All David wanted to do was be a good Samaritan. When he and his family came upon a credit card in the parking lot of a rest stop, he wanted to make sure he helped out its owner as best he could. But he isn’t sure if what he did to remedy the situation was the right decision. Let’s all chime in, shall we?
David writes that he and his family stopped at a rest stop on the way home from a trip. In the parking lot, they found an American Express platinum business credit card in their parking spot.
It was too late to flag down the car that had pulled out, so we brought it in to the rest stop. I thought we should turn it in to lost and found in case the person realized they lost their card and came back for it, only to discover that the only one there was at the Burger King, but the woman at the information desk offered to hold it when we told her what we had found.
My wife thought we should call American Express. We did that (got through on first ring right to a person — must be nice to have a Platinum card!) and they immediately closed the account and told us to cut up and throw away the card. I thought that if I lost my card having it cancelled without me knowing would be reassuring but also a bit of a pain if it was the only card I had.
The other idea was to Google the name and business on the card and send an email offering to mail/FedEx it back — but I was worried about being in possession of a lost credit card not in my name.
So Consumerist readers…what would you gave done? 1) Turn it in to the lost and found at the information desk or Burger King, 2) Called AmEx, 3) Googled the name trying to return the still working card to its owner?
Did David do the right thing? Vote below, and offer up any alternative suggestions in the comments if you’d like.
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I would just destroy it so no one else can use it and let the owner call the credit card company when they realize its missing. Definitely don’t send it back, as they will have to replace it anyways.
Having worked in a large bank call center we had 2 protocols for this: If it was a “naked” card, we would put a block on the account and ask the caller to destroy it. If it was with other items (wallet/purse/etc.) we would try and reach out to the cardholder to play matchmaker.
I didn’t realize I’d lost my debit card until a local branch of my bank called to say it was left in their ATM the night before. When I came by to pick it up, the clerk checked it and said it had been cancelled, presumably via the 800 number on the back. No charges (or attempted charges) on it, either. I guessed a good Samaritan had found it, cancelled it, and tried to take it to the bank; since it was closed, they fed it to the ATM instead. I probably would have waited a day and called the bank branch first, but it worked out okay (even with the card replacement fee).
You left out an option lol. Go to the store quick and buy a bunch or stuff!
Call the card company. I have lost my card before and preferred it to be done that way.
Frankly, I don’t know the good samaritan from beans. I’m not questioning their probable good intentions, but there’s nothing to say that they’re not a pick-pocketer, identity thief or what not. It’s just the fact that its hard to trust a stranger these days with all the financial scams going on. And the fact that the card’s been out of my hands/control makes the card suspect now.
Don’t get me wrong, I would definitely appreciate the effort in trying to track me down, but its just a matter of card security for me.
The truth is that once it is out of your hands, there are several people who could have done anything…but you’ll be able to see any funny business on your statement and report it.
Call it in, then destroy it.
Or just destroy it.
My wife lost her AmEx at the mall, we noticed a few hours later and cancelled the card. AmEx FedExed us a new one overnight. The funny thing was right after she called AmEx she got a message on Facebook from someone who had found the card and offered to return it. It was moot by then, but we appreciated the gesture and the fact that some random person went to the trouble of trying to contact us.
I side with “call Amex and cancel”. If they have the fancy schmancy level of card described, they can probably get a new card FedExed to them wherever they are, even being able to afford any surcharge on overnight delivery.
Assuming the person had alternate forms of payment, e.g. personal credit card or personal debit card or even cash, surely they will have survived. If the only form of payment they had in their wallet was one corporate Amex, then they are a fool.
I love the challenge of trying to find somebody in these situations.
I would never hand a credit card I had found to some strangers to hold onto in case the owner came back. Who knows that person’s intentions.
I like what the OP did. Was kind enough to call Amex to get the card shut down and then distroyed it. You could also take the easy way out and just distroy it. The owner will notice it’s lost and report it as such… but you would have prevented unauthorized use just by making the card into confetti.
(The whole google the owner and FedEx thing is just odd. Amex can afford to send a new card and the owner probably would have closed the account by the time the old card showed up… wasting the money spent to return it.)
exact same thing happened to me I found an amex on the ground at fry’s. I called the number on the back and they thanked me and told me to shred it. On the other side years ago i got a call from my CC saying someone had found my card and it was waiting for me at a game store i frequent. I went and picked it up.
Easy. Four to five cuts, and two to three trash cans. Ok, so not that easy. But they will notice it is gone shortly and get a replacement. And with it being a platinum card, there will probably be no cost.
Now if it was a wallet, I would call either the Google number, or the number from the operator from the drivers license.
I found a wallet a few years back and it was from out of state. I called the operator from a payphone saying I found a lost wallet. They connected the call and I left a message. Their parents called them and I later met them to return it.
What – no option for “Internet Porn Buying Spree”?
I found a credit card at the post office one night. It was after hours and I was pretty sure it belonged to the lady who had been using the automated machine in front of me. But she was already gone. So I googled her name and phone number and called her. She sent her husband to meet me at a local fast food place and I gave him the card. If I hadn’t been able to find her, I would have called the CC company. I would NEVER hand it over to someone in lost and found. Why would I assume that they are honest enough to not use the card themselves?
About a year or so ago, my wife, infant son, dog and I were out for a walk in our neighborhood and found a CC on the sidewalk. Confronted with the same dilema, i whipped out my iphone and found the person in about 10 seconds only a few blocks away and returned the card. She had already cancelled it but was a little taken aback by how easy it was to find her.
I found a Debit/Credit card on the ground once while riding my bike. I called my local PD to ask what I should do, and they suggested that I bring it in to the PD. Their reasoning was that if it had been stolen (like if it was part of the contents in a car burglary or stolen wallet case), they can tell the owner it is accounted for and maybe even try to get prints from it.
When asked if I would be a suspect, they stated that they would take my info when I surrendered the card, but would take into account that most criminals don’t turn the card into the cops and fill out paperwork when they are done stealing from the victim.
Touche.
As I was walking out of a store once, I overheard a woman nearly shout at the clerk about forgetting to return her credit card. I found it in the parking lot and went in and handed it over. She looked at us pretty suspiciously and she watched us leave. I think she took note of our license plate number.
Next time, I’m just going to call it in or destroy it and not even try to return it to the owner.
Just cancel it. They can always get a new one. I left mine in a rental car, and the rental car company called me and offered to Fedex it to me at my expense, but I told them to shred it and called my bank, which issued me one for free. I have plenty of other cards, so no biggy.
Leave it on the ground and don’t get involved!
Leave it along and keep walking!
Just destroy it, there’s no reason for the original owner to want it back as there’s no telling who may have copied the details or skimmed it for later use, it’s easier to just get a new card issued than have to constantly worry about surprise charges later. And meeting a total stranger to return a lost card has all kinds of potential for getting mugged or worse, from either side.
I guess it depends on how difficult it would be to find the owner. I work at a university and I found a credit card in our office suite. Looked up the name on Facebook (her profile did indicate that she was a student at our university) and sent her a message via FB that her credit card was in our office. She came by the next day to pick it up.
I imagine it would be much more difficult to find someone who lost the card at a rest stop.
My dad lost his wallet while filling up at Costco. He was pulling away from the gas area when he noticed that his wallet was missing (he still had his Costco card and Amex card as he had used them at the pump). We drove back to the gas area to look if maybe it fell out of the car, and we went back into Costco to ask them if anyone turned in a wallet. Nope, sorry.
Several months later, he got a notice from the post office saying that he needed to come in to pay postage on a package. It was the wallet (devoid of the cash, but the cards were still there). Someone had dropped the wallet into a mailbox. I guess it was nice that someone was trying to return it to him, but they should have just turned it in to Costco and hopefully, Costco would have contacted us. Or not. At that point, it didn’t matter since my dad had already gotten new cards. But instead he had to pay $2 to get back cancelled cards and a cheap velcro wallet. I wonder what would have happened if he just told the post office to keep it?
I’d try to return it, but then I’ve been in a similar situation before and was successful.
Some lady left her debit card in the ATM (still active, no less) and drove off. Tried to get her attention, but failed. So, I canceled the transaction and retrieved her card, pulled aside, got out my phone and did a quick google search (she had an unusual name). Turns out she was a divorce attorney, so I called her office, explained the situation to her secretary, and she patched me through to the lady’s cell phone. She was understandably confused as to how I’d managed to contact her (and I think a little scared that I found her so quickly), but within five minutes, she’d returned to reclaim her card with profuse thanks, as she’d been planning to go on vacation the next day and would have been in a bind if she hadn’t had it.
But then, if I hadn’t been able to quickly locate her and arrange to return the card, I would’ve called bank to let them know the card had been lost.
This just happened to me two weeks ago. I didn’t even realize I’d lost my card until the company called to tell me that someone had found it and notified them.
It was definitely the right thing to do. If the person had found me and tried to return the card, I would have canceled it anyway, since I wouldn’t have known what they might do with the number.
Amex will overnight you a new card.
In 2002 I called Amex and they read from their script: “because you have been our valued customer since 2002 we will overnight you the card”
Summer, 1996. New York City. Just after 5pm. I’m crossing Park Avenue South and I spot a folio style wallet lying open in the street, the sun glinting of the face of the American Express Platinum card in the frontmost slot. I scoop up the wallet, avoiding the stare of the homeless man who saw me snag it. After arriving at my destination (a friend’s workplace in Greenwich Village), I find some other credit cards, $182 cash, museum passes for Denver, CO, a driver’s license issued in Hawaii, and two bank checks issued that day from banks in Key West, FL totaling over $140,000. American Express wasn’t going to tell me to shred all of that.
I call Amex, get a live person on one ring. I explain the situation, that I have this man’s wallet and not just the card. They can’t give me any contact info, sure, but what they can do is call the phone number on the account (in Hawaii) connect me and let me leave a message. The next morning, I get a call, arrange to meet him near where I work. He had dropped it in the street getting out of a cab just after flying back from Key West that day.
I bring a co-worker with me (being a New Yorker, I’m a little paranoid; I don’t need to be ten feet away from him and have him yell, “Get a cop, this guy stole my wallet!”), and meet up at the agreed time and place, give him back the wallet.Five hundred dollar reward for me. He wasn’t so concerned about the cards and checks, it’s just he’d have to fly back to Hawaii two months sooner than planned to get the DL replaced. Me, I took the prettiest girl in the office to lunch that day.
Moral of the story: Call the credit card company. It’s their card, they’ll know what to do about it.
Call Amex and ask them to put a temporary hold on the card. Ask the business to hold it in case the customer comes back.
Or deposit it at a police station? Since its someones financial property. And also probably they are more equipped to find out and contact the owner. Or are you just getting yourself into unwanted trouble?
A guy found my debit card and LinkedIn to me. I was grateful! I was able to pick up my card the next day without having to order another one. It’s a tough call, but in my case it worked out that he tracked me down.
None of the above. Destroy it and let nature take its course. The owner will deal with it without any surprises caused by your actions.
Have done this a few times. Also, when I had an internet business, had a guy who thought he was emailing some other company email me his address, and credit card number, saying he wanted to order such and such items (totally not the right store lol). I never replied to his email, I called the CC co, and told them what happened – you can tell a CC type by the first set of numbers – she asked was the order placed by Michael or Jennette, and I said it was him, and she cancelled his card while I was phone, and I asked the customer service rep if she would mind sending a short letter with his new card as to why you should NEVER EVER just email your card numbers, even if you do have the right business email address, and she said she would do just that, and she was not quite managing to hide laughing, though I know, and she did too, that it wasn’t really funny. I bet his wife was PISSED.
The problem with being the nice guy that calls or returns a found card in person is that you don’t know if it’s been used fradulently before you found it. Personally, I don’t want to be the last face they saw holding their credit card before they got that $8000.00 surprise bill. That’s why you call the credit card company. They will have a record from the owner of when they last used it, as well as when you reported it found.
I’ve found a few cards over the years that I’ve called in. One time the csr said that the card was now canceled and thank you for reporting it.
The other time, the csr said that the card was now canceled and I should mail the card to the address on the back. I said no. I’m not addressing an envelope or paying for postage. I am sitting next to a shredder and that’s where it’s going. The csr sited policy and he wanted my name and address. That was the end of the conversation. I didn’t get that warm and fuzzy good Samaritan buzz I was looking for on that occasion.
Cut it up & throw it in the trash. Chances are the owner already cancelled the card, meaning there’s no point in trying to return it and even if you did, the owner likely won’t even say a thank you.
I’ve already gone out of my way to help someone who left his entire wallet at the ATM and after wasting my gas to return his wallet with everything in tact the asshole couldn’t even say thanks. He did however rummage through his wallet, like the person kind enough to return the thing in person was going to rob him blind. So yeah, don’t waste your time. Chances are you’ll waste your gas helping out an asshole too.