What do I do when I lose my wallet to protect from identity theft?

Ralph
00:00:00

Have you ever had that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you reach for your wallet and its not there? That moment of panic when you realize you've not just lost your cash, but you've lost your entire identity?

Well stick around because today were diving into a story that might just save you from a world of headache and heartache. Its going to be a roller coaster ride. Were going to explore what to do when you lose your wallet to protect yourself from identity theft.

And trust me, this is one show you don't want to miss.

Narrator
00:00:31

Welcome to the Ask Ralph podcast, where listening to an experienced financial professional with over 30 years of experience can help you make sense of confusing questions, current headlines and industry trends about taxes, small business, financial decision making, investment strategies, and even the art of proper budgeting. Ask Ralph makes the complex simple by sharing his real world knowledge from a christian perspective with all things financial.

Now here's your host, Ralph Estep, Jr.

Ralph
00:01:00

Now if you missed yesterdays show, we talked about the seven common traits Americans who can never, ever retire. It might just be the wake up call you need to secure your financial future.

So if you missed it, Im going to encourage you to go to our website and check it out. Todays message comes to us from Howie from Arlington, Virginia. Howie writes this hey Ralph, I think Im doing this right, but here it goes.

Ive been a faithful listener of your show for months now and I cant tell you how much its helped me get my finances in order, but got a question thats been keeping me up at night. Last week I lost my wallet at the grocery store. To be honest Strav I was freaking out.

Thankfully a kind soul turned it in and I got it back within a few hours. I was shocked that there was still an honest person out there in these crazy times. But it got me thinking, what if I hadnt been so lucky?

What step should I take if I lose my wallet to protect myself from identity theft? I know friends who have been through that process and it was a real mess. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks for all you do well.

How we thank you for your kind words and for being a loyal listener. I am thrilled to hear that you are getting value from this show.

I hope it's being helpful keeping your finances on track because that's exactly what I do. My goal here is to help you achieve financial freedom while growing in your faith. And your question is a great one.

It's something that many of us have felt and its something you want to think about before its too late. But I want to remind you, the whole point of this show, the ask Ralph show, is to answer your questions. Thats why we call it ask Ralph.

So if youve got that burning financial question, dont hesitate to send it in. Go to justaskraph.com and submit your question. And who knows, you might hear it answered on a future episode.

Howie, your question about losing your wallet and protecting yourself from identity theft reminds me of a powerful verse from the Bible. In the book of Luke, chapter 16, verse ten, Jesus says, whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.

And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. And I thought about it.

That verse speaks directly to the importance of being responsible and trustworthy with our resources, no matter how small it might be. And think about it in the context of your question. It's about being diligent.

It's about protecting our personal information and those financial resources that go behind it, even when it's a small matter. See, it's not just about safeguarding large sums of money, but it's also about being careful with everyday items we carry in our wallets.

And think about it. The Bible says by being faithful in these small things, we demonstrate our ability to handle greater responsibilities and blessings. So picture this.

It's a beautiful summer day. The sun is shining, the air is filled with sounds of laughter and excitement.

And my client, lets call him Tom, he decided to treat his family to a day at the amusement park. They were having a blast, riding on roller coasters, eating cotton candy. And they were making memories that would last a lifetime.

But as the day wore on, the sun began to set. They were wore out. They had a long day. Tom was at the souvenir shop. He reached into his back pocket to pay for souvenirs, and his heart sank.

He finally realized his wallet was gone. Now, he thought at first maybe it had fallen out on one of the rides, or perhaps someone had taken it in a crowd, one of those pickpocketers.

Either way, he couldnt find it. So at first Tom told me, he said, I just brushed it off. Its just a wallet. I can replace my cards.

But as he was driving home, as he was making his way home, he started to think about the reality of the situation. Because his wallet didnt just contain his cash and cards, it held his entire identity. Now fast forward a couple days.

Those next few days were a whirlwind of stress for Tom. It was a whirlwind of frustration. He spent hours on the phone calling the credit card companies to cancel his cards and request replacements.

He had to take a day off of work and go to the DMV to get a new driver's license. And nobody likes to go to the DMV. Think about this. He also had to contact his health insurance provider to get a new insurance cardinal.

Now if all of that wasnt bad enough, the real kicker came a week later. Tom started noticing some strange charges on his bank statement.

Well, turns out someone had used his information to make purchases online, and all of a sudden, thats no big deal. The inconvenience had turned into a full blown identity theft nightmare.

Now, you might be thinking, Ralph, thats an extreme situation, but listen, its more common than you think.

In fact, in preparing for the show, I looked at some recent statistics, and the identity theft effects millions of Americans each year, costing us billions in dollars in damages. And listen, it often starts with something as simple as a lost wallet. So you might ask, Ralph, what can we learn from Tom's experience?

How can we protect ourselves from identity theft if we lose our wallet? Well, I sat down with Tom and him and I developed some steps to help him implement after his ordeal.

And these are precautions I recommend to all my clients now. So first and foremost, and this one is the key, prevention is really the key.

But here are a few things you can do right now to prepare for the possibility of losing your wallet. Now, this goes along with women with their purses or whatever you carry around.

There's all kinds of things people carry, but the first thing I'm going to recommend you do, number one, make a list of everything in your wallet. Write down all the cards you carry, including your credit cards, your debit cards, your insurance cards, and your driver's license.

Make sure you've got an inventory of those things on that list. You should include the card numbers and the phone numbers to call if they're stolen.

If something happens, you're going to want to be able to access that. So keep this in a secure place at home. Don't put it in your wallet.

I had one client say, you know, Ralph, I made a list of everything like you said, and I put it right in my wallet, and I looked at him and I said, dude, if somebody steals your wallet, they just stole your list. He goes, yeah, I hadn't thought about that. Well, anyway, so write it all down, get the numbers on there, get all that information.

That way you have that inventory list that you can start working with right away, which goes along with number two. And a lot of people are guilty of this. And I'm going to tell you, don't carry unnecessary items in your wallet.

A lot of people carry that Social Security card. I wouldn't recommend it. Keep that in a safe place at home, not in your wallet. Think about what do you actually need to carry?

And that might change from day to day. If I was Tom going to the amusement park with his family, yes, maybe I needed an insurance card in case me or one of the kids gets hurt.

Maybe I needed my driver's license and maybe a credit card or two, but I would have left everything else at home. Number three thing, this is something that we can use technology for. So consider using a digital wallet app on your smartphone.

And in a pinch, these apps can be a lifesaver because they securely store your credit card information. And trust me, it makes it easier to cancel and replace those cards if your physical wallet is lost.

And like Tom, if he wanted to continue to buy those souvenirs, he could have whipped out his iPhone or his Android phone or his Apple Watch or whatever he had and used his digital card, and it would have saved the day. Number four thing, this one is critical as well. Take photos of important documents and store them securely in the cloud.

Now, you might not be a big cloud person, but trust me, this can be a lifesaver. You need to reference your information quickly.

I know when the wife and I and my oldest son, we went to Germany last October 1, of the things I did before we went away is I sat there and I took pictures of every single item that I was taking with me. My driver's license, my passport, credit cards, all those type of things, insurance card.

I even took a picture of my airline tickets and all those type of things because I wanted to have those backed up on the cloud so that if for some reason somebody grabbed my wallet or they got lost in the airport or something like that, I would have those things in a backup in the cloud, in that cloud. Storage and safety. Well, now I'm going to tell you what if the worst happens and you do lose your wallet, we tried to prevent it.

We've put together a plan for what happens. But here's what you should do immediately. First thing you want to do is call your bank and credit card companies.

You want to report those cards lost or stolen and request replacements. The truth is, most companies have a 24 hours, seven day week hotline for this purpose. And that's why you wrote that information down.

You got the card number, you got their 800 number to call. So put that inventory to work.

The second thing, you definitely want to do is file a police report because you want that official record of the theft, and that can be helpful if you later become the victim of identity theft. If you've got that report on file, you can use that police report if you're a victim of identity theft.

Third thing you want to do is right away place a fraud alert on your credit reports. That fraud alert's going to make it harder for someone to open new accounts in your name.

And you only need to contact one of the three major credit bureaus. That's Equifax, Experian, or transunion, and they are required to tell the other two. I didn't even know that before I prepared for this show.

So contact them. Put a fraud alert on your credit report number four. This one is something Tom learned the hard way.

You got to replace that driver's license and other important documents. Contact your local DMV and other relevant agents to get replacements. You don't want to be without those things.

The fifth thing you want to do, and the final thing on my list here, is monitor your credit report and bank statements closely during the next few weeks and months. You want to look for any suspicious activity so you can stamp it out right away.

That's the time when you want to be looking at your account every day. Look at those credit cards online, look at those bank statements online and see if there's anything that looks out of whack.

Now, howie, you didn't ask about this, but you could also consider signing up for one of those Steph protection services. I personally use Norton, and these can indeed be valuable tools.

If you're in the event that your financial security is threatened, this can be an arsenal for you. Some of the top rated services I found were lifelock. That's actually the one I use. Identity guard and identity force.

Now, these services typically offer features like credit monitoring, identity restoration assistance because, trust me, like I said, this is a process. It's frustrating, it's time consuming, and some of them even offer insurance coverage for identity theft related loss like mine.

I don't know what it is, but it offers some amount. But now it's important to note that while these services can be helpful, they're not a magic bullet.

They're not going to prevent it from happening, and they can alert you to potential identity theft, but they can't prevent it entirely. And that's why it's crucial you combine these with those smart practices like the ones we discussed earlier.

Because remember this, protecting your identity is an ongoing process, not just about reacting when something goes wrong. When Tom lost his wallethood, that was reactionary. But it's about being proactive and safeguarding your personal information every day.

Have that inventory. Think about what's in your wallet or in your purse. Do you need those things in there?

And if you do need them in there, make sure you've got a backup of those things. You've got copies of those things, you've got the information of those things. I know we covered a lot.

So let's talk a few minutes about a quick recap. So what did I talk about today? You want to always be prepared by keeping a record of what's in your wallet. I kind of just said that.

I think I've said that three times and hopefully I'm getting through to you. In the event that your wallet is lost or stolen, act quickly.

Contact your bank, your credit union, your credit card companies, and like I said, make sure you file that police report before you even get to that we talked about. Prevention is the key. Consider using one of those identity theft protection services. But again, I dont want you to rely on them exclusively.

Another important thing is to monitor that credit report and your financial reports, your bank statements, your credit card statements, and look for any suspicious activity right away. Because what you will find used to be a fraud investigator.

Another time in my life, you will find that those things will get flamed out really quickly. And most importantly, last thing I'm going to tell you to do, be proactive. Be proactive in protecting your personal information.

Because just like the Bible verse said, it's better to see the danger ahead and take refuge than to keep going and pay the penalty. That's right from the book of proverbs.

And see at the end, by taking these steps, you're not just protecting your finances, you're being a good steward of the resources God has blessed you with. Now, before we wrap up, one of the things, it's great to talk about things, it's great to discuss things.

But I want to encourage you to take action on what you've learned today. If you haven't already, do me a huge favor. Take some time this week to make a list of the items that's in your wallet and look at them.

Do I really need these in there? If you make sense to you, sign up for reputable identity theft protection service. And most importantly, I teach this to my young boys. Now.

They're young, they're 23 and 27. Now. Stay vigilant. Pay attention to what's going on around you. Maybe that big fat wallet you carry in your back pocket isn't the right thing.

Maybe you want to do like a front pocket wallet that you can pay attention to what's in there. Now, maybe this has been overwhelming for you, so I want to extend an invitation to you. I want to help you with your financial situation.

Or maybe you need some help just getting things on the right track. I would love to help you.

You can schedule an appointment with me by going to ask ralph.com comma clicking on the banner that reads, book a call with Ralph. Maybe it's not about identity theft, but you're in this position where you're living paycheck to paycheck.

It's bad enough to lose your wallet, but Ralph, man, I can't get my head above water. I feel like I'm taking three steps forward and then quickly getting pushed four steps back. That's tough.

I can help you break free from that financial bonding ging and achieve financial freedom. I can help you improve your personal finances. Maybe it's your business that's struggling. Maybe you need help growing your business.

Whatever it is, I can help you. We can work together to achieve all your financial goals. I start by creating a personalized plan just for you.

Not some cookie cutter approach, not some. Do these five things and you're going to resolve everything. We work together to develop a personalized plan.

Now listen, I do charge $150 consultation fee. You might say, Ralph, that's a lot of money. And it is. But you get what you pay for in life. And here's the other part of that.

If you aren't pleased with the personalized plan that we create, if we don't exceed your expectations, I will refund it to you 100%. Well, thanks for tuning in today. Tomorrow well be discussing what are nine unexpected costs of selling your home.

And trust me, you dont want to miss that one. Some of these costs might surprise you, and being prepared could save you thousands.

Remember this, my passion is to help you achieve financial success. I want you to live out your dreams. I want you to grow in your faith, and I know together we can master your finances from a christian perspective.

So as I always end the show with, stay financially savvy and God bless you.

Narrator
00:15:35

Thank you for joining us on the Ask Ralph podcast. And with a simple click to subscribe, we'll invite you back to our next episode. And remember, financial issues don't have to be complicated.

Just ask Ralph. The information contained in this episode of Ask Ralph is based on data available as of the date of its release.

Saggio Accounting plus and Ask Ralph Media, Inc. Is under no obligation to update this content if changes occurred.

Applying this information to your specific situation requires careful consideration of all facts and circumstances, and any information provided is not to be considered as financial, tax or legal advice. Please consult your tax advisor or attorney before acting on any material covered.