What Should You Do If You Lost Your Credit Card?

If you lost your credit card, don’t panic. There are steps you can take to reclaim the card or get a new one, and typically, you won’t be liable for fraudulent charges.

Freeze your lost credit card account

You may not need to cancel a lost credit card. Many credit card issuers allow cardmembers to temporarily freeze, or lock, their account. This can prevent it from being used for any new transactions. If you’re pretty sure you left your card at the local coffee shop, you can freeze the account until you have a chance to find it without canceling the card entirely. With Discover, you can use Freeze it®. Freeze your account in seconds with an on/off switch either on the mobile app or website to prevent new purchases, cash advances, and balance transfers.¹

While your credit card account is frozen, Discover will still process payments that merchants mark as recurring. Returns, credits, and dispute adjustments will also be processed as normal, and you can continue to redeem your rewards.

When you find your card, you can quickly unfreeze your account and continue using it.

Try to find the lost credit card

When you lose any item, your first instinct is probably to retrace your steps to try and find it. With a credit card, you can simply review your account history to see where the last charge was made. Log in to your account online or call your card issuer to get a record of your most recent transactions. When viewing your account online, be sure to check under “pending transactions” because it can take a few days for purchases to be posted.

Once you’ve found your most recent transaction, call or visit the merchant to see if they’ve found your lost card. If the most recent transaction or transactions occurred after you lost your card and they weren’t authorized by you, then immediately contact your card issuer to report your card stolen.

If your lost credit card is a Discover Card, we’re here to help. Discover has a $0 Fraud Liability Guarantee, so you’re never responsible for unauthorized purchases on your Discover Card account.²

Report your credit card as lost or stolen

If there’s no hope of finding your lost card or you’re sure it’s been stolen, call your card issuer. Discover cardmembers should immediately call customer service at 1-800-347-2683.

Your card issuer will invalidate the card and may ask you to destroy any additional cards associated with the account.

The card issuer will also make arrangements to deliver a replacement card. If you’re a Discover cardmember, you can expect to receive a new card within 4-6 business days, and there’s no replacement fee. Once you receive your new card, you should contact any merchants that automatically bill you to update your card information.