You lost your wallet. Now what?
Your wallet is gone and naturally you are panicked. What happened? What steps do you take first? Will someone steal your identity? What exactly was in there? How could this happen? If you look a bit harder, could you find it? Should you wait to start the process of replacing everything?
Even the most careful people lose their wallets. Don’t dwell on how it happened. It’s time to take action. Follow this checklist.
Sensitive information about your identity
Driver’s licence, health card, firearms license, employee identification badge, passport, citizenship card, permanent resident card, work permit documentation, Status Card, NEXUS, Social Insurance Number, military identification and more. All of these important forms of identification need to be replaced, and if your wallet was stolen, the issuer (various government departments and employer) should be informed of the theft. If you can’t remember every piece of ID you had, use the acceptable government identification list as your checklist. I recommend being exceptionally methodical with your replacement identification. These powerful documents are prime targets for fraudsters.
Financial cards and passwords
Call the issuers of your debit and credit cards to have replacement cards issued. The banks will cancel the old cards immediately, and put a lost or stolen flag on your profile. This should prompt whomever is helping you in the coming weeks to take extra steps to validate that you are who you say you are. While you are waiting in the call-in queue to order your new cards you can probably click the “lock card” function from your mobile app for each financial institution. Change your PINs on every card immediately, too. And, hop into your online banking, credit card and investment profiles and change all the passwords. If you’re a small-business owner, notify your business banker and your lenders.
Insurance information
You may have had a health insurance card or your vehicle insurance information stashed in your wallet as well. Change the passwords to those accounts and have new cards and paperwork issued.
Credit bureaus
Fraud alerts can be placed on your credit files with Equifax and TransUnion, Canada’s two largest credit bureaus. If a fraudster tries applying for credit in almost any form the person running the credit check will need to call the phone number on your file to confirm it was you who made the application. Don’t worry, these alerts can be removed from your file.
Loyalty, library, transit, car share cards and more
These are less of a priority, but still important to replace. Contact each provider and order replacement cards. Change your PIN and online passwords, and monitor your points balances to ensure they haven’t been swiped or cashed in by a thief.
Do what you can to prevent this from happening again
You’ll have to make peace with losing cash and gift cards you were carrying around, and that can be a downer. But, channel that energy into a prevention strategy. Reduce what’s in your wallet to essentials only and leave the rest at home. Minimize cash and gift cards. Make copies of your identification cards and keep those in a safe place. Monitor all of your transactions regularly across the financial institutions you have accounts with for a minimum of 12 months. You can also pay for credit monitoring services if that feels like the right step for you. You may even want to transition to a digital wallet on your phone and stop carrying cards altogether.
Time is of the essence and this checklist needs to happen right away. Consider taking the day off of work to organize yourself quickly which will hopefully prevent fraud. And, if this was a theft situation, file a police report. You will want this on record.
This article was originally published in The Star. Lesley-Anne Scorgie is a Toronto-based personal finance columnist and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star.
