Amongst the list of things that you never want to lose, credit cards are one of them. However, if your credit card is lost or stolen, then you should notify the card company as soon as you can.
A lost or stolen credit card has the possibility to cause a lot of damage, particularly if you have a good credit limit. You will never want to damage your credit at someone else’s hand, and so, it’s vitally important that you know what you should do if your credit card gets lost or stolen.
4 Things you should do when your credit card gets lost or stolen
Though you don’t want such a thing to happen, yet thousands of consumers are facing such problems every day.
Taking the right steps immediately after your card gets lost or stolen will protect your rights and reduce harassment.
Read on to know the 4 things you should do when your credit card gets lost or stolen.
1. Lodge a complaint to the police
If your credit card is stolen, you should inform the police about it as early as you can. Reporting the police without delay may increase the odds that the thief will be found and brought to justice, particularly if you can give a good description of the doer.
While lodging your complaint to the police, make it a point to get a copy of the report, since you may have to send it to the credit card issuer.
2. Call up your credit card company
You should call up the agent of your credit card company as you find your card is missing or after a theft. You’ll have to inform the agent that you’ve lost your card and try to give as much information as you can about the theft or loss.
The card agent will renew your account and issue you a new credit card with a new number.
3. Evaluate the charges you will have to pay
It is important on your part to sign into your account and evaluate the charges you’ll have to pay after your card gets lost or stolen. You can access your account online and assess every charge very carefully.
Keep in mind that those unauthorized charges may not be the large ones.
Thieves often make small purchases initially with your credit card in order to test your card’s validity and then make big purchases after they know that they have a good card number.
4. Dispute the false charges on your credit card
If you find any fraudulent charges on your lost or stolen credit card, you should get in touch with the credit card agent at once to report those unauthorized deals.
Once the bank gets notified of those fraudulent charges, it will start its investigation and remove the charges you didn’t approve.
Be sure to provide a daytime telephone number to the card agent so that the bank can contact you with any additional questions as it does the inquiry.
These are the important things you should do if your credit card has got lost or stolen.