Lost Credit Cards

On my way to Stockholm, I stopped for a while in Geneva to sort out my credit cards lost in France. With Visa it was simple, but not quite practical, new card can be issued only by company, which issued the original, in my case, ANZ Bank in Australia. With American Express should be even simpler as it is a global company. Amex in Geneva confirmed it. You can collect your card tomorrow morning, they said. The trouble was, that I had flight to Stockholm in few hours. Well, if you stop there for over 24 hours, you'll get your card there - here is their address.

In Stockholm I was hosted by my friends. First steps I directed to the address given me in American Express office in Geneva. It was normal block of flats. No sign of any office, no list of inhabitants, entry protected by a 4-digit code. I waited at the door until someone appeared. Asked about American Express office, he mentioned, that some time ago, there was some international trade dealer, but he moved away.

I went to the tourist information office. They supplied me with 2 addresses. At the first one, there was a vegetable shop, which was also a Western Union agency specializing in money transfers to and from Greece. The second one was a money exchange agency. They allowed me to contact American Office by phone and paid me some cash advance.

Recovery of lost credit card was not so easy. Swedish representative of AMEX told me, that he required an order from Australian branch of Amex. Australian representative told me that such an order has been issued already and she couldn't do anything more than that. It looked like catch 22.

Somehow, pressing buttons for various option in Amex phone menu, I was connected to Amex European office in Brussels. They told me, that all paperwork was in order and they will instruct their Swedish colleague how to deal with it. In the evening, I received a call to my friends home, giving me instructions where to collect my Amex credit card. Next day I got it eventually.

Another thing was, that there were very few places in Sweden where I could use it. So I collected more cash and went skiing.