Hi.

I am planning an 8 month trip to SEA. Stopping in Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia.

To finance my trip, I will be using my debit amt MasterCard for withdrawing money as needed.

Recently, I though about “What will I do if I loose my atm card in SEA?”

I am looking for some ideas how to prepare for this kind of emergency.

Are there steps I can do in the U.S. before I leave to get access to some backup money?

Should I take along a large sum of cash?

Can my bank mail me a new atm card outside the U.S. (I will check).

Also, I will not have any close relatives to wire me money.

Any feedback would be helpful.

Thanks.

Tom.

Hi.

I am planning an 8 month trip to SEA. Stopping in Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia.

To finance my trip, I will be using my debit amt MasterCard for withdrawing money as needed.

Recently, I though about “What will I do if I loose my atm card in SEA?”

I am looking for some ideas how to prepare for this kind of emergency.

Are there steps I can do in the U.S. before I leave to get access to some backup money?

Should I take along a large sum of cash?

Can my bank mail me a new atm card outside the U.S. (I will check).

Also, I will not have any close relatives to wire me money.

Any feedback would be helpful.

Thanks.

Tom.

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Get 2 separate credit card acc. and keep them seperate,but mastercard/visa are usuall pretty good at getting out replacments so all you need is the emg no.

Open a 2nd account and get another ATM card

OR

Visa/mastercard

OR

Amex

AND/OR

carry TCs

Take 200$ in travellers cheques and stow them in a separate place from your card.

All good suggestions. you will definitely need more than one card. I suggest at least two, best for 3, stored in different places. Also, travellers checks, stored in a different place, at least two photocopies of your passport as well. And then, finally, no your bank won't mail your card overseas, only to an address in your home country, someone there will have to mail it to you. Also, you can plan with someone who will Western Union or Moneygram money to you just in case you lose everything.

Email yourself with every important phone numbers, passport number bank log on number, driving licence, travel insurance policy number, etc. If you lose everything all you need is to log onto the net and retrieve all the info you need.

I did this years ago, and coded in a way that only I would understand what it all meant, to date I have only had to call on it once when I needed to call home and speak to my mobile phone Co, after my phone was lost / stolen in Sri Lanka.

Bet not many of you know the number to call if your CCards are lost. The number is on the back of the card, (aint alot of good if you have lost it ) Also if you lose your passport, knowing the number saves a load of grief and time.

I always photocopy the front and back of every card and keep that in a secure place. That way I've got a record of the numbers as well as the phone numbers to call in case of loss.

I also have that information stored in an encrypted file on my PDA.

I had a similar situation to your scenario while I was overseas.

My "significant other" managed to loose her card then called the bank to have the lost card cancelled. Unfortunately my card was linked and the bank cancelled mine too.

If you lose your card, call your card company emergency number. They will issue you with an emergency replacement card and courier it to you if you request. Extra charges apply for the courier service and the card will arrive in 1-2 days.

You will then be able to withdraw money from the bank, over the counter, but not via an ATM. The emergency card didn't have PIN number use activated nor was a PIN number issued.

NL

Thanks everyboby for your advice.

Tom.

Well I only take what I need out with me and I leave what I have in safe deposit box at the hotel. Good idea to inventory what you have in your wallet - contact numbers for replacement cards ect. (most financial institutions will overnite replacement cards for emergencies)

or.....if you really on bare ground....simply rob a bank...

Not all banks will deliver a replacement card to anything other than your home address (or maybe a branch of the bank - might be OK if you're with Citibank / Chase (Bank 1) / HSBC as they have branches in Bangkok)

You could phone them up and ask. It can't do any harm, and would at least notify them that you're planning to use the card in South East Asia in a few weeks. (Have had a card temporarily stopped before now for unaccustomed use, until I phoned them up and they went through each of the "suspicious" purchases, and I agreed each was me...)

Amex will deliver abroad, so it might be an idea to get one, even if just as a backup.

Call back home to send some via western union