What's in Your Wallet?

Do you know what is in your wallet or purse? Can you list each credit card and each piece of identification? Know how much cash? Know what Gift Certificates or Gift Cards you are carrying around?

Recently, a friend had her purse and wallet stolen from her desk in a nice office building in Hoffman Estates. Her desk is just inside the door on a floor where all other office doors require a key card for access. Her purse and wallet were in the bottom drawer of her desk.

While she was in the restroom, some unknown person entered the office and took her wallet and purse.

Make a list of the contents of your wallet - be fair now; do it without looking. Then compare your list with a list you make by itemizing each credit card, debit card, form of identification and all those Gift Cards you have tucked away in there for a special day of shopping.

Put your list in a safe place - maybe even in a secure online location. If your purse and/or wallet "grows legs", having immediate access to the list without driving home might save you some real headaches.

And make the police report immediately.

If you have trouble remembering just how many credit cards you really have, you can get a free credit report online. The full account numbers used to be shown on the report. It could be that the numbers are shortened now. You won't even have to know the full number; just call your bank or the credit card issuer (Good luck finding their number!). Maybe that's the information that you ought to store in an information file on Yahoo!, even if you don't store the full number. The credit card issuer will find your account through your name, Social Security number and other identifying information you can give them.