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What are your chances of

a lost wallet being

returned?

by Maria Gracia Join our newsletter to be notified when the newest Statistics, Facts, and Figures are available. I would be really unhappy if I lost my wallet. I’m guessing most people would be as well. It’s not only a major inconvenience, but kind of scary for someone else to have all of your personal information in their hands. What are your chances of getting your wallet returned if it gets lost? Polls reveal that three out of five people “say” they would do the right thing. They’d find the owner or drop the wallet in a mailbox for the post office to deliver it back to its rightful owner. Experiments say otherwise, indicating only one out of every five people would do so. These are United States statistics. Numbers vary depending on the area where the wallet was lost. Statistics from a Readers Digest test say your chances of having a lost wallet returned are two out of nine in Helsinki, Finland, eight out of twelve in New York, six out of twelve in Moscow, Russia, ten out of nineteen in London, England, and one out of twelve in Lisbon, Portugal. Another study, conducted by life assistance company CPP found that of the Britons who lost their wallets in the last five years, 75% will never see them again. What can we learn from this? Do your very best not to lose your wallet. It’s helpful to keep some baby photos, pet photos, or family photos in your wallet (be sure they’re duplicates of photos you have somewhere else) because wallets containing these types of photos are more likely to be returned. Perhaps these photos pull on the heartstrings of others sometimes. In addition, and this may surprise you, wallets that contain cash are returned at a much higher rate than wallets that only contain credit cards and ID cards. Perhaps it feels more like “stealing” to keep a wallet that contains “real money.” This is not to say you should stuff tons of money in your wallet, but having approximately $20 can make a difference. Keep your wallet in the same place at home…like in your purse if you carry one or in your top drawer, in your dresser, for instance. Very often, a wallet is not necessarily lost, but rather misplaced at home, usually due to it being placed somewhere “just for now” instead of in its assigned home. If your wallet does go missing, here are some steps you can take. 1. Keep calm. Being frantic is not going to help. Breathe. 2. Retrace your steps and circumstances, like, “I know I had my wallet at the gas station because I paid for a bag of chips there. I wonder if I left it there? Or, perhaps it’s in the car?” Call stores, etc. you were recently in and ask if they happened to find your wallet there or if someone turned it in. Dig into the seats of your car or any openings it could have dropped into. Don’t forget the floor. Did you stick it in your coat pocket at the supermarket or the airport? Is it in a special compartment in your handbag? 3. Look under bigger items. Perhaps you put it on the dining room table and then mindlessly put a newspaper or jacket on top of it. 4. No luck? File a police report and take other precautionary measures to prevent further theft. Someone may have turned it in to the police station…or may do so soon. Alert your credit card companies, bank, etc. You’ll also need to quickly replace your driver’s license, so plan on paying a visit to your local DMV as soon as possible…you cannot be driving around without your license. I also highly recommend: • Always know exactly what’s in your wallet. Make a list of everything and keep that list in a findable place at home, like your filing cabinet. You can always keep it with other important documents, like your birth certificate. Take a photo of your license and other important cards. Keep these photos with your list. Doing this makes it much easier to replace whatever you had in your wallet. • Never carry your social security card in your wallet. You already lost your wallet. You don’t want to lose your identity too. Back to Organizing Statistics, Facts, and Figures Index