Cut up your credit card the right way

CreditCards.com's Cynthia Drake shows you the right way to cut up a credit card in order to avoid any possible identity theft. Read the whole story here: http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/destroy-credit-card-cut-fraud-shr...

TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, I'm Cynthia Drake for CreditCards.com. I'm going to show you how to destroy your credit card so your card can't destroy you through identity theft.

The only thing that you really need is a pair of scissors. I use industrial-strength kitchen shears. They're my crime-fighting shears.

As far as cutting goes, you can see the diagram of cuts recommended by Jim Wang of Bargaineering.com. These are 16 slices, really intended to obscure any of the numbers in the account information, your name, the expiration date and so forth.

You can also use a shredder if it has a cross-cutting function, especially one with a credit card slot. If you want to go the extra step, you want to take a magnet and run it across the magnetic stripe to deactivate the information on that.

In the end, what you'll have is a bunch of bits of credit card. Just separate those into two piles, throw them into two different trash cans in your house so that they go out to the trash collector at different times and different weeks. That is really your safest bet for avoiding identity theft.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• credit cards
• identity theft
• cancel a credit card
• id theft
• credit card fraud
• creditcards.com

[UberRatsoid]

Are you americans really that stupid that you need a tutorial to destroy a fucking credit card?

[rakettfua]

I burn my cards in a camp fire

[Mindraker1]

@UberRatsoid Apparently so. If you really want to avoid identity theft with credit cards, DON'T USE THE CREDIT CARD AT ALL.

[UberRatsoid]

@Treasures4Food Oh, that explains some things. Anyway, I'm not asian, I'm from Europe, Romania which is in fact a destroyed country, but destroyed in its heart not "american destroyed".

[Treasures4Food]

@UberRatsoid That's so horribly hateful. But we forgive you. As Americans we've learned to be kind to persons from lower nations.

[patriotofliberty1776]

@UberRatsoid I think it's supposed to be satire.

[driver1928]

Mythbusters busted the idea that a magnet destroys the information on the magnet strip on a card.

[AsadZero2]

or u can ask Reptile to spray his acid all over it.. !

[CreditCardExpert]

@KdaUmKdaUm Toxic fumes.