how to survive a paper lost ?
 

Hi

I hope this will not happen to me (or any of you) but if you lose everything, not matter how, but if it happen , I know that I can scan some I.D. and send it to me by e-mail, but with passeport, and for money , is it possible to get a new credit card if your are not in your home contry, and with the money in your homeland bank, how can I get it ...? How do you continue your trip if something happen ? somebody know ?

Thank you
FranK

I just lost my debit card and am experiencing the situation you are describing. The key is to have a good friend at home who can check your mail regularly (provided you still have a home address, if you sold your house than hopefully you changed the home address of your credit card to your friend´s address) and send you the new card. Try to have a debit card and a credit card and keep them in different places so if you lose one you will have a back up. Unfortunately, I already lost my credit card in Costa Rica, but I still had an emergency stash of $100 US which let me drive 300 miles to a contacts house. The contact is a nice guy and I am going to Paypal him US dollars and convert them to Paraguayan Guarani. I will have my new debit card sent to Buenos Aires. You can have your bank overnight your new debit card for a $15-$20 fee.

Don't keep your eggs in one basket
 

I always keep cash and a variety of credit/debit cards in a number of places: next to the skin, in clothing, on the bike and hidden in the hotel. There is no absolute guarantee - hey you might get kidnapped, but very, very rarely, shit happens.

I made all my debit and credit accounts "joint" before I left the country - In my case, I added my sister (she had all the telephone/internet passwords) - so when things went wrong - I just texted her and she could contact the relevant bank to sort things out:thumbup1:

The problem with loosing any bank card, is that you then have to be in one place for a while, for the replacement to be sent through.

Errr - you have to know where you will be when the card arives - and the time and money to travel there.

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There are now travel cards - like cedit cards - but you buy them with a certain amount of money - so they act as debit cards .. but you can have a few of them .. so hve some of them scattered around .. and use them in your day use wallet.

USB sticks can be used to store copies of your documents .. saves carrying all that paper. They can also carry copies of your manuals and travel guides .. Best if it is a USB to memory card - use teh same type as your digital camera and you can use teh cammer to view teh documents...

Gato, is there anything that hasn't happened to you yet! ;)

I just wanted to say to you that you should be careful with the PayPal thing. 4ish years ago, I paid a fellow traveller for his bike by this method. We went to an internet cafe, sat down at adjacent PCs, made the transaction and he gave me the keys.

A week later the guy, (Hi Robin!), is on my case saying that PayPal have snatched the money back. They didn't even bother to tell me and wouldn't reverse the cancellation. It cost me a lot to get the money to the seller. To add insult to injury, they refunded the money to me by which time the $ had slumped to new depths.

Careful you don't end up with a very red face and a reputation for being an international conman.

Thanks

Is it possible to get a new passport in an embassy of you country ?

Yes, some places more trouble than others, but yes.

You can set up a internet bank account many banks have them and use them for transfering money. Scanning your paperwork in to internet storage is one way to go some have vary tight security. I fear losing my stuff more than being kidnaped.

What internet storage service would you recommend?

Storing a scanned document (graphic image) is one way to go. Is there an internet service for storing other types of digital documents (not scanned images) for viewing, printing, and editing from anywhere?

Google "online storage" for all your answers ;)

Good advice S&M, just kidding I mean stretcher Stretcher Monkey!:laugh:

So far the Paypal thing has worked out but that would be terrible if the money was taken away from my new friend because he has helped me so much here.

I am hoping to avoid any more stupid mistakes that involve losing things.

I was considering Western Union for a while but I think their fees are 5-7%!!!