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MY WALLET WAS STOLEN many years ago when I was traveling on business. I had gotten onto a crowded elevator at my hotel. The last person to get on was a woman who pretended to get her heel caught in the elevator door.
The thieves were a young couple—and they were real pros. While we were focused on her, her partner proceeded to open the flap of my handbag and help himself to my wallet. Who knows how many others he took before they both decided to get off the elevator?
Even though I thought I’d taken great care to randomly jot down pin numbers and passwords on a cheat sheet, they had no problem deciphering how to use them. In a matter of minutes, they had charged $3,000 on a couple of my credit cards.
I was thinking about that incident after reading an article about downsizing your wallet. Some of the items we carry around could be a treasure trove for thieves.
Here are some things that should come out: extra cash beyond what you would need for an emergency, your health insurance card, credit cards rarely used or only used for online purchases, blank checks (who uses checks anymore, anyway?), receipts, store rewards cards, photos, library card and, yes, cheat sheets with pin numbers and passwords.
Why the library card? Thieves can run up fines on a stolen card, affecting your credit score. What if you have a medical emergency and need your insurance card? What if you’re out and about, and suddenly realize you need to go to the grocery store and want your rewards card? Due to a lack of space in my wallet, I used to keep a separate thin wallet with my driver’s license, insurance information and other items. That second wallet wasn’t stolen by the elevator thieves. Today, we can keep some of this information on our phones.
What does that leave? You might carry a small amount of cash for emergencies, such as for a cab that doesn’t take credit cards. If you’re traveling, you might also want extra cash to tip the bellboy or the porter. In addition, you’ll want the credit and debit cards that you’ll need that day.
While you’re at it, make a photocopy or take a photograph of the front and back of your credit and debit cards, as well as your driver’s license and your passport. If you lost any of these, that information could be invaluable.
I prefer to have a little in my wallet as possible. All those ancillary cards (library, AARP card, discount cards, etc.) I digitize them and keep them in my password manager (along with passwords one can keep almost any electronic document, file, picture, etc. in their password manager). In most instances, the vendor only needs to see the barcode, which one can easly pull up from their password database. Also good to keep digital backups of the items you do carry in your wallot in the database as well. If not a password database, a cloud file will do as well.
If you’ve ever seen the Seinfeld where George is sitting on and using a completely overstuffed wallet, well, that used to be me. 4 or 5 years ago II bought a Ridge wallet and never looked back. I bought two for my boys as well. It holds just what I need, credit cards and license, and has a money clip on the side. As opposed to a juicy target in your back pocket, the Ridge is carried in the front pocket and is harder for thieves to get to and never falls out on its own. I’m not a minimalist, but I swear by this wallet after carrying around a file drawer for years in my back pocket.
I have a severe food allergy and have had to be rushed to an emergency room on several occasions due to bad reactions. I would never want to be out without my medical insurance card (or my EpiPens). I’d rather risk the fallout of having it stolen than not having it on me in an emergency.
When I went to Rome a few years ago, I was warned about rampant pick pocketing. As a precaution, I wore a money belt with essential items: passport, 1 credit card and a small amount of cash. I had photocopies of passport and other valuables and kept other things in the hotel safe.
They warn that pickpockets operate in crowded areas, so I avoided crowds as much as possible. As a travel lightweight I was probably lucky. I read where Rick Steves was pick pocketed in Paris this year. So it can happen to anybody.