Reading Passage 040810

I’m not the only one to have suffered that sick feeling that comes with the loss of a purse or wallet. Across Asia, and around the rest of the world, thousands of travellers experience theft, yet little is revealed officially. In many cases, police underestimate the frequency of incidents because they don’t want to discourage tourists.

Beth Rosnick, for example, had her purse stolen, and in less than an hour the thieves had used the numbers on her credit cards to steal $5,000 from her account. Then they opened accounts at two department stores and enjoyed themselves shopping. It was weeks before bills came in – and she discovered how much they had bought with her money. When it happened again, two years later, she had kept copies of her card details in her hotel room, and with a trusted friend at home. This meant that she was able to contact her bank and report the theft immediately, making the cards unusable.

For me, I’m not sure which was worse: the heart-stopping moment when I realised all my cash and credit cards were gone, or the agonising hours on the phone with bank staff in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Bank: “I’m sorry you’ve lost your card, sir. We’ll be glad to send a replacement card to your hotel, which should arrive tomorrow.”

Me: “But – I don’t have a hotel. I don’t have any money to get to a hotel. That’s my problem.”

Bank: “I’m sorry to hear about your problems. If you can give me the name and address of your hotel...”

This continued for four hours, repeating my story to seven staff in two countries and two languages before I could get an emergency cash advance to continue my travels. I had all my cash and my credit cards in my wallet. Had I kept them separate, spread around my luggage, the loss of my wallet would have been a minor inconvenience.