with this bank. It very well might be the last.
My company (which is in the US obviously) doesn’t refund money on the basis of claimed PIN-based fraud. Largely because of the many, many attempts by people to withdraw their funds and then report the card stolen after the fact. It used to be a huge fraud area. We tell them they have to file a police report.
Ummm, why hasn’t the issuing bank (or whatever) flagged this customer for a followup review of some sort? Even if the customer is a careless bumpkin, and dutifully notifies their bank the moment they lose the card, the bank may still be on the hook for some cash if the card is used between being lost and the bank being notified by the customer.
Or is this another fall-through-the-cracks scenario similar to the Ohio dude who went 19 DUI convictions over eight years before the system (finally) shut him down?
My wife’s purse is a nightmare, so if she’s running out on a quick/casual errand, she just stuffs the cc in her back jeans pocket. :eek: Absolutely terrifies me no end, though we’ve been pretty lucky so far (she’s only lost it once).
The only times I’ve ever forgotten my cc (I always recovered it) was when I was eating at a restaurant. I don’t do it very often, so I’m not used to just relinquishing my cc and having to wait for it to be returned much later.
Hmmmm. I think I’ve had to have lost cards replaced 3 times in my life. Worn out debit cards, though, several times. (I hate to write checks and I don’t carry cash.)
Open a bar tab. Someone else ends up paying it. Leave the card at the bar.
Open a bar tab. Forget to pay it. The staff will charge the card at the end of the night and lock up the card.
Go out, but take just one card and id. Very common. If I’m going to get mugged or pickpocketed, rather it just be one card and a license, rather than a whole wallet worth of stuff.
Come home from going out with said card in your pocket. Wash it and lose it.
At least some are. We have some credit card programs for which, if the person requests we change the PIN, we have to send a whole new card because the PIN is encoded in the mag strip. Mostly for international customers IIRC, so maybe the setup for non-US cards is different.