Take Action – What To Do If You Lose Your Credit Card
The chances are good that each and every one of us will lose or have our credit card stolen at least once in our lifetime. When talking about cash, this would be a lose-lose proposition every time. But fortunately, by law, credit cards come with built in protection in just such circumstances. When you know what to do if you lose your credit card, the whole thing is nothing more than a minor inconvenience. Here are the steps to take if the inevitable happens to you...
Be Preventative - Okay, before we move forward, let's go back a few steps. Something every one of us should do right now is to write down all of our credit card account numbers and phone contact numbers and file them away in a really safe place in case we should need them at any point later on. Make sure you have a list of every object that's in your purse or wallet, this way if something does happen, it's simple to just go down the list and notify of missing cards one by one without forgetting any of them.
Don't Panic - Even if your credit card does go missing, you might find it untouched (or right where you left it). Retrace your steps and more often than not, the missing items will turn up. And even if someone has found and used your card, you're still protected by law if you take appropriate action in a timely manner.
Assume it's Been Compromised - If you do find your lost credit card or someone else returns it to you, it's best for your own protection to just assume the worst and call the credit card company to cancel it and issue a new one. You never know if someone has already make unauthorized charges with the card or perhaps written the number down for future use. In order to minimize your liability, the only exception to this rule might be if you lost the card in your own home and then found it.
Take Action – What To Do If You Lose Your Credit Card
Call the Card Issuer Right Away - Again, this will not only will this prevent any liability for unauthorized charges on your part, but the credit card company will also take action to get a new card to you as fast as possible wherever you might be so you're not left stranded. They understand this happens and are usually very easy to work with in this predicament.
Call the Credit Agencies Too - If you have any concern at all that your credit card has been misused, in addition to calling the credit card issuer, you might also want to touch base with the major credit reporting agencies to let them know of the situation. They'll take action to make sure fraudulent use won't damage your credit history. Better safe than sorry, right?
Knowing what steps to take and what to do in the case of a lost credit card is something we all should probably make ourselves more aware of. By taking these steps immediately, we'll be neutralizing not only any potential liability, but also the hassle factor that comes with prolonging the situation.
Take Action – What To Do If You Lose Your Credit Card
Can my daughter be held responsible for credit card debt incurred when she was only 13?
When my daughter was only 13 (she’s 15 now), she was offered 5 different credit cards. She filled out the applications with a later birth year, and was approved for each of them. Some of them had very high credit limits – one was actually $5,000! I had no idea about any of this until the credit collection companies began sending letters and calling. I’ve told them time and again that she is only 15 years old and a minor, but they keep calling. There hasn’t been any activity on any of the cards in about 18 months, so she was still 13, maybe just turning 14 at the time. They have told me that it doesn’t matter what her age was, someone has to pay back the money, so if she isn’t going to do it, then I have to. They said I was welcome fight it on the basis of her being a minor, but then they would have to file a fraud complaint and take me to court. Is this something that could really happen?? Can she really be held liable for this debt since she was so young? Can I be held liable since she was young? I don’t know how this works. It’s starting to feel somewhat hopeless, and I’m very frustrated. What course of action do I have? I don’t see how a 13 year old can be held accountable for entering into a legal contract when she isn’t old enough to understand the ramifications. And having only just found out about this, how can I have to be held accountable? If I had known about it at the time, I would have put a stop to it then. A child should never have access to a credit card – of any amount – especially not the amounts mine was given. Can someone please shed some light on this, and help me?
Is there any way to get off the sex offender registry?
I was 17 years old and had sex with my gf who was 15 at the time. Long story short, eventually the wrong people found out and I was sent to prison for 3 year.
This was all 9 years ago. To this day I am STILL paying for acting like the stupid teen I was. Everywhere I go, I have to register as a sex offender, I’ve lost count of how many times my car has been vandalized, I’ve had bricks thrown through my window, I have to LIE on job applications so I can at least flip burgers to pay the rent…people have called the police on me for walking past a school that was on my way to work (forcing me to have to walk 5 blocks AROUND the school)
One city I moved to, as soon as I registered, the sheriff went to the doors of everyone in the neighborhood and handed them a paper with my face on it along with other info and said “We’re here to alert you of a registered sex offender living in your area”
What gets to me the most is that people only see the charge, that I had sex with a minor. They don’t see when it happened, how old I was at the time, no brief explanation of the circumstances, nothing. All they see is I exploited a child…and I wasn’t old enough to even smoke a cigarette or have a credit card!
I can’t take this anymore! Why am I paying for something I did as a kid?!? Is there any way I can get off of this?!?
i would get a lawyer and have something done. I mean all the girls in high school did it with a fellow teen at my high school…..i think that this is ridiculous. my sister was pregnant at 16 from someone older than 18 and he didnt get in trouble even when my mom called up the police…they were like, “um mam thats too bad…”… I fell sorry for you and wish you the best of luck. seems like you had more done to you than a priest who molested a kid would have received.
Your daughter might be a minor, but she can still be a criminal. In this case a felon.
How could she spend upwards to 20k and you not notice anything odd?
She will be held accountable criminally and most like YOU civilly. She is your child, you are responsible for her actions.
The only good news is that her criminal records will be sealed when she is 18.
Personally, if this were my child, and I have 3, including 2 teens, I would pay this off to avoid the whole criminal aspect and the effect it will have on her future. You will end up paying it after the fact anyway, your child stole a lot of money, you have to make restitution just like you would if she was shop lifting.
After that she needs counseling, anyone thinking this is OK, even at 13 has some serious social issues. And of course everything she bought illegally would be returned, sold to pay you back, or taken to Goodwill. You need to make sure she knows that the problem was the crime, not getting caught.
Are you responsible for credit cards you recieved as a minor?
I need some major help!!! When I was 16 I visited to my local city college campus for lunch. While their a women approached me and ask me if I wanted a free tshirt. I said sure and she said all I needed to do was fill out a credit card application. I did and a little while later I got several credit cards in the mail so I started using them and making payments. Well I got in over my head and eventually couldnt keep up with the payments. I contacted a local credit counseling agency for help and they said they couldnt help me because I was a minor and could of not legally incurred this debt and to send copies of my birth certificate and id to the credit card companies and the credit bureaus. I did this meanwhile I was charged too many fees to count and the balances skyrocketed. Several years later this is ruining my life I dont know what to do or how to do it.
I canceled my gym membership over four months ago, but they are now trying to force me to pay for those fees?
Last fall I went in person to my gym to cancel my membership and was given a simple form to complete stating the reasons and acknowledging that if I wanted to rejoin at a later date I would be subject to new fees. I signed the form and asked for a copy of it, which I have kept. I thought the matter was settled. A few days ago I began receiving calls at all hours (including six on Sunday morning) from a 1-800 number, and when I answered it an incredibly rude person told me he was from a collection agency and had been hired by the gym to collect my debt. I explained the situation about canceling the membership, and the guy treated me like a deadbeat making excuses. I then called the gym and asked to speak to the manager I was familiar with, but she was no longer working there so I was transferred to some other lady who informed me that the gym had changed ownership and a new policy had gone into effect last fall stating that in order to cancel the membership you had to send a certified letter to the company headquarters. I asked if that was the case, why the employee gave me the form to fill out and said nothing about a letter, and she said that person was no longer at the gym and she was not responsible for the misinformation I had been given.
The membership wasn’t even supposed to be a binding contract because I was only sixteen at the time I signed up. I was told that I could go ahead and fill out the application and start using the gym until a parent came in and signed it. My parents never came to the gym, and I continued to go there multiple times a week without anyone every saying another word to me about it. The payment was processed through a prepaid credit card that I just kept topping up to cover the fees. I stopped topping up the card when I canceled the membership. I canceled it because I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma last summer and can no longer work out at public gyms due to the germs milling about there. I told the manager at the gym about my health, and she basically snorted at me and insinuated that I’m lying. She said I didn’t properly cancel my membership and owe $500 ($125 a month) for the fees, and that if I still need to send in the certified letter.
I’m going to send in a certified letter, but I’m not going to be bullied into paying $500. The collection agency called me 10 times today. The only headway I made with them is that they said they would no longer call me before 8am. I thought it was illegal for them to go after a minor (I’m 17 now) and to call someone on her cell phone; isn’t it?
I’m not going to get my parents involved in this mess, but I don’t know what to do. Is this going to affect my credit score now? I want to get the gym and the collection agency to back off, and I want to file complaints against both of them. Can someone please give me advice on how to proceed?
I don’t know what to do sorry!
Hi,
#1 They cannot come after you since you are under the age of 18…….anyone under 18 cannot be bound to a contract……
#2 get the name and address of the collection agency and send them a certified letter stating that you do not want them calling you and harrassin you EVER again or you will press charges do the same to the gym.
They CANNOT force you to pay anything, you cancelled it the way you were supposed to cancel it and that’s that……
worse comes to worse, change your cell phone number.
DO NOT LET THEM BULLY YOU INTO PAYING THAT MONEY……
if it does effect your credit score it will only be for a few years and then it comes off, but i dont think it will get to that cause you are underage…..but that’s no big deal, they try to scare you