ReidsGuides.com  
v spacer
v Trip Planning Tools Destinations Adventures Photographs Blog Shop v v
v v

The Backup Info Sheet

The sheet of backup information is the message in a bottle you send to yourself in case you get into trouble and lose all your important travel documents.

Make a photocopy collage that includes the following:

Also write on this sheet the

serial numbers of your traveler’s checks,

your

credit card numbers

("code" them somehow), and the phone numbers for the issuers of your

ATM bank cards, credit cards, and traveler’s checks

—if you lose any of them on the road, you’ll need to call it in immediately.

Note that most credit cards and such will have a

local, non toll-free number

that you can

call collect from abroad

(since you can't dial 800, 866, 877, or 888 numbers from overseas). Be sure this is the number you get before you leave. If it's not written on the back of the card or somewhere on the card issuer's web site, call the toll-free number that is on there, navigate the annoying "push 1 for..." system until you get a live person, and ask her.

Make two copies

of this backup sheet of paper. Leave one with a friend at home (along with a copy of your itinerary) and carry the second with you in a safe place

separate from the originals!

(Tuck it away inside the lining of your bag or something.)


Related Articles
 
Outside Resources


This material was last updated June 2006. All information was accurate at the time.

E-mail | Print | Bookmark


about | contact | faq




Copyright © 1998-2008 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.