In addition to a driver's license, teens today carry many of the same things adults carry in their wallets: credit cards, debit cards and other items that shouldn't fall into the wrong hands. Like their parents, teens need to know what to do if their wallet or purse is lost or stolen — and they need to act quickly if it does go missing.

A lost or stolen wallet or purse is a gold mine of information to identity thieves. If your wallet or purse is missing, follow these guidelines from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission:

• Cancel your credit, debit and ATM
  cards immediately.
• Get new cards with new account numbers.
• Call the fraud departments of the
  major credit reporting agencies.
• Ask each agency to put
  out
  a fraud alert on your accounts.
• Report the loss to the fraud department
  at your bank.
• Review your credit
  reports regularly
  and have them corrected when necessary.
• Report
  a missing driver’s license to your state’s
  department of motor vehicles.
• If
  your keys are missing, change the locks on your home
  and car.
• File a report with the police department and keep a copy.
  

Something we've done at our house to make things a bit easier if we lose a wallet: copy the contents of the wallet on a copier — both front and back of each card. That way we won't forget what we had in the wallet in the event of a theft. Makes it easier to (ugh) make those phone calls to banks, etc.