Comments on: Properly Destroy A Credit Card

By: scottr

scottr — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 18:57:07 +0000

Slightly off-topic, but…
How does one tell if their credit card has an RFID chip in it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:55:03 +0000

Dirty diapers are good for the same reason.

By: smartman

smartman — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:19:05 +0000

I have a crosscut shredder and when I need to cut a card, I insert it in an angle rather than straight in. If you have rfi engaged chip, hit it with a hammer before deposing the card in the shredder. Next time when my shredder goes out, I plan to get a diamond cut shredder, as it will cut paper into tiny diamond confetti papers.

By: rettilps

rettilps — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:08:49 +0000

I cut mine up very similarly to you and put them into multiple trash containers too! It’s nice to have conformation for what you are already doing. But your instructions are nice and thorough. Lately I’ve been burning them in the woodstove and I was wondering how bad it is for the environment. Thanks for the good blog!

By: centsandthecity

centsandthecity — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:21:59 +0000

I cut mine into tiny pieces, but I’ve never thought to deactivate the strip.

By: CJ

CJ — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:37:11 +0000

Paranoia

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:36:12 +0000

I guess then one for good measure!

By: Susie G

Susie G — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:38:53 +0000

Not that it matters – but in that illustration each set of four numbers is cut into 9 pieces.

By: Wizard Prang

Wizard Prang — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:08:07 +0000

Poetic Justice!

By: Wizard Prang

Wizard Prang — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:06:33 +0000

I cut mine into four pieces (number groups), their away three and keep one, which I dispose of a few weeks later.

By: Posco

Posco — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:36:09 +0000

I guess I’m not as paranoid. Although I did learn the credit card cutting procedure from my dad way back when I was in high school (including distributing the pieces across multiple trash cans), I only make the vertical cuts that you show. Since the mag-strip data is mostly stored horizontally across the strip, cutting it horizontally doesn’t actually destroy the data.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:51:42 +0000

What is the make and model?

Good tip on burning ink…

By: mapgirl

mapgirl — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:32:23 +0000

Just call me Fawn Hall. I love to shred because I am not paperless w/my bills and statements.

I destroy regular paper shredders quite easily.

I plunked down about $200 for a waist high *continuous* shredder that takes 7 sheets at a time. ‘Tis teh aw3s0m3. It’s the first shredder that I have overheated, but not broken in the 2 years I’ve had it. Most others aren’t worth a damn.

This shredder is bigger than a college dorm fridge, but worth it because it will shred a credit card and whole envelopes of crap without you having to tear stuff apart.

FYI – Burning ink can be hazardous to your health and the environment because many laser printer inks are actually a form a plastic. I wouldn’t do that.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:54:37 +0000

Great picture of where to cut. That’s pretty scary that people can still use cards even after they expire. More the reason to make sure we properly dispose of our credit cards.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:05:00 +0000

Yeah my shredder has been having problems too lately, I use WD-40 on it but I can’t do more than a page or two. I don’t really know what the suggestion is… sometimes, when it’s a lot of paper to shred, I burn it in our fireplace (I’ve only done this once but it was like 400 pages of old credit card and cell phone statements).