I'm bound for Europe in about a month and following the advice of my fellow FTers, I'm making copies of my important documents(passport, credit cards, etc.) as a backup in case the originals are lost. Some suggest emailing your backup documents to yourself for use in an emergency. I'm not entirely sold on the safety of email.

So, is it safer to email backup documents to yourself, or store them in a service like Dropbox?

Thanks for your help

Why would dropbox be any safer? Safety/security of email depends greatly on which email system/service you use. If you use a web-based one, then sending it to yourself is technically no different than dropbox. Some corporate email systems are very secure, and some are horrible. It Depends(tm)

What about a USB key? Encrypted, if you're really worried about it

Personally, uploading copies of everything (especially everything at once) to a server/website/whatever strikes me as a greater liability than keeping a backup card or two in a separate pocket or bag. It creates more ways for your documents to be stolen, but it also ensures you have access to them (copies) if you need them. It's a tradeoff--of what are you more afraid, having to cancel all your cards if the originals (or the copies!) get stolen, or finding yourself with no money, no passport, and just a digital copy of your credit card--AND having to cancel it anyway?

Best just not to lose 'em, eh?

I'd either encrypt it with TrueCrypt if you're paranoid and then put it in dropbox save it as an webmail draft attachment.

If you're less paranoid I'd put a simple .zip password and rename it to something like "pix-of-Fido.zip" before storing it online.

I like the TrueCrypt/Dropbox combo as well. Just be sure to remember the password(s)

This. Use AES-256 with a key file. It's strong enough to keep anyone out who shouldn't be there.

Encrypt and e-mail also works. Use something that has at least a free trial version so you can decrypt them on a borrowed box.

AES-anything is only as good as the passphrase. The probability of a user using and remembering a passphrase with enough entropy to make -256 worthwhile is unlikely, to put it mildly. DES with a strong passphrase is much better than AES-256 with a weak one

or boxcryptor.

Thank you for injecting some common sense into this thread...

What's the point of copying your credit cards? If the card gets lost or stolen, you're gonna have to cancel it anyway - what good did the copy do for you?

I haven't done a security audit, but on the surface it would seem that cloud services are somewhat less secure than web email services. Dropbox and its clones all support "sharing" of whatever you have uploaded, so if you don't set your security settings correctly, then everything you upload can be seen by anyone who knows your ID.

I don't think Gmail et al supports sharing of email... The only way in is with the password.

Copies of credit and debit cards are done for pretty much one reason - so you'll have the 16-digit number, expiration date, security code, and the toll-free phone number you need to call the company and cancel them, all in one place. Of course, there are other, more secure ways to do this - such as encrypted password apps on your phone, computer, or flash drive, or writing the stuff down but using a code of some kind that only you will understand, or leaving a copy with someone you trust at home who can read it out to you over the phone. But the copies are really easy to use and require very little effort, so ease of use wins out over security.

If you have lost your wallet and cards and passport, it seems a bit silly to be worrying about how secure they are where ever you have them stored online.

Also you do not need to leave them online all the time, if it worries you just put them up when you are traveling, and take them down when you are not. Remember you may be trying to access them someplace on a machine that may have far less capabilities then when you loaded them, so any fancy stuff in protecting them has to work on whatever you get them from.

As to copying credit cards, it gives you the number to call on the back, and your card number. Yes you could store all those in a list someplace, write them down, etc, it's just another way to have them all.

We willingly hand our credit cards, passports, license to waiters, hotel clerks, etc all the time. I have little concern storing an image online.

If you are traveling with someone else consider cross-polinating your wallets. If you are not driving, carry their license and one credit card. It means that you are not completely up a creek without a paddle. Even though you don't need it, consider a US Passport Card. While it has no legal value in Europe, it may help with the embassy and is an extremely impressive second ID. The large hologram and the physically embossed seal make it a difficult identification card to fake. (Then again the US Alien Registration card is a very difficult document to counterfeit and you can buy really good fakes in LA for $100).

If your traveling partner is your spouse, make sure that you each have one credit card that is different from the other so that canceling all your cards doesn't also cancel the spouse's.

If you are paranoid, you can also do something very basic like inverting the last four digits of your credit card on your list. I don't know about picsoffido.zip with a password. I would rather call it fidosrabicert.wpd. Let the cracker get a WordPerfect viewer, figure out it isn't really a WPD file, sort out that it is a ZIP, and then crack the password.

+1 to this, as well as a US Passport Card as a second ID (don't have one myself, but could be very helpful), as well as different accounts for a spouse (not just an authorized user)

This kind of obfuscation (or "staganography", if you will) is not a bad idea, and it may fool some random person that stole your usb key or laptop, but it won't stop anyone even mildly competent. Figuring out if a file is a WordPerfect document or a ZIP file takes about 10 seconds, and it doesn't involve looking at whether it's .WPD or .ZIP

Unfortunately, "take them down" doesn't always work as well as you'd like. It's very hard to delete things from the internet

If your wallet is stolen, is it really necessary to be 10-20 minutes faster cancelling your cards? With an Internet connection, you can find those phone numbers easily if you know the name of your banks, and they can surely look up your accounts based on SSN or similar. ATMs are pin-protected, and credit cards limit your liability, so waiting a few hours to cancel shouldn't result in any damages. The one time I lost a credit card, I'm glad I took it easy, got another drink, and waited--because the bar eventually found it, and cancelling it would've been a PITA since it had some recurring payments on it

Any extra copies of the relevant information--whether hardcopy or online--increase the chance that the information will be stolen. Yes, we give them to waiters, hotel clerks, and shady web sites in shady countries--but at least you know who those people are. They're not some kid on the internet with your password buying porn with your credit card

I'm sorry, I did not realize there was a right and wrong answer.

I prefer to have a copy of the card information so that should I ever need it I don't have to go searching for it. I don't care if it's protected or the liability is limited, if I can go to a list of numbers for me that's easier than searching various websites for them.

Get this, I also have their phone numbers in my cell phone directory.

Imagine how stupid that must be too?

I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was a right or wrong answer either--much less that I portend to know it. My post was expositionary, and it doesn't end with a conclusion. The words "right", "wrong", and "stupid" don't appear in it--I made no explicit judgement either way

All decisions regarding personal finance and personal security are by nature personal, and given identical circumstances, you and I may very well choose different options depending on our own personal preferences and tolerance for specific risks. That doesn't mean one of us is right and the other wrong. I was merely pointing out that making those digital backups is not risk-free, and that should be considered in the overall risk analysis. More information and a contrary perspective are not bad things if one still has time to consider them (perhaps over a libation back home, as opposed to in the middle of a trip when the sky is falling)

The right answer is the one which allows you to complete the trip to your satisfaction considering all factors (financial, physical, mental, emotional, et al.). Knowing which answer is right is exceedingly difficult ex ante