What to do if you lose your debit card overseas
At home, these situations are inconvenient but easily manageable. When they occur in a foreign country, especially if you don鈥檛 speak the language, they can become serious problems.
Knowing in advance what to do and who to call can spare you headaches and save your trip from getting derailed.
Call your bank
If you misplace your debit card or lose it to an ATM or pickpocket, the best thing to do is stay calm and call your bank, says Tami Farrow, senior vice president and head of retail deposit payments at听, which serves the East Coast.
鈥淢ake sure you know how to contact your bank internationally,鈥� Farrow says. 鈥淨uite often, your bank鈥檚 800 number won鈥檛 work when you鈥檙e overseas.鈥�
Although your bank might not be able to retrieve your card from a faulty ATM, it can tell you what to do next and suspend your card if necessary. In some cases, it will even send you a replacement by overnight carrier.
Smaller credit unions and community banks often have just one all-purpose number for customers to report a lost or stolen card, but larger banks usually have a separate number for customers to call when they鈥檙e outside the United States:
- Capital One听,听
- 颁颈迟颈产补苍办听,听
It鈥檚 also a good idea to tell your bank when and where you鈥檒l be traveling before you head overseas. This can be a good opportunity to confirm which number to call if something goes awry.
Jessica Pociask, owner of听, a wildlife and nature tour company in Traverse City, Michigan, suggests taking photographs of your plastic so you can easily find the account number of a lost or stolen card, as well as the number to reach the card issuer.
鈥淏efore every trip, I lay out all of my credit/debit cards, license and passport, take a photo of both the front and back, and email it to myself,鈥� Pociask says. 鈥淭his has done wonders [for] preventing additional charges that I could possibly be liable for while traveling.鈥�
Best to avoid storing the images on your cellphone, though, as they could wind up in the wrong hands if your phone is lost or stolen.
Have a backup, and use it
If possible, it鈥檚 best to avoid relying on one card when traveling abroad. Instead, pack multiple forms of payment 鈥� cash, debit and credit cards 鈥� so you have options if one goes missing or simply doesn鈥檛 work, says TD Bank鈥檚 Farrow.
Some merchants in other countries may accept only MasterCard, while others take only Visa, for example. In many countries, you can only use cards with an EMV chip at unattended ticketing kiosks, such as those at train stations and subway terminals.
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And always have backup cash, says Billie Frank, co-founder of concierge and trip-planning company听.
This is a lesson Frank, an avid traveler, learned the hard way after using all of her cash to buy a pair of shoes from a merchant that didn鈥檛 take credit cards.
鈥淚 thought, 鈥極K, we鈥檒l go to the bank and get money.鈥� Well, it was a holiday weekend and the bank was cleaned out of money,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e went to two ATMs at two different banks and they were both cleaned out.鈥�
Use the ATM during business hours
Another international travel tip from Frank: Don鈥檛 use an ATM when the bank isn鈥檛 open. She says she tried to withdraw about $230 after hours from a Banco Santander ATM in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The machine gave Frank her card and a withdrawal receipt, but it kept the cash.
That snafu had a happy ending 鈥� eventually.
鈥淎bout three weeks to the day, the money was returned to our account,鈥� Frank says. 鈥淲e have a good relationship with our bank. I鈥檓 not sure it would have worked out, otherwise.鈥�
This article first appeared at
