ATM or Credit Cards - Lost or Stolen

altmtl

I was wondering if anyone has ever had there ATM or Credit Card lost or stolen in India and how long it took them to get a new one back from overseas... 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks? What was the procedure. I know the bank needs an address or PO Box to send it to, but what was the average time?

Thanks

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zoltan

I've heard from a work colleague that his father had a cc stolen in Italy. He had an Amex card & the replacement was done within a week.

Procedure is to phone the bank (the numbers are on their web-sites) and report the details. The bank will generally cancel the existing card, allocate you a new one (with new number) and courier it out to your location.

Cheers
Zoltan

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Aishah

I had one go when I dropped a purse a few years back. Cancelled the card within 20 mins. then had to get the new one. It was an Australian bank one. The whole process took almost 3 weeks. First the card had to be sent to an address in Australia - this took 10 days (a weekend was in the middle). Then my friend couriered it to me via DHL. It fast came to Delhi, from then on it was a fiasco. It was moved to another place in Delhi then it went to Jaipur where it sat over a weekend and another couple of days. Then to Jodhpur where it went 'missing'. It took a full day of phone calls between Sydney, Jaipur and Jodhpur to establish that the Jodhpur man did indeed have the parcel (it was inside a couple of books). Whilst there is an agency for DHL here, the Jodhpur people would not forward it to us. We arranged for the parcel to be delivered to a tyre selling shop and to be kept there. My nephew took the bus to Jodhpur the following day and it was finally in my hot hand about 21 days after I lost it. The tension for all that time, for me, was terrible!
I hope you have better luck with your delivery altmtl - be sure to use a really reliable company- DHL is brilliant if you are in a main city. I think FedEx might be better. First Flight is a good one for Jaisalmer, that always goes at a good speed, but my friend in Oz found that it wouldn't come to her door up in the Blue Mountains whereas DHL did.

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indigo1204

In 2001 we lost our visa card in Aurangabad. A new card was sent to a bank in Jaipur which was the next big city to which we were going, possibly 10 days later. It could have been sooner if we'd wanted to change our plans and head to a big city sooner. We needed to provide ID at the bank - we used a passport and other cards (Australian drivers license maybe) which they needed to photocopy and there was no photocopier in the bank...But we did get the passport back and the Visa card. There were lots of forms to sign. For some reason, it was not possible for them (Visa)to provide a card with an encoded magnetic strip, so swiping didn't work, the numbers had to be entered manually. This was fine in India (we didn't need ATMs) but most places in Canada, our next stop, thought it very odd!

capt_mahajan

Not an answer to the OP, but once in a while the ATM swallows the card due to some error. Happened to me once because the power tripped and they had no backup

Time taken to get the card back can be anything from 1/2 days (if using same bank ATM, or a week or so). I would think the time/headache involved will be greater for a foreigner without a bank account in India.

altmtl

Yeah that would be a bummer, my major concern is waiting 2 weeks. Another reason to have TC's, but then again how long would they take to get there?

Aishah

TC's to be delivered to you in India? If you use DHL, First Flight, FedEx, to a major city no more than 4 days or so. Speedpost type things through govt Post Office, can take a week - 10 days.

That ATM card swallowing is always at the back of my mind too, Captain. Fortunately around here we only have push your card in a slot and pull it out again, type of slots. Much better.

zoltan

I don't think this would be possible...

Everytime I have purchased T/C's, I have to sign them in front of the issuing officer. When they are cashed, I have to sign again, to confirm that the signatures match.

If you try to order them overseas, there's no way they can be confirmed as being signed by you (by the issuing bank).

Cheers
Zoltan

Aishah

You're quite right, Zoltan. I forgot about that aspect of TC's - so long since I last had them. Not a good idea. If you needed money to tide you over, the fastest way would be by Moneygram or similar, like Western Union.
Hefty fees however.

capt_mahajan

That depends on the bank in question, or rather, their ATM machines. Axis bank, for example, makes your card disappear whether in Hyderabad or Delhi. SBI (and those types) are safer in this respect.

Nick-H

Beware: India is black-listed by many banks and credit card companies for sending cards by post. So far both Barclaycard and Mastercard have refused to send replacement cards from UK to me on expiry of the old ones.

Aishah

And that was the reason why my card was first sent to an Australian address and my friend forwarded it to me. Australia, most banks will not send a card to India too.

Kanehanahou

I'm attempting to solve (before the fact) these type of occurrences for my next trip. I'm adding a friend in the States as a signer on my account and taking his card (with a newer expiry date) as a backup (well-hidden, of course).

Additionally my bank, Wells Fargo, has an association with ICICI Bank and since I'll be there a while, will open an acct at ICICI Bank when I arrive and set up automated transfers to that account from my US bank.

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edwardseco

A little cash and or TCs are a nice backup..

diane123

Please can you go into more details (SBI? - and those types) . Don't think I would handle that kind of problem in India.