SDM GC: what to do if lost/stolen

[MeMew]

UPDATE: For the lost GC that I could provide SDM the full 19 digits right after losing it, they could block it and call me back later to tell me that they would send me a replacement GC for its balance. Kudos to SDM for their goodwill gesture!

Ok, I know that at the back of all SDM GC they have the statement like "protect this GC as cash. Lost, stolen or unauthorized use of this GC will not be replaced, etc."- so I understand that once my GC is lost, stolen, I do not expect SDM to replace it even when I can provide the GC number, but at least they can block the card balance so that the evil person could not use it (of course in that case, SDM is the party who benefits because we have already paid to buy that balance of the GC in the first place and now the balance could not be used by anyone).

Now my experience:I buy a lot of SDM GCs, sometimes the ones with the specified denominations, sometimes I request the cashier to add some unusual amount into a brandnew customized GCs. I hate the GC Parents-Students because I always carry the Students part with me (this is in fact the real GC which can pay for anything in store) but not the Parents part and when I want to load more money into the GC, I am requested to show the Parents part. So I avoid to buy this kind of GC - my big big mistake!!!

All other SDM GCs I buy I always keep the receipts. On those receipts you can see the card number with the last 4 digits and all other digits masked with star symbols. I just check the balance of the GC and the last 4 digits to make sure the balance is right after each transaction and never note down the whole 19 digits of the card number.

Now, when I lost/someone stolen my wallet with a bunch of SDM GCs (I planned to buy transit pass next month and some other things and want to get rid of all less-than-$50 SDM GCs), I wanted to call SDM to block these cards. Guess what? I can only provide them with the last 4 digits of each card and they could not help me because they need the full 19 digits. Even I have my transaction receipt, etc. noone could help me to trace back my card numbers. The normal SDM GCs always have 2 parts (the hanging part with hole and the real GC below) and even I keep the upper parts, no card number is recorded on the upper part either. That means I was out of luck and could not request the block/deactivation of my lost GCs.

The only GC I was successful in tracing back the full 19 digits and provided SDM to block successfully was finally the Parents-Students GC because the upper part of that GC (the Parents part) has the same card number recorded.

So from my recent experience, I learnt an expensive lesson: always buy Parents-Students GCs instead and keep all the Parents parts secure in case you lost the Student parts. To the person who took my wallet without intention to return it on the bus that day and use my GCs: they say good or bad karma go around

[Super Mel]

Sorry to read of your loss. I would suggest maybe getting 1 re loadable card and always keeping it with you... Less plastic wasted, and way easier to keep track of one card that you will eventually memorize the to!

I had my wallet stolen once and it was such a headache to replace all my cards and ID. Karma is a b*#h... Just look what happened to Colton on Survivor this season! Karma will catch up with whoever took your wallet.

[MeMew]

Thanks Super Mel.
In fact I always ask to reload money onto my existing SDM GC but most of the time SDM cashiers did not know how to do it or had to look up their manual to learn instructions to do it so finally I ended up with a new GC because they thought it was quicker to grab and load a new one rather than reloading. But your suggestion to keep only 1 card to make it easy to note down its number is definitely something I should follow. From now on either I would choose Parent-Student GC or insist that they reload money onto my existing card.