Comments on: Know What’s In Your Wallet or Purse

By: jim

jim — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:31:56 +0000

Glenn, I understand that photocopying it will capture that information, I’m asking why would you need the full number and CVV? Once you know it’s missing, you would want to cancel it, thus rendering the original card inoperative. At that point, having the number and CVV is meaningless; you really only need the last four and the customer service number.

By: Glenn Lasher

Glenn Lasher — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:30:56 +0000

Jim –

The point is that if you photocopy both sides of all cards, you have all of the information you could possibly need to recover from a lost card, and then some.

By: Starving Artist

Starving Artist — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:56:51 +0000

I came up with the same trick CK mentioned when I went on my last international trip. It was very comforting to know I could access my passport, drivers license, and credit cards at any time while I was overseas. If anyone is concerned about your account being compromised, you could just embed the PDF inside an Excel sheet. Or I guess Adobe probably has some embedding tools, too.

By: Bob T

Bob T — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:15:25 +0000

I took my SSN card out of my and put it somewhere safe. Haven’t seen it since.

By: Frugal Dad

Frugal Dad — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:29:13 +0000

Great idea! We frequently think to inventory our homes, but not our own wallets. I’m glad your story didn’t have a worse ending. My mother left her wallet on a gas station pump once. We returned to find an empty wallet!

By: jim

jim — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:36:00 +0000

Glenn: What’s the benefit of having the full account number and CVV for each card? I recognize that the security concern is probably overblown but I see no compelling reason to capture that information.

By: Glenn Lasher

Glenn Lasher — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:34:29 +0000

It doesn’t hurt to simply photocopy everything in your wallet. If you photocopy both sides, then you get both the full account number, and also the customer service number and CVV for each card, and you can put that in a safe place.

If you are the owner of an all-in-one scanner/printer/copier, as many people are these days, there is really nothing at all holding you back from performing this very simple act of self-preservation. It should take you less than two minutes. Make the copy, and put it in a safe place.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:42:35 +0000

Alex To: Thank you for the insight of your process, I think many will find it useful too.

CK: Excellent idea about emailing it to yourself, considering it doesn’t contain sensitive information (can’t do much with last four)

FMF: Yeah, I remember writing that, but I think the fact is you don’t really need all that information off your card. You only need the last four and customer service numbers (CVV is 100% unnecessary for identification unless you’re buying); the other stuff still applies.

By: FMF

FMF — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:36:20 +0000

I have this post of yours saved in Bloglines: Photocopy The Cards In Your Wallet It's one of the best money tips I've ever seen.

By: CK

CK — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:59:34 +0000

I keep a copy of my details in an email to myself on my Gmail account. That way I have access to the info almost anywhere. You of course could use any web based email or calendar for this.

By: Alex To

Alex To — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:47:36 +0000

I’ve been a regular reader of your blog but never contributed. Since I just created my “what’s in your wallet” spreadsheet for my family. Here are some tips for the spreadsheet:
- List and group your items in a descending order of importance. After all, you want to report lost/stolen all of your credit cards way before a library card, right?
- For credit cards, instead of recording the last four digit, write down the first 12. Why? Because the last fours you can easily get it by looking at your statements either by paper or online. Now you have full 16 digits, you can call the customer service and might be able to report lost/stolen by the automatic phone system. If you have to talk to an agent, she/he can quickly locate the account for you. Either way, you can report it a lot quickly then just with the last 4.
- Scan your driver license and the like instead of copying to paper; keep them safe with you spread sheet(encrypted preferably).

Alex