Before you pack your bags for that late winter getaway, take a moment to scan and archive your important documents, like your primary passport pages and the labels for any of your prescriptions. Making sure they’re available even if your bags are lost or stolen will make it easier to get help if you need it.
Picture: CarbonNYC
Apartment Therapy suggests you scan your passport pages, prescriptions, and even credit cards (although we might dispute that one) and store them in the cloud in case your bags are lost or stolen while you’re travelling. Being able to bring up an image of your passport on your phone or someone else’s computer can speed up the process of proving your identity and getting a replacement at your country’s embassy or consulate. Similarly, if you need a prescription refilled abroad, having the dosage, proper name, and phone number for your doctor or pharmacy will make it easier for a pharmacist to help you out — or even call your doctor back home to authorise an emergency refill.
Credit cards are another matter — they note that if your wallet is stolen, having an image of your credit card numbers may get you at least checked in to your hotel if you tell them your wallet has been stolen. We’re sceptical, especially if your wallet is gone and you can’t prove your identity otherwise. With your passport or prescriptions, its more likely you’ll get the benefit of the doubt. With a credit card, you’re better off just reporting it stolen immediately and seeing what the credit card company can do for you while you’re abroad.
Hit the link below for more travel safety tips, and make sure you keep those scanned images somewhere private. Store them locally on your phone if you don’t trust the cloud, but cloud storage makes them easy to retrieve on any device.
Save These Three Images to the Cloud Before Traveling [Apartment Therapy]
Comments
One response to “Scan And Save Images Of Your Passport And Prescriptions When Travelling”
If you don’t scan a copy at least have the number recorded on the cc and the overseas help/lost & stolen desk. I also keep a second card separate so at least if i am lost I have backup, my girlfriend is lucky enough to have a spare passport.
Great idea, you can never be too careful. I found something else very useful on my last trip to Rome. I lost my passport during the day and had no idea it was missing. Fortunately, I had a tracer tag on my it. A waiter where I ate lunch found it and entered my tracker number on the tags website. I was automatically sent a text message (and an email) with a pickup location before I ever even knew my passport was missing. Lucky for me, I was leaving in the morning for Germany and getting a new passport would have been impossible. Tags are available through mystufflostandfound.com That tag saved my trip from total disaster and I put them on my phone, laptop and almost everything that travels with me now.