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What is the best (in terms of security) way to destroy old (but still working) credit card?

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oh sure, I can take care of that. Send it to my address :) :) – Shivam Jul 11 '12 at 22:53
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great! What is your address and full name? – Paul Podlipensky Jul 12 '12 at 1:56
drop it in a blender – ratchet freak Jul 12 '12 at 9:49
Cut it and/or Shred it. – Ramhound Jul 12 '12 at 14:04

3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Best way? I'd say, melt it into a ball. However, I generally just aggressively attack them with scissors and throw various parts in various trash containers.

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Why don't you just burn it? Put it in an ashtray with some flammable material, set it on fire and come back a few minutes later, there will be nothing left of the card. Plus, it's more exciting than cutting it with scissors... :p – Thomas Jul 12 '12 at 6:31
I also do this, cut it in infinite (yes, infinite) small pieces, and throw them in various trash. – Cyril N. Jul 12 '12 at 7:24
   
@Thomas - Burning it would decrease security - of your house... – martinstoeckli Jul 12 '12 at 12:33
@martinstoeckli Well, aggressively attacking the card with scissors decreases security of your fingers :) – Thomas Jul 12 '12 at 14:09
@Thomas - Ah yes, it's a really hard decision then :-) – martinstoeckli Jul 12 '12 at 14:17
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up vote 7 down vote

Call the bank and cancel the card. It's the only way to prevent it from being used, since any merchant with whom you've previously used the card, or anyone who otherwise already has the card data (including simply a photograph of the card) could theoretically run it in a card-not-present transaction.

Once you cancel the card, the physical plastic card is relatively useless.

But if you want the most certain way to destroy a card, then the only way that is 100% effective and guaranteed to be absolutely irreversible is burning/melting it.

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up vote 1 down vote

It depends on how far your want to go, but my choice is:

  1. Scrape a sharp pair of scissors across the magnetic strip on the back (thanks to the Mythbusters, it seems that running a regular magnet across the strip does not destroy the data).

  2. For the smart chip, make multiple cuts straight thorough the centre of the chip.

  3. Lastly, drop the remains into a cross cut shredder.

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Hmmm, my shredder can't process the card... – Paul Podlipensky Jul 12 '12 at 0:04
@PaulPodlipensky - Purchase a shredder that can. If it can process a media disk then it should be able to process a credit card. – Ramhound Jul 12 '12 at 14:05
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@PaulPodlipensky: Ask your favorite bank. They should accept cards and have some a card destruction policy. Likely a specialized shredder standing around somewhere. – pepe Jul 12 '12 at 17:15

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