HelpES

If you’re robbed or a victim of crime on a trip

Who to call, what happens with a stolen card and documents, your rights when reporting in Spain and how to report from home what happened to you in another EU country.

General information, not legal advice. What you’re entitled to depends on your trip, the country, the carrier and the rules in force. If your case is complicated, check with the relevant authority or a professional. More in the terms of use.

First things first

  • If you’re in danger or need the police, call 112: it’s free from any phone, works in every EU country and in many others, and puts you through to the police, ambulance and fire service.
  • If a child goes missing, as well as the police you can call 116 000, the missing children hotline in every EU country: it helps and guides you.

If your card is stolen

  • For card payments you didn’t authorise, you can be made to pay 50 euros at most. If you didn’t know it had been stolen or copied, nothing: the bank pays.
  • Go to your bank or card issuer: it must reply to you in writing within 15 days, or 35 in exceptional cases.

If your passport or ID card is stolen

Contact your country’s embassy or consulate. Outside the EU, if your country has none there, any other EU country helps you as it would its own nationals, and you can be given a provisional document to get home.

What to do if you lose your passport or ID card

If it happens in Spain: your rights when reporting

  • You can be accompanied by anyone you choose from the very first moment.
  • From the first contact, also before reporting, you must be told about the help available, how to report, legal advice, compensation, interpreting and how to follow the case if you live outside Spain.
  • You’re entitled to a certified copy of your report and, if you don’t speak any official language of the place, to free language help and a written translation of that copy.
  • If you don’t speak Spanish, you’re entitled to a free interpreter when giving a statement to the police, the prosecutor or the judge.
  • And to free, confidential help from the Victim Assistance Offices.

If you live in Spain and it happened in another EU country

You can report it when you get back, to the Spanish authorities. If it isn’t theirs to investigate, they send your report to the country where it happened and let you know.

None of the official sources we have read says what rights you have when reporting in another country or how it’s done there: the rights above are those of Spanish law. 112, on the other hand, works across the EU.

More traveller rights and rules

You may also need

Official sources

Last reviewed: 19 October 2026