Never, ever ...

have your credit/debit card pin number written down on a piece of paper in your purse.

My neighbour (Doreen) went to Benidorm on Thursday with some friends, she drew 300 euros from the bank, goodness knows why, as they were only going for one night. She had her purse stolen from her handbag, in between getting out of the car and checking into the hotel. Typically, she didn't have her mobile as she had forgotten to charge it, she borrowed a phone, phoned her daughter and asked her to phone the banks to report her cards stolen.

We are not sure what happened but Nationwide didn't immediately cancel the card and as a result 900 euros were taken from her account, that was 300 per day, she only realised her card was still active when she got home and checked her bank balance, only to see that money was still being taken from the account.

It could only happen to Doreen.