On this page
The first 15 minutes
- Block the cardsIn the banking app or through the hotline. Contactless payments go through without a PIN, so this really is the first thing to do.
- Remember what else was insideDocuments, a pass, a travel card, keys, a written-down PIN. Each of these has to be blocked or replaced separately.
- Retrace your steps and askThe till, the table, the taxi, the bus. A wallet is often found and left with the manager or the driver.
- Check the finds on DeRechi and post a noticeDescribe the colour, the material and what was inside, but never card numbers.
Where to look
Wallets are often found by honest people and handed in where they were found, or to the police. Often without the cash, but with the cards and documents, which are the hardest to replace.- The venue or the transport where you last paid.
- The police station near the place of loss.
- Your letterbox: documents from a found wallet are often dropped into a post box and delivered to your address.
- Local groups and DeRechi: search by colour and contents.
If there was a document with your address in the wallet, keep checking your letterbox for a few days.
Replacing things
Cards are reissued by the bank, documents by whoever issued them, the travel card and the pass by the carrier or the employer. Keep checking the card transactions in the banking app for a few more days and dispute any charge you do not recognise at once. If the wallet was stolen, report it to the police: the report is needed for insurance and often for replacing documents.A call “from the bank” asking you to read out a code from a text message or your card details is a scam, even if they know about the loss. The bank blocks a card itself, without codes.
Found someone's wallet?
- Take out nothing beyond what you need to find the ownerA name on a card or a document is enough. Leave the cash: it will be counted when the wallet is returned.
- Hand it to the police or back to where you found itThe venue's manager, the driver, security: the owner will come back to this very place. Take a bank card to a branch of that bank or tell the bank: it is blocked and the owner gets a new one.
- Post a notice on DeRechiColour, material, place. No photos of cards or documents. The owner will prove the wallet is theirs by describing what is inside.
