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A LIFE WITHOUT A CREDIT CARD
(IS NOT FUN)
About three weeks ago, I had a night out with friends that started at The Hoxton Hotel and ended at my new favorite spot Terpentijn. Halfway through the evening, I wanted to pull out my wallet for another round only to find that my wallet was gone. I rummaged through a nearly empty Proenza, found a pack of cigarettes and my keys but no, I repeat: no, wallet. Stolen? Lost? No one knows, but I had lost my cards.
With the greatest difficulty, I searched online and found the number for my bank, called to have everything blocked, and then I called International Card Services (ICS) for the same story. And also immediately a new card, please. But it was Friday night, and such a thing doesn’t just appear out of thin air, so it took 2 to 3 business days for the new cards to arrive. And so it happened that I was without payment methods for about a week, which was a particularly annoying experience.
I borrowed some cash from a friend for essential things (water and bread and such) but meanwhile, the last days of the sale at Bijenkorf and all my favorite webshops were going on – which caused great panic. I’m quite fond of sales but now I saw it all pass me by. No discounted Dolce boots, no Valentino dresses for bargain prices, and no Chloé bag for a fraction of the original price. Really, it was tough.
I’m quite fond of sales but now I saw it all pass me by.
I mainly use my credit card for two things: plane tickets and clothing-related purchases. International webshops do not accept iDeal, and my ICS credit card is my salvation in desperate times. And that’s doubly ideal because the purchases you make with a credit card are insured. You can invoke the Delivery Guarantee if your item is not delivered. If you paid with your credit card and cannot resolve the issue with the webshop, ICS will reverse the payment. What is also very nice, by the way, is that almost all your purchases are insured against loss, theft, and damage.
Anyway, on Thursday morning, I unsuspectingly walked down the stairs on my way to the office, and there lay a stack of envelopes with “priority” stamps. From 20 steps up, I knew it: these are my cards. Joyfully, I tore open the envelopes and indeed, my ICS credit card and debit cards were back with me. That credit card had to be activated “by means of a transaction using the PIN.” Ha, that was easy. After work, I immediately rushed to the Bijenkorf's shopping night, browsed through the last racks of the sale, and found a wonderfully bright orange pair of shorts from Sandro. A fine transaction, it seemed to me. And it was therefore a matter of bitter necessity that I bought those shorts.
The next day at the office, I eeeeeven checked in with my friends at ASOS.com and fell head over heels in love with two pairs of extremely cozy heels. Admittedly, that one transaction had already been made, but that was in a physical store, and I had to test whether it worked online. You understand. Well, I can tell you, it worked, so now I am richer by a pair of shorts and two pairs of shoes. Such a rather annoying event of a stolen wallet still brought about a lot of good.
Always check the terms of your own credit card. The terms of credit cards not issued by ICS may be different.
