How To Dispose Of Your Expired Or Cancelled Chip MasterCard Or Visa Credit Card

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.

Here’s how you go about utterly destroying your old credit card:

1. Take a good strong pair of scissors – not the plastic ones your kid has for art and craft. This is like playing paper, rock and scissors. Certain materials defeat other materials, and plastic scissors will not cut plastic credit cards.
2. Make your first cut horizontally straight through the main set of embossed numbers on the front of the card, dividing each one in half.
3. Make certain to cut around any entertaining little hologram thingy and keep it for absolutely no good reason.
4. Cut diagonally through the magnetic strip.
5. Cut the top half vertically at every two to four digits, then do the same with the bottom half.
6. Check you haven’t just destroyed your new card by mistake. This check should really be done at the start.
7. Find the part that contains the three-digit security code on the reverse and cut that into pieces so it cannot be read or pieced back together.
8. Hack through the little security chip diagonally.
9. Make sure that none of the pieces contain any information that could mean anything to anyone.
10. Dispose of the pieces over a period of time, throwing out a few pieces for the bin men each time they come.
11. Alternatively, take them out when you go into town and spread the pieces over several waste bins in various locations.
12. Explain to the nice policeman who has been monitoring your suspicious activity that you are not actually a drug dealer making his drops.

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.

Related posts:

1. What Do I Do With My Old Expired Credit Card?
2. The Age Of The MasterCard Chip Card
3. How To Stop Using Your Credit Cards
4. ANZ Credit Card – How The Chip Card Has Changed Credit Card Security
5. Visa Credit Card Tips
6. MasterCard and Visa – What’s the Difference?
7. Transfer Your Balance From Another Credit Card To An Aussie MasterCard

Editor's Choice: Our Top Credit Cards

Credit Card	Card Details	Interest Rate (p.a.)	Cash Advance Rate (p.a.)	Balance Transfer Rate (p.a.)	Annual fee	Interest free days (up to)
St George Vertigo	Editor's Choice: Low Interest Low 2.99% for 6 months (reverts to 11.99%) p.a. interest rate and balance transfer rate, from one of Australia's most respected banks.	2.99% for 6 months (reverts to 11.99%)	20.74%	2.99% for 6 months	$55	55
Coles Group Source MasterCard	The Coles Group Source MasterCard has no annual fee, a 0% p.a. balance transfer offer for 6 months, with a rewards program including savings on fuel and FlyBuys Points	19.74%	21.99%	0% for 6 months	$0	62
Bankwest Zero Platinum MasterCard	Editor's Choice: No Annual Fee Excellent introductory offer with a $0 annual fee for the life of the credit card and a 1.99% p.a. for 9 months on balance transfers	16.99%	16.99%	1.99% for 9 months	$0	55