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Losing Your Wallet

Losing your wallet is always a pain, no matter where it happens. I lost mine about three weeks ago, I’m pretty sure it was pick pocketed on my way to work. Luckily there was nothing really important in it, just some cards to bank accounts and like keycards to buildings. I keep two wallets, one with all my American stuff and another with all my Chinese stuff, so there was no cross over issues.

Taking care of getting the cards back was a mixed bag of fun and adventure. I have two banks here, China Merchants Bank (a checking account and a credit card) and Bank of China (just a checking account). The CMB Credit Card came back to me within a week, but the two ATM cards are a total mess to get back and BoC is the worst. I had to go back to the branch where I opened the account, fill out some forms including presenting my passbook and passport.

After all that I figured they’d just give me a new card (since the ATM cards in China don’t have your name on them, they’re just cards linked to your account). Nope, I actually have to go back to the same branch office two weeks later with a claim slip and pick the card up.