What should I do if I lose my payment card?

Imagine that, as usual, you want to pay with a card for shopping. You reach for your wallet and...it turns out that there is no card in it. Your embarrassment, the punishing look of the cashier and the fact that you won't leave the shop is your slightest problem at the moment.

How to reserve a card?

If you own a card, you can reserve it in two ways: in person at a bank branch or by calling the bank's hotline (some banks also allow you to reserve the card online).

The bank will only ask you a few questions to confirm your identity, but it may be difficult for you to answer them. What will the bank ask? About our customer number or...the last digits of the card that has just been stolen from us. If we do not have an agreement at hand, we are unlikely to answer these questions. Fortunately, some banks ask about easier, or rather unknown data such as the maiden name of the mother.

If you have lost your card along with other documents, in such a case we will not be able to reserve it at the branch immediately. In order to do this, we must first go to the police, where we will report theft of documents, and then with a receipt replacing the ID card or passport, we can go to the bank. You have been stolen both your card and your documents? Remember to reserve all "plastics". It may happen that the bank will charge us a specific fee for stopping the card - refer to the tariff of card fees for information about its amount.

How do I reserve a proximity card?

If we pay with a proximity card or other non-contact banking products (e.g. stickers or key rings), the procedure for handling their loss or theft is exactly the same as when we lose our payment card. The bank is responsible for transactions made with a stolen proximity card.

Attention!

Contactless transactions for low amounts (up to 50 PLN) do not require PIN and not all of them are authorized, so it may happen that a thief will use our card although we have already reserved it. Fortunately, for us, the financial responsibility for such transactions lies with the bank.

Is it worth refraining from doing so?

With the reservation of the card it is not worth waiting too long. If the search so far has not brought any results, you should reserve your plastic as soon as possible, because the longer we wait with such a decision, the more time the thief gains in order to use our funds in the account. What if a card is found after it has been revoked? If it turns out that the card has not been stolen, but has simply "suspended" you in your wallet, you can breathe a sigh of relief and....wait for a new card to be issued, because the card stoppage cannot be reversed and it cannot be returned to circulation.

Is the card somehow secured against theft?

Fortunately, the fact that our card will hit the wrong hands does not mean that the thief will clear our account.

The most dangerous are those cards where confirming transactions are only a signature, because this one is extremely easy to forge (PIN, unless we ourselves have made it easier for the thief to get to know it, e.g. by holding it together with the card, it is much harder to guess).

If we manage to reserve the card before the thief wants to use it, it will be of no use to him/her - if the thief wants to pay for shopping in a shop or restaurant, the seller will receive a message about suspected theft. What if a thief tries to withdraw money from an ATM? Then the card will be stopped inside the device and the whole operation will not be executed.

What can I do except for the card reservation?

Lost card is one of the most common problems that a user of this financial product may encounter. He usually does not know what steps to take to secure his money. The only thing that comes to our minds in such a situation is to reserve the card. In addition to the obvious benefits (such as blocking access to our account for unauthorized persons), such a solution also has one fundamental disadvantage - the costs associated with the creation of a new card and the time of waiting for it. Not everyone knows that card blocking is not the only way, some banks offer their customers to block the card (such a blockade of authorization, as opposed to plastic blocking, can be revoked).

What about insurance?

Regardless of which bank we are a customer, we can most likely take out insurance against unauthorized use of our card. The cost of such additional protection is only a few zlotys per month, but opinions on whether it is worth deciding on it are divided. Where did this discrepancy come from? First of all because insurance, like most contracts, contains a list of exclusions that are not covered. Such cases include, to put it simply, situations in which the user lost the card as a result of lack of proper protection or negligence, i.e. he lent it to a third party, carried the card together with documents or PIN number. Remember that before the bank pays you compensation it will check the circumstances in which unauthorized use of the card occurred. If they prove you guilty, the insurance will not guarantee you any protection.

In addition, even taking out insurance does not give you the certainty that you will recover all the stolen funds. Contracts usually contain the maximum percentage of loss that the customer can recover in such a situation. When reporting a theft, you must also take into account that it may take many weeks before your application for a refund of at least a part of the amount can be processed, and during this time your account will be empty.

However, if you use the card in a reasonable and contractual manner - consider taking out insurance.

Did you lose your card? Do you know your bank's phone number? Have you ever found someone else's card and had to reserve it? We invite you to the discussion!