10 Creative Ways to Dispose of your Canceled Credit Cards
Whether you’ve closed your account or just gotten an updated card, it’s important that you dispose of your old credit cards properly. Otherwise, your financial information could end up in the hands of thieves, setting you up for identity theft. With this information, cutting or shredding your cards will simply not suffice; you have to get creative to ensure that your cards have been completely destroyed. Here are 10 ways to do it.
1. Use a microwave: Cook your card card in the microwave with a glass of water for about 30 seconds. This will only destroy the embedded smart chip, so you’ll need to cut up and shred the card afterwards. Remember to throw the pieces out on alternate trash days.
2. Use chemicals: You can immerse the card in a solution of nitric acid or hydrogen fluoride. You can also use a combination of lead oxide, aluminum oxide and iron dust with ferric chloride to create intense heat. Use this method only if you know how to safely use these chemicals, and be sure to wear gloves.
3. Beat it: Use a hammer to break the chip to powder. You have to do this thoroughly to prevent thieves from putting the chip back together. Make sure you wear protective eye gear so that the pieces don’t fly into your eyes.
4. Heat works: Throw the card in the fire or in your barbecue and roast it for a while. The card and chip will both be destroyed.
5. Iron it out: Run a hot iron over the chip and card to melt them and destroy the information they hold.
6. Fingernails: If you have long nails, place the card on a flat surface, press the center of the chip with your thumb nail, and use your two forefingers to bend the card over your nail. Once you hear a crack, the card is effectively destroyed. You can use the same process to break down the remnant chips into smaller pieces.
7. Use power: Running a surge of 240V through the chip will melt the bonding wires and deactivate the chip so that the information on it cannot be read.
8. Blend it: Your blender is good for more than just margaritas. It can destroy your credit cards, too. Blend unwanted cards to small bits before throwing them out.
9. Use magnets: Keeping your card in close proximity to magnets will erase the data on the magnetic strip and make your card lose its functionality.
10. Lock them up: Put all of your unwanted cards in a box and lock it up in a safe deposit box at your bank. To make them even more safe, cut up the cards to bits before you take them to the bank.