A Headache to Deal With Bank Card Fraud While Traveling

We reported back in June that there may have been unauthorized use of one of our bank debit cards we use to withdraw money only (we never use it as a credit card).  After discussing with the claims department, the charges were reversed and the incident never occurred again so we thought it might have been just an honest mistake of wrong account number or something.  (During the same time, we did have a confirmed fraudulent charge on one of our credit cards, which we immediately canceled.  Fortunately, it wasn't one of the cards we are traveling with).  

Fast forward to September.  We recently discovered 2 new unauthorized charges on the same bank debit card and this time, we immediately got it stopped.  Bad news (besides the fraud)? We're now down an ATM card.  Good news?  We carry debit cards for 2 separate accounts so we still have the ability to withdraw money.  Except, when one doesn't work, we don't have a backup debit card.  We've come across this several times on our journey already where one works but the other doesn't...so, we were worried about getting the replacement card quickly.  

Of course the bank isn't going to send a brand new debit card to some random address half-way around the world!  Even so, we were trying to figure out the best address to give our housesitter that would ensure we received this important piece of mail.  Should we get it FedEx'ed to Istanbul?  Jerusalem?  Bangkok?  We aren't in any destination long enough to receive mail.  Such a dilemma.

Here's something we learned after talking to our bank again.  Even if you have a joint bank account, the debit cards issued may have separate card numbers - as was the case with our situation.  This means, the bank was able to identify that all the fraud activity was going on with Mike's debit card number, but not Akiko's debit card number.  Therefore, Akiko's card didn't get canceled and could continue to withdraw money from the same account as before. 

Problem solved.  We still have the ability to withdraw money from 2 bank accounts, just in case, and avoided the issue of finding a way to get the new card mailed to us, because that would've been a huge headache to try and figure out.   Remember to frequently check your bank account activities using a secure line!