Why is another woman's debit card in my house?

[NatashaRomanoff]

Please talk me down, I think I'm close to a panic attack.

My husband is away on business today, he will return this evening, so I can't speak to him right now.

This afternoon I have found a debit card in my house (in the living room) behind some furniture that is not mine. It's not my name or anything close to it. We don't know anybody by the name. The piece of furniture was only recently moved and there was nothing there.

So where the fuck did this come from? Please tell me there's a solution that doesn't include him shagging around. He hasn't shown any of the signs - I know them - exH cheated. I'm an absolute mess.

Years ago you used to get a reward for handing in lost bank cards - I think it was £5, (this was back in the 70s). Not sure if they still do this, but they'd certainly be happy to receive a card being handed in.

They will probably take your name and address though.

I don't think we had bank cards in the 70s.

I don't think we had bank cards in the 70s.

I don't think we did either.
We had lots of brown things and general grimness, but not bank cards. You had a cheque book instead.

We recently found a pair of, very nice, designer, men's socks in our clean laundry. DP is adamant they're not his. I'm 100% sure I'm not having an affair.

I don't think we'll ever figure it out.

Have you messaged card woman OP?

No, but DS helped DH to hand the card to the bank today and they were very grateful and will contact the lady.

Did he cancel the cheque while he was there?

I think there were cards in the 70s, I'm sure they were being used when I first started work in the early 80s.

Never mind contact the lady, they need to ask her where she lost it and make sure to let you know

I think I had one in the 70s, too. So, being an interesting sort of person I looked it up. The first bank cards were ATM cards issued by Barclays in London, in 1967. In 1972, Lloyds Bank issued the first bank card to feature an information-encoding magnetic strip, using a personal identification number (PIN) for security.

Did you cancel the cheque, OP??

Well I didn't think they were that early.
Not common place though.

There is no cheque of course I did!

I think they were common, I can remember having to hand write the details onto the back of cheques, once they'd been introduced I'd have thought shops would have required people to use them for security otherwise what would be the point of them. I worked in a chain store so maybe smaller shops didn't enforce it.

I happened to be at the barber's earlier. According to whatever radio show they were listening to, the first Diner's Club cards were issued in 1950. I wasn't really listening, but I'm almost sure they said that 'Access, your flexible friend' was around by the 1970s.

I can recall being offered an Access Card at college in 1975

There was also something called a Bank Guarantee Card that you used with your cheque book.

And I recall working as a hotel receptionist in 1977 and a travelling salesman tried to pay his bill with a credit card and none of us knew what to do with it. He wasn't surprised and said he'd been trying to use it for months.

InUse perhaps your H is having a gay affair with a trendy dresser?

Joking of course!

magoria I can't imagine what a trendy dresser would see in my DH!

(Kidding. I think he's gorgeous, obviously.)

Oh gosh, this reminds me of how backwards I thought England was with regard to debit and credit cards. I remember trying to buy stuff at John Lewis (I think, it was...or some large department store like that) on a trip visiting from the USA and they didn't take credit cards even as recently as this millenium. I had my first credit card in 1981, I think and a debit card right around the same time.

It's wasn't that long ago that Marks and Spencer's didn't take cards, Sofia. I wonder if it was there.

I was surprised in my last trip to the States though that nowhere seems to take chip and pin and I couldn't find anywhere that takes contactless. I almost exclusively use Apple Pay now and it felt odd to have to get my purse out.

Chip and pin has been very slow to take off here. A few of the major retailers use it, but no one else does (not sure why). All my cards were converted to chip and pin a few years ago, so the consumers are not the cause. Most of the smaller retailers take Apply Pay and other alternative forms of pay.

I can remember just after I opened my first bank account (National Westminster) in 1970s having a cheque guarantee card for up to £30. I also had a rectangular plastic white card which had punch-card like holes which you could use to draw out £10 from a machine. It must have been one of the very first atm cards. You could never find a machine and if you did they didn't usually work! The money was dispensed in a sealed packet, if I remember correctly.

Sofia - John Lewis and M & S were amongst the last stores not to take credit cards, if you'd tried to shop anywhere else you wouldn't have had any trouble.

Do Costco in the US take credit cards, they are the only place I know of now that doesn't take them

I remember when you could only pay for things in John Lewis in the department they came from. And they seemed really slow to take on bar codes and relabelled everything with their own bar codes.

I still feel weird taking things to the wrong department to pay in shops . Paid for kids clothes at the Zara Man till yesterday and had doubt in my head that they could take them

I'm still waiting for Asprilla11 to tell us more about her Mum's Leslie Crowther/chinese people dream!

Me too!