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Earlier this year I got a phone call from my husband which was funny on my end but not so funny for him. He was in a full on face rubbing stressed panic because he lost his wallet. The phone call went something like this.

• Chris – “I lost my wallet, cancel everything”
• Me – “What do you mean”
• Chris – “Cancel it all, everything, all the things I had in my wallet”
• Me – “I don’t know what’s in your wallet”
• Chris – “Thanks for your help”

The call ended there, I won’t say who ended the call but you guys can read between the unhelpful lines I’m writing, right ????????. After the call I pulled up a few apps and put the freeze on a few of the accounts we have but honestly not knowing everything that was in a wallet that wasn’t mine that was about all I could do. A little while later I received a full account of the incident, which involved a wallet being left on the top of a truck while pumping gas. 

Now, let me stop here for a minute and note that I would have lost my s… if this had happened to me but when happening to my husband I took a very “well it is what it is” approach.  I can fully understand the aggravation and the accusation of not being super helpful.

So here I am, being helpful! LOL! I did take some time to write down some helpful things to note in case this ever happens to you.

Have Emergency Money in your Car

This incident happened while Chris was in Richmond Hill picking his daughter up for the weekend. He had both of our kids with him also and had zero money with him in the truck. If he hadn’t stopped to get gas prior to losing his wallet I would have had to stop what I was doing and drive down to take him money for gas. They would have been stuck. I don’t think you need $100 sitting in the glove box, especially if you’re worried about  someone breaking into your car, but a well hidden $20 could go along way for some fuel and some food if needed.

Make a List of What You Need to Cancel

Take a few minutes and write down the cards and identification you carry around.  When faced with what we needed to cancel the answer ended up being EVERYTHING because Chris had no clue exactly what was in his wallet.  This could have potentially put us in a tight spot if we didn’t have a few accounts that aren’t linked. We were fortunate in the fact that I still bank at my pre-marital establishment and never made the full transition to his bank. We were able to buy the things we need around the house and renew items online with my bank account while his was temporarily frozen. You should also keep a list of what you have auto-renewing on which account, weeks of getting notifications and having to make changes was a bit of a pain.

Have a Credit Card You Never Carry Around

This plays back into my point above, if we didn’t have money in two banks we would have been stuffed for a few weeks when it came to making purchases.  If this had happened to single Chris I guess he would have to borrow money off friends and family until everything was back up and running. A safe way to prevent any future issues is by having a card at home we can fall back on if needed and if it happens again we will need it, which leads me to my next topic.

You Can Renew Your License Online

For a $5.00 fee, payable online by credit/debit card, you can renew your license online. Without that card to pay the online fee I guess you have to go stand in line with your passport and renew your license at the DMV. What a way to add a headache to a headache.

Losing Your Wallet Costs more than Just What’s in Your Wallet

At face value it seemed like Chris lost the wallet, the cards inside, his license, his military ID, his work expense receipts, miscellaneous gift cards, and the cash he had inside. That’s a hard enough hit in itself but then there’s the back end of the equation. We ended up purchasing a credit monitoring service from Experian, the license renewal fee was only $5.00 but still something that had to be purchased, and have had to spend time changing out card numbers on the services where we have cards on file. As you may know, I’m a big fan of measuring time as a proponent of value so the time spent doing this is time I could have spent elsewhere being productive. 

But…Have Faith

Imagine our surprise a couple of weeks after this incident, once we’ve gotten all the things back in order of course, when we get a phone call from the front gate of our neighborhood saying someone just dropped a wallet off for Chris. ???????? The wallet was relatively empty only having the license, military ID, and cancelled credit cards left but someone took the time to return the wallet to Chris so there is still room to have faith in humanity. 

At the end of the day this was a learning experience for us and where we could have done without the experience it’s not the worst situation by far. Chris could have been hours away out of gas and out of money, someone could have emptied our accounts and charged up the cards before Chris noticed the wallet was missing, the person who returned the wallet could have been trying to drive by our home to case the place but were unable to get into the neighborhood…what, wait, what was that part about having faith…????????. As it turns out Chris made it home, everything worked out, and there is only some mild teasing happening when we are traveling together and stop for gas.