You really gummed up my day. And aren’t the pictures of my kids cute?
In a flash moment of poor judgment, I opted to leave my purse in my locked car outside Ted’s daycare and run through the pouring rain to the door. I returned a victim of a smash and grab. Stupid move McGuire.

Mom, if you’re reading this, don’t worry. Everything’s fine.

The police report is filed, the cards canceled before the crook could use them, the driver’s license reordered.

Yes, it was a hassle. But at the end of the day, all I really lost was some plastic, leather and paper. Although I will miss my quarters for the meter container, my lipstick and the business card holder my dad gave me to use when he retired.
And I learned a few things (like never leave my purse in the car, even when it’s “hidden,” even for a second.):

• I should have followed the cardinal credit card rule of writing down phone numbers and account numbers for easy access (although with the web at my fingertips, that wasn’t too much of a problem). This would have been especially handy to help me recount what I had in my wallet.

I will do that as soon as I get my replacement card, then put the list in our fire safe.

• Relying on credit has its benefits because it means I carry little cash. In this case, I think I had more than my usual $5, but only around $30 tops. And with credit, most of my cards are zero liability.

With my debit card, I would have been out the first $50 in fraudulent charges, but I canceled my cards faster than the person who snatched and grabbed my purse could get to store. Note to thief: What took you so long? Couldn’t you have pumped some gas or bought yourself a slurpee down the street? What a waste of a morning for both of us.

• I should carry only what I need in my wallet. You wouldn’t be able to tell that I hate clutter if you looked in my purse. Receipts, membership cards, you name it. The strategy of having a half dozen cards used to maximize various rewards problems has its drawbacks.

Fortunately, I didn’t have my checkbook in my purse today and I never carry my Social Security card.

This weekend, I’ll use one credit card that I don’t carry around when I attend an out-of-state wedding this weekend (provided the airline lets me on with an expired passport and temporary yellow paper drivers license).

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Kara\'s finances, credit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.