Disposing of (处理) unwanted items in our lives often means simply throwing them into the garbage or recycling bin—or, if they're still useful, giving them away. It's different with old credit cards, which should be destroyed so nobody can use them fraudulently (欺诈地). Here's how to get rid of an old card.
Contact the issuer.
If closing the account is your goal, you'll have to call the number on the back of your card and ask to do so. If your card is a rewards card, remember to first redeem (兑换) points or cash back.
Cut up plastic cards.
Sharp scissors will do the job here. "We recommend that consumers cut through the EMV chip, then further cut the card a few times along the short side, and dispose of the sections in more than one trash bag (垃圾袋)," says Sarah Grano, a spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association.
Send back metal cards.
Contact your issuer. "Typically, you can mail it back for disposal. For example, when American Express sends a replacement card, it also sends an addressed return envelope to mail back an old metal card for destruction," says Heather Norton, spokeswoman for American Express. Check back on your account. You generally won't be responsible for fraudulent charges anyway. Be cautions with debit cards and other plastic forms where fraud could result in financial losses.
Closing an account can hurt you.
Closing a credit card account can lower your credit rating. That's because credit scores consider your "credit utilization ratio", or how much of your available credit you're using. And when you close an account, you have less available credit. Closing an old card decreases the average age of your accounts.
A. Nevertheless, it might be worthwhile to close the account anyway.
B. Alternatively, you can feed cards into a specialized machine.
C. Credit scores also factor in the length of time you've had the card open.
D. Disposing of a metal card on your own is more challenging and potentially unsafe.
E. You can skip this step if you're just replacing an expired or compromised cord.
F. Don't obsess about identity theft of an old credit card.
G. However, correctly disposing of a payment card can be confusing, especially with newer metal credit cards.
