Found a credit card WWYD

[filka]

In early January I was at a huge London shopping mall and found a credit card on the floor.

First reaction was to hand in to security, but thought that the owner was unlikely to find it this way. Next thought was to take it to a branch of the issuing bank on the next working day and hand it in .

Then I realised that anyone else could have found it, emptied the account using contactless payments and then dumped the card on the floor . Decided that I didn't want to be showing up at the bank if someone else had used the card fraudulently .

In the end I just put the card through the shredder at home on the basis that the owner would/should have cancelled the card by then and I couldn't help if it had been wrongly used or not. But at least I stopped anyone else from picking it up and using it so I prevented the owner's situation from getting worse.

Was my choice reasonable, or WWYD?

TBH it has made me a bit uncomfortable about having a card with contactless payment. Even when limited to £30 a thief could get through a lot of money at £25 a time before the card was blocked.

@managedmis yes! Contactless transactions do not need a pin number, so there is absolutely no security measures, other than they're limited to £300 in a day in some instances...

Since you destroyed it the owner didnt get it back anyway so youd have probably been as well handing it to security

@P1nkHeartLovesCake I didn't know my husband had lifted my card that morning, (accidentally picked it up instead of his own), and he didn't know that he'd lost it...

@VanGoghsDog I always use contactless transactions with that account, and honestly couldn't tell you the last time I used my pin number with my card, so what you've said isn't true in all cases.

@Rubixcuube I don't know which bank you work for, but it's definitely not the one I bank with! Although your company policy seems to be safer than my own banks...

This happened to us last week, we handed it in at the relevant bank the next day.

It didn't occur to me that I might be accused of misusing it, and in any case, they didn't take any of my details just thanked me for handing it in.

But if it had been a hassle to get to a bank I would have called the bank to let them know.

What would you want someone to do if it was your card that you lost?

@2020BetterBeBetter my credit card has contactless

If I found a card say in a supermarket I'd hand it in but on a road somewhere I'd probably cut it up & bin .
I've once left my card at supermarket and fortunately it was handed in as it would of been a massive inconvenience to request a new one.
I once had my purse stolen with my debit contactless card it was used a few times less than £30 but I got the money back .
I use Apple Pay mostly now as very rarely use my card .
My credit card is contactless but again very rarely use.

I would always hand it into security; I used to work in retail and the amount of people that would leave their card in the reader was staggering! They would always sheepishly return around 10 minutes later once they noticed though so no worries, they just had to verify they were the card holder to security staff. So I would also do the same within a shopping centre.

I wouldn’t be worried about anyone accusing me of fraud. The police would want CCTV of the actual offence (card being used by 3rd party) and as you haven’t actually used it, this footage wouldn’t exist so there’s no way you’d be blamed.

Meant to add that visiting security/customer services is most people’s first port of call to the contrary

I found one yesterday in the tesco car park. Handed it in to tesco and posted on a local fb group. In 2 comments the owner had been found and went to collect it.

I rang our local bank to tell them I'd found a credit card. They contacted the owner, asked me if I would mind if he collected it from me, I said fine. He turned up at our house, collected it from me, and handed me a bottle of wine and a box of chocs. It was a few years ago, though.

I've found bank cards a couple of times. I've always rung the bank and told them where I have found the card. Both times they've thanked me and asked me to destroy the card.

I dropped my own card in a theme park once. I went to the security office there when I realised and was very grateful that some very kind person had actually handed it in about 5 minutes before I got there. There are good people around.

Reading the thread reminded me...I found it in a public area, not a shop. The mall was heaving with people but I don't recall seeing a lot of security. It was a non-working day so the banks weren't open. For some reason I just didn't think to check the phone number on the back.

But also very strange...the card was not signed!

I don’t think credit cards have the facility to pay by contactless; only debit cards do.

You think wrong. They do.

However nobody can 'empty a card' through contactless unless the loss isn't reported for about a month... The daily limit is low.

Filka, I have a card I've meant to have signed but didn't. And cards where the signature has rubbed off in my wallet.

I don't get why people don't just destroy the card as soon as possible? In any case the owner should cancel it as soon as they realise it's missing.

I would have handed it in to the bank given it was so close. If the bank wasn't close I would have called them to report it before just destroying the card.

I wouldn't just destroy the card because it's not my card to destroy and I'd rather the bank knew about the loss asap in order to notify the owner and issue a new card. If owner doesn't use the card often it could be a long time before it's noticed.

It’s not really a moral dilemma is it, you are waaay over thinking this.

But also very strange...the card was not signed!

That’s not strange, OP. I haven’t signed a card in years and never had any issues using them.

"You can only do three transactions before it asks for the PIN anyway" not true

I worked have called the bank and told them I'd found it. They would have stopped the card and told me to destroy it. Surely that's what must people would do. I can't really see an AIBU in this scenario.

Then I realised that anyone else could have found it, emptied the account using contactless payments and then dumped the card on the floor . Decided that I didn't want to be showing up at the bank if someone else had used the card fraudulently .

I can't fathom this reasoning at all

I mean, if you had stolen it and emptied the account you’d be a bit of an idiot to then go hand it in at the bank so they probably wouldn’t think it was you. I’d have handed it in at the bank if I was passing or called them to say I’d found it.

I would have cut it up and thrown it away. No point in handing it in to the bank- mine said that I they get one handed in they destroy it and send out a new one on request.

But they might like to know where it was found alwaysthinking or OP may not even realised they have lost it yet.

With contactless payments, the security prompts you mention (eg asking for pin after X amount of transactions per day/daily purchase limits etc) are actually dependent on individual card holder’s habits. The bank’s algorithms will use your account history to judge whether this is an outlier transaction or not, so it’s different for everyone. If a customer regularly uses contactless, and the card has been fraudulently tapped at a shop they have previously shopped at, the fraud algorithm probably won’t trigger. Whereas if the customer never uses contactless or if the card has been tapped at a distant location from previous transactions, the bank may want to verify if it’s really the account holder sooner.