Victims of a theft, burglary, or robbery reported to the police in Gloucester in October 1990 and Barclaycard losers who had experienced loss or theft of a credit card during September, October, and November 1990 were interviewed to investigate the most common places and methods of loss/theft of credit cards, patterns of reporting the loss, and attitudes of cardholders toward the credit card companies and the police. The majority of cards that were stolen in Gloucester were taken in public places, and, as far as the police or victims were aware, the rate of fraudulent usage of the cards was low. For the 200 Barclaycard losers, 57 percent of the lost or stolen cards were used fraudulently. Apart from the inconvenience of being unable to use the card and cases in which card theft is a necessary precondition for other crimes, its impact on individuals is an unidentifiable increase in the cost of services. General risk awareness appears to be the best approach to card theft protection. 5 references