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Ask HN: Travelers who get mugged or otherwise lose all papers / cash / phone

11 points by hive_mind ↗ HN
I was in an airport the other day and there was this lady crying there. Apparently she couldn't find her passport. It was totally gone. And so now she was totally screwed (international flight).

Travelers who get mugged or otherwise lose their papers / cash / phone, etc... how do they make their way back home?

More importantly, who wants to work on a solution for this? Add a reply below.

The idea is to first digitize all a person's papers. Next, have an international toll-free number they can call when they're in an emergency. And we then help them out (we wire them cash, copies of their docs, etc.)

12 comments

[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 41.1 ms ] thread
zurn
A frequently given piece of advice is to carry a photocopy of your passport. It can short circuit some or all of the process.
chefkoch
Scan / take a picture of everything valuable, have your card numbers in a keypass file and load it up to dropbox etc.

also have always some cash on you so if loose all your luggage you can still survive till you get a replacement card / money wired.

notahacker
You go to your embassy/consulate in that country (or whichever other embassy has an agreement to help if your country doesn't have one) and ask for an "emergency passport" which will allow you to take a specified route back to your own country, passing through intermediate countries and spending a while there if part of your itinerary.

Normally this takes a couple of days to arrive: if you have a flight you're probably screwed, and if you have longer to wait you might be able to wait for a full passport to arrive. The country you're in might want you to go and visit their immigration office to get letters/stamps explaining your original visa went missing too (India's is particularly painful)

Having a scan of your original passport is going to help a lot (especially if hotels/guesthouses need to see your passport), but your own passport office will have your original passport details on file somewhere, so amongst other things they can confirm your application for a replacement passport is likely to be genuine.

If you need cash, there's Western Union. A good travel insurer's phone line might be able to advise on stuff like this as well as process your claim.

I know this from the experience of losing passports twice...

hive_mind
How do people go to the various offices if they don't even have money for bus tickets (or a cup of coffee to wake the senses up)?
notahacker
Beg, steal, borrow - something considerably less difficult for people who appear to be temporarily embarrassed middle-class Westerners who normally have access to substantial funds than those who don't have any money because they're poor. A Malaysian hostel owner told me when he lost his wallet in Chiang Mai (across the border, a long way north) whilst travelling in the 70s he worked for a month for cash to get home...

For those unlucky enough not to be surrounded by other sympathetic travellers or travel industry workers, "If I can borrow your phone/computer, I can transfer $xx either direct into your account in return for some cash or we can go to Western Union using your ID and my secret MTCN number and split the cash" is likely to work faster than money couriered from overseas.

hive_mind
This is begging for a simple solution. Just putting it out there.
NetStrikeForce
I think (at least partly) this is solved by travel insurance, which your credit card might have included too.
gesman
Interesting business idea: insurance in case you get totally screwed in a foreign country. Say for $50-$250 per trip you get full compensation for unscrewing yourself.
rootsudo
Oh, so you mean travel insurance?
romanovcode
Yes, but with iPhone app.
WillKirkby
How's that going to work if the mugger steals your phone?