My card has been lost or stolen, how can I pay for purchases or withdraw money?
We can withdraw money and pay for purchases even if we don’t have a card in our wallet. The answer is on our mobile. But before using it, you need to keep certain things in mind
In Spain there are almost 87 million cards in circulation, according to the Bank of Spain. From time to time, one of them is lost, stops working or, worse still, ends up in the hands of those who should not and we have to block it . Taking into account that we are increasingly turning to cards and that they are also the key to withdrawing money from an ATM, what can we do if we lose ours, it deteriorates or it is stolen? The answer is in our smartphone . If we run out of card, and until we receive a new one, with our mobile we can withdraw money at ATMs and pay for the purchases we make.
Withdraw money without a card
Let’s imagine that we have forgotten our wallet at home and need to withdraw money or that, when inserting the card at the ATM, the machine rejects it because it is damaged. Or it may be that we have lost it or it has been stolen. In many more situations we may need cash and not have a card. For these cases, the bank has devised a system that allows its customers to withdraw money without a card from an ATM using their mobile phone.
More than a dozen banks offer this service. It is generally free and allows the account holder not only to withdraw money from an ATM, but also to use it to send cash to another person and to collect it from an ATM without a card and without being a customer.
In most entities, you only need to access your app from your mobile, indicate the amount you want to withdraw from the ATM and accept the operation, although some also allow the process to be carried out through the bank’s web platform or by phone.
Finally, you only need to go to a bank teller and enter the code provided by the bank. If we want the money to be collected by someone else, we will have to communicate the pin. The codes to extract the cash usually expire in a period of between one and ten days, depending on the entity. If the money is not finally withdrawn, it will be available again in the customer’s account.
Some banks are attached to the HalCash service, which has a network of about 12,000 ATMs. Thanks to it, and through their mobile phones, your customers will be able to withdraw money without a card not only at the terminals of your entity, but also at those of the rest of the banks associated with the system.
On the other hand, some entities offer other alternatives to withdraw cash without the card:
- operate at the ATM with the remote banking codes.
- do it through the bank window , but it could charge us commissions for this operation, especially if our account is virtual. Furthermore, not all entities have a wide network of offices; some digital banks don’t even have a physical presence.
Pay for a purchase with your mobile
If we have lost our card or it has been stolen, the first thing we must do is block it, either temporarily until we find it or permanently, and request another. But how can we pay for our purchases until the new one arrives? The ideal thing is to have at least a couple of cards in case we are in this situation, but if this is not the case, our mobile can help us once again.
Some banks allow you to request a debit card and associate it with a wallet, such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, or with the bank’s own virtual wallet. Thus, before the new one physically reaches us, we can start using it via mobile. This, for example, is possible with entity N26. Of course, in these cases limitations may apply such as, for example, that there is a maximum amount that can be spent per day or that only the digital version can be used during a specific period of time with the aim that when we receive the version physics, let’s activate it.
In other cases, the bank allows you to request virtual debit or prepaid cards, that is, “plastic” that do not physically exist, but that can be used to purchase online or in street shops if they are associated with a virtual wallet. Openbank and Revolut offer this service. In these cases, as it is a digital card, it can be used immediately after contracting it and can be a good alternative to pay for purchases while the physical card arrives home.
Open a new account in minutes
If our bank does not offer any of these solutions, we can also:
- open an account at a new bank as an emergency measure. Opening an account at a fintech bank and applying for a card is a process that can be carried out in a few minutes.
- use apps like Twyp, which allow you to send money to friends and acquaintances, pay with your mobile and withdraw money through the cashback system in shops. Twyp customers can create a card to make payments with their mobile phone at any store, after having previously associated it with Apple Pay or Google Pay.
