As a precaution, I recently had to cancel and replace a big stack of credit cards, first time I've ever had to do such a wretched operation, and not much fun if you are more or less permanently travelling.

Guess which organisation got me a replacement card the fastest? Step forward The Post Office credit card, they got a new replacement card to me in about 12 hours, and through the Royal Mail! And it's not as though I live somewhere sensible. Next best was Amex (36 hours) and Nationwide. Replacement BAEC cards were not far off (60 hours) along with the Co-Op/Smile/Whatever it is these days, and the rest came on Monday after the weekend.