NOTE: If you own a metal card, the destruction process might be slightly more complicated, but it can be done.
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What to do with old credit cards?
Do you have any expired or canceled cards laying around?
Most of us carry cards in our pockets not even realizing they’ve expired until we get stuck at checkout and look on in embarrassment as the card gets declined. When you receive a new credit card in the mail, you need to dispose of your old one.
To make the changeover work efficiently, your new credit card will be good for use before your old one actually expires. This means that you may start using your new one, but your old one could also be used by someone else if it is not completely destroyed. Remember that even when it is past its expiry date, your old credit card contains all the account information that a thief would need to carry out some serious mischief.
Can I toss my expired credit card into the trash bin?
You can, but it’s not recommended. An expired credit card should never be tossed out as a whole. Many people believe that because a credit card has actually expired they no longer need to treat it with caution, so they throw it into the trash only to become the next identity theft victim.
Credit card thieves and identity theft crooks only need to have your name, your credit card number and the card’s expiry date to make purchases or fake an identity. Even if the card is no longer valid, a good liar can do more than you wish in order to get your private data.
If you dispose of your expired credit card in the right way, you avoid further hassles in the future.
So what would you rather do with your expired credit card?
How to go about destroying your old credit card:
Find a safe method to dispose of your expired or canceled credit card:
- Check. Check to make sure you’re destroying the right card – you don’t want to accidentally cut through your new card by mistake!
- Scissors. Take a good strong pair of scissors — not the plastic ones your kid has for art and craft. This is like playing rock, paper, scissors. Certain materials defeat other materials, and plastic scissors will not cut plastic credit cards.
- Horizontally. Make your first cut horizontally straight through the main set of embossed numbers on the front of the card, dividing each one in half.
- Hologram. Make certain to cut around any entertaining little hologram thingy and keep it. Holograms are an important security feature of cards and are very difficult to replicate. Taking yours out will help prevent thieves from gaining access to your credit.
- Magnetic strip. Cut diagonally through the magnetic strip.
- Vertically. Cut the top half vertically at every 2 to 4 digits, then do the same with the bottom half.
- Security code. Find the part that contains the 3-digit security code on the reverse and cut that into pieces so it cannot be read or pieced back together.
- Security chip. Hack through the little security chip diagonally.
- Check cut pieces. Make sure that none of the pieces contain any information that could mean anything to anyone.
- Dispose. Dispose of the pieces over a period of time, throwing out a few pieces for the garbage men each time they come.
Other ways to dispose of your expired credit card
- Spread the pieces. Alternatively, take them out when you go into town and spread the pieces over several waste bins in various locations.
- Find a safe place. If you are the hoarder type, then you can certainly store your expired credit card in a safe place. Whether you freeze it, dig a hole in the garden and bury it, sew it into your clothes or hang it up as a wall ornament is entirely up to you.
- Craft. Crafty people have yet another option to dispose of their expired credit cards – they can join the wicked world of credit card art and design their own crazy, sexy, cool piece of art, made of expired credit cards.
A word of warning: Unless you own a professional shredding company with industrial shredders, be careful about putting your old credit card through a shredding machine, unless it is specifically advertised as being capable of mincing credit cards. This is the very easiest way to break a home shredder, then you will have to use your new credit card to buy another one.
How to pick a good replacement card?
Consider what you need most. If you’re paying high interest on your existing credit card — a long 0% intro APR credit card could be a good choice. If you’re looking to earn rewards on everyday spending, cashback cards are typically best.
Bottom line
When your card expires or when you no longer want to keep it, make sure you destroy any information on the card. This will prevent anyone else from using the card’s information to commit identity theft or credit card fraud.
Once you got that out of the way, consider a better replacement card that fits your needs.
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