Nancy lost her debit card the other day.

We canceled it and Schwabbank.com is mailing another. It will take three weeks to get in our grubby little hands.

We have cash in a bank in Costa Rica, but it’s just easier to go to the ATM and have it spit out the money when we need it. Schwabbank.com doesn’t charge us any transaction fees which is a HUGE plus.

I still had my debit card, so no worries.

Until Nancy tried to use it today.

“Insufficient Funds.”

Holy crap. We knew there were sufficient funds, we had just checked the balance the day before. There we stood outside the Banco De Costa Rica with no way to access our U.S. cash and not much cash in my pocket.

I waffled between who was causing the error: Banco De Costa Rica or Schwabbank.com.

Neither.

It was moi.

I forgot to activate the debit card when the new one arrived replacing my expired card.

A quick trip down the block to Antano Restaurant to snare their wi-fi and a Skype call to Schwabbank.com got the card activated.

Rather than get  back in line at Banco De Costa Rica, Nancy wanted to go to the Banco Nacional ATM because there is seldom a line.

Within minutes she was walking back to the car with a wad of cash.

Let’s pause and reflect.

• We’re in Costa Rica.
• Our money is in the U.S.
• We’re trying to access our $$$$ via ATM.
• I didn’t have the card activated.

I love technology.

A free phone call to activate the card and IMMEDIATELY our funds were available. Think of all the things that had to go exactly right for this day not to be a total cash catastrophe.

It worked.

Amazing.