[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by DBlain

that' why I am so opposed to them, so many stores do not ask for ID so if your card is lost and stolen anyone could just "charge" things on your card.
But instead of it being "charged" the money comes out of your account and you have to fight to get it back and in the meantime checks for important bills could be bouncing.

I learned this first hand while in Paris. I lost my wallet and it was so hard to get the bank on the phone to cancel my Visa Debit card. My husband said don't worry about canceling the debit card since they need a pin, then I explained mine had a Visa Logo and when shopping with it a pin is not needed. My mom finally had to pose as me to get it cancelled. We had just refinanced a home and had about 25 grand automatically deposited in the account at the time we left for Europe, so naturally I was worried. Thankfully at my husband still has the old fashioned kind of debit card, otherwise we would have had practically NO money with several days still left on our vacation. We both carried the same credit card and that had to be cancelled so we had no credit cards to use either. What a nightmare but I learned lots of good lessons. Carry a different credit card than you spouse, keep copies of the front and back of all your cards, a backup card is a great idea, and keep all that in your room with your passport.

On a side note after going through the hassle of retracing our steps and checking with places we had been at, my husband was convinced that it was stolen, but I did not want to believe it since I had fallen in love with Paris. We never thought to check with the French Police. Two weeks after I was home, a letter came from the Paris Police Department around the corner from our hotel. Someone had found my wallet and turned it in. I either needed to pick it up in person or spend a lot of money getting it shipped back to MI but since I canceled everything I did not bother. I really felt good knowing it was not stolen.

Mine and my parents all have our picture on them.