How to cancel your bank card

Blocking your debit or credit card when it is lost (or stolen) is vital. The less time you take to do it, the better and safer. Whether by theft or carelessness, it’s not just the money you lose: it also means renewing your ID card, driver’s license and other documents. But the first thing to do is always to cancel your bank cards so that nobody can use them. We give you the right numbers.

Where to call for lost cards?

In principle, calling to cancel the cards should be very simple. The Payment Services Law obliges banks to guarantee adequate and free means that allow the user to report the loss, theft or unauthorized use of the card. However, not all institutions comply with this obligation. Many of them only have enabled payment telephones, which are almost always excluded from flat rates, both landline and mobile.

On the other hand, there is a wide dispersion of telephone numbers for blocking cards, which also makes the cancellation operation difficult. In addition to the numbers that each entity provides for this purpose, networks have their own specific numbers

The Visa and MasterCard card brands do provide toll-free numbers for card blocking, but they restrict calls from cell phones – a major inconvenience if you miss your cards when you are away from home!

Keep the numbers written down

The moment you realize you don’t have your card with you, you may get a little nervous. You will control the situation better if you have written down, for example in your cell phone, the phone numbers to call:

• If you lose non-bank payment cards, the only way to block them is to call their customer service. It pays to be proactive and have it located in advance.

• If the mishap takes place abroad, the most practical is to call Visa or MasterCard directly. These entities have different numbers, generally free of charge, depending on the country where you are. It is therefore advisable to take the telephone numbers of the countries where you are going to travel with you.