Stranded cashless in London No matter how wealthy you are, this can happen to you. One minute your wallet is in your handbag or back pocket, next thing it’s gone, either lost or stolen.
If you are in Hong Kong, chances are that if you left it on the back seat of a taxi, the driver will have handed it in. There are a lot of honest people in Hong Kong.
But imagine you are travelling and far from home. You know you had your wallet because you checked it before boarding a flight from Dublin to London. You were feeling a bit edgy because it had a lot of cash in it, due to HSBC’s advice to carry more foreign currency, in case your UnionPay ATM doesn’t work.
Suffice to say, two hours later, I’m in London Heathrow coach station; I reach for my wallet to pay for the ticket to Woking train station. Gone, together with cash, credit card, ATM and HK ID card.
Go back to the airline says the ticket lady. A helpful Eastern European chap on the Aer Lingus desk first says he can’t make international calls, then after I plead, thumbs through a dog-eared black book and started dialling. I know I had it at Boarding Gate 407 in Dublin Airport. He can find no number for Aer Lingus airside at Dublin, their home airport. He’s told lost property is handled by Dublin’s airport authority Aer Rianta, even if my wallet had been picked up by Aer Lingus staff. He can’t help me.
So I’m stuck in London airport on a hot day with a heavy suitcase and not even enough cash for a bottle of water. What to do? Luckily, the iphone works, so a quick call to Bank of China to cancel the credit card. Then to my mother to report myself stranded. She said get a taxi and we will pay this end, but they live 200 miles away. There must be a way to get on a coach and train in the UK without cash, but how?