Taylor: Cautionary tales from overseas vacationers

Cautionary tales from overseas Readers offered plenty of feedback on my column last Sunday about protecting valuables while on vacation overseas.

One person questioned the U.S. State Department's advice to not carry a Social Security card overseas because it may get stolen. The reader said people on Medicare routinely carry their Social Security and Medicare cards -- the numbers are the same -- with them at all times.

Peter Ashkenaz, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Washington, noted that Medicare generally doesn't cover health-care services outside the U.S.

The exceptions: If people live, or are traveling, within the U.S. -- or they are traveling in Canada -- and the nearest hospital is a foreign one, they can use their Medicare card.

If they live or are traveling in the U.S. near the Mexican border, for example, and the closest hospital is a few miles away in Mexico, Medicare will cover a medical emergency.

If they are in Canada and the closest medical facility is in Canada, they can use Medicare.

And if they're on a cruise in U.S. waters, they can use the card, too.

Anywhere else, they should leave the card home. It's useless.

. . .

Readers sounded off about dealing with American embassies overseas. It can be a nightmare, they said.

First, the embassy may not be nearby. A reader was in the Canary Islands, Spain, when her passport, ID and money were stolen. The closest U.S. embassy was in Madrid, a plane trip away.

Second, an embassy may not be open on weekends.

What if the person's passport was stolen after hours Friday and the flight home was Saturday or Sunday?

The person would have to cancel the flight home, rebook, pay a hefty change fee, then wait to purchase a passport on Monday.

According to the State Department, if an embassy is shuttered on the weekends, a U.S. consulate -- which is smaller and offers limited services -- may be nearby and open. It can help out but may not be able to issue a passport.

Third, getting service after reaching an embassy or consulate may not be a piece of cake.

The person who inspired last week's column described the process as similar to visiting a Department of Motor Vehicles office.

The reader who visited the Madrid embassy said she was number 416 in line and waited more than five hours to get a temporary passport for $100.

Fourth, if you show up at an embassy with insufficient money, you might be in for a bumpy ride.

One reader had a harrowing experience in Portugal. He wound up in Lisbon without his passport or credit cards and with only enough cash to buy a passport photo.

The consulate there knew about a provision to waive the $100 passport fee for certain indigent citizens, but he wasn't one of them. He had to wire his daughter for money.

Problem was, the money was wired to a post office, not to the consulate, and he needed a passport to claim it.

So the consulate put him in a cab to the post office with a temporary passport, on condition that he would return and pay for it, which he did, then flew home to Virginia.

Finally, another traveler urges readers to be sure they and their traveling companion keep a copy of their passport information page in the hotel safe so things can go smoother if it winds up missing.