Phone Numbers
If you do lose your money and cards, you must phone up all the card issuers to cancel your cards before you get scammed by the thieves. Remember you’re usually responsible for losses before you inform the financial institutions that your cards have gone, and it will save you an enormous amount of time if you have all the numbers you have to call tucked in an e-mail you sent yourself before you left home!
No one else can do this for you, as the banks and credit card companies don’t allow it.
Passport Numbers
The same essentially, but this time scan (or take a photo) of the information page of your passport (the one with your picture on it) and again email it to yourself. Just set aside a folder in your Hotmail or Gmail account called Numbers and put them all there. Same with your driving licence! Losing a passport is the worst possible thing that can be lost on your travels – so guard it!
Travel Insurance
Your travel insurance company will have a 24/7 number for you to use if you have a medical emergency, i.e. you get taken to hospital, or a close relative becomes ill which means you have to come home early. Put their number into your mobile phone, and again store it in the “Numbers” folder in your email account.
For TT, our emergency assistance number is +44 20 7985 7446. If you’re in the USA or Canada, you can call 1 800 986 6380 instead, which is a toll-free number.
Your airline and travel agent
Put all your e-tickets and hotel confirmations into one folder in your email account as well, as well as the contact numbers of your travel agent. In the recent Coronavirus emergency, the assistance provided to travellers was close to non-existent by many of the online companies, and some travel agents weren’t much help either when it came to trying to change flight tickets, or getting refunds when airlines cancelled flights. Some of the best performers in the UK were Travel Counsellors, Hays Travel and Trailfinders. When booking, it’s worth thinking more about just the price, but the help you’ll get if things go wrong!
Emergency Numbers
The numbers for the emergency services do vary throughout the world, but a quick simple guide is:
In European Countries – dial 112
In Australia – dial 000
In New Zealand – dial 111
In the USA and Canada – dial 911
In Thailand – dial 1155 for the Tourist Police
Preparation is everything! We hope you'll never need to look at any of this when you’re travelling!
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