How to Destroy a Metal Credit Card at Home
My primary credit card was hacked last week . If I had it “normal,” I could just throw it into the chopper or demagnetize it, cut it and stop. A prettier metal credit card is a bit of a problem, and your simple paper shredder probably won’t do the job (and you shouldn’t be testing it).
When your credit card issuer replaces your jailbroken metal card, chances are they will ship a small envelope along with your replacement card. Throw in an old card there, drop it in the mailbox, and your card issuer will take care of the destruction process for you. Light.
If you are as impatient as I am, you can go and destroy your metal card yourself without much hassle. You don’t need an oven to melt it, or anything like that. Instead, all you have to do is take advantage of the way the map was built to destroy it.
Your metal credit card – at least the one I used – is not embossed. These are just two layers of plastic glued to a thin piece of metal. Accordingly, you can peel off those plastic layers and grind or destroy them without worrying about the metal itself.
It is easy to start peeling plastic from metal if you start at the edges, which are most likely not glued very tightly. Once you apply this glue, the process becomes a little more complicated. I was not lucky, I just climbed right around the corner. However, stripping the plastic all over the edge gave me enough material to work with; I then grabbed this section with my pliers and turned it gently to pull out the rest of the plastic. It wasn’t elegant, but it worked.
If I wanted to spend more time on this, I would probably be able to remove the remaining glue on the metal card itself. I would probably use a hair dryer to see if it can be softened, or maybe a little rubbing alcohol to see if it makes it easier to remove.
I can’t think of what I would do with a small credit card sized piece of metal after that other than pissed off the Penn and Teller style TSA, but at least now I can cut and destroy the plastic piece with my old numbers. credit cards. And it took a lot less time than waiting five days or so for my new card to arrive.