The text came to my phone at 10:40am this morning from my youngest daughter away at college:
is someone able to freeze my discover credit card? it’s not in my phone wallet. i think i know where it could be but i don’t want anyone finding it and using it and spending money.
Possible lost credit card.
Daughter 2+ hours away.
Red Alert. Red Alert. Red Alert.
A few minutes later, this comes in:
i think it’s in my dorm or in brianna’s car. i know i had it when i left moes last night and we went to dairy queen last night so i think i might have forgotten to put it back in my wallet. So it’s in one of those two places.
Downgrading from Red Alert to Yellow Alert. The card should be in one of two secured areas–her dorm or her friend’s car.
My daughter had just finished class when she texted. Brianna was 20 minutes from finishing hers. So we wait.
While the clock is ticking for Brianna’s class to get over, I log in to my daughter’s Discover account.
First thing to check: What were the last transactions?
Pending charges show…Moe’s and Dairy Queen, dated yesterday. Nothing for today.
Whew.
Second question: Should I go ahead and freeze the account?
Freezing it WOULD keep the card from being used by the wrong person. But I don’t know how easy it is to UNFREEZE it. Not sure if that would mean getting a new card mailed to us in 5-7 business days, and then we’d have to get it down to her.
I re-read the texts. She believes she knows where the card is. It hasn’t been used today…yet.
So I let my daughter and my wife know that 11:30am is the deadline for finding the card.
Brianna’s car will get checked first. If not there, my daughter will go back to her dorm and look there. The timeline is well inside the realm of reality.
So we wait.
She calls at 11:29am saying she found the card in her friend’s car.
Crisis averted. Adrenaline rush can now subside. All is good in the world.
Daughter and card have been reunited in holy purchasing power.
But this ordeal got me thinking…
Do we have everything in place to protect us from fraud if she HADN’T found the card?
Fortunately, we do.
The first line of defense was getting to her account online. It’s also great to have the app for each credit card on your phone to freeze access that way.
Secondly, you should have a copy of the front and back of your credit cards in a folder someplace secure.
Like in a SentrySafe Document Box. A place made to keep important documents safe.
Online and app-based access is great for cards and other accounts, but it is always the gold standard to have that physical copy which has two necessary pieces of information:
- The credit card number
- The phone number to the credit card company
We didn’t have to go into the safe to get the physical copy…this time.
But it’s great to know it is there if we need it.
So learn a lesson from our 49-minute, panic-inducing credit card hunt:
Make copies of all your credit cards and put them in a secure place like a SentrySafe Document Box.
And you’ll be ready in case a card goes missing.
Be Safe, Have Fun,
Darren Bayne
