I also forgot to mention, the collect call numbers listed at the back of the cards are USELESS if you try to call it from a Pay Phone. All operators told me the number was BLOCKED to take collect call....

It was Hilton FCO front desk staff to put thru the call to Chase for me when we could not make the collect call number work. They called directly from the front desk line and handed me the phone once it was connected.

Hence this year when the same thing happened to husband, we just use SM to inform Chase (and BofA as well). We reported this in Milan after we arrived the hotel when my husband discovered his wallet was gone when we were halfway on the train. Though we suspected his wallet was long gone before we even board the train. (He was bumped at from his side by 2 big fat African ladies when leaving a McD where we were killing time before our train trip.) We estimated the time lapse was at least 7+ hours. Nothing was charged on his lost cards during that period. The only pending charge was from Sheraton Padova where he used his CSP to pay for the taxes. In our SM to Chase we verified the Sheraton charge was valid and the LAST charge made by us. If anything happened afterward, they would all be fraudulent charges. Chase SM came back to confirm the card was stopped and the charges up to Sheraton's would be transferred to the new card which was already issued and showed up online. Card waited for us upon return.

So, SM is much more effective and stress-free.

There might be some inconvenience involved when losing one's cards, but very minimal, if any, disruption to your trip if you also carry other cards - key is not to put all cards together so you have the back up tugged away.