Here's One Wacky Way to Destroy Your Metal Credit Card

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Destroying credit cards is an important part of the credit card life cycle. Whether you want to cut, shred or incinerate, it's important to get rid of credit cards if their security has been compromised, the card has expired or you've closed your account.

One of our favorite cards at The Points Guy is the Chase Sapphire Reserve — a versatile and rewarding travel card with a handful of valuable perks. Unlike most cards that are made out of plastic, the Sapphire Reserve is made of metal and is a bit more difficult to get rid of. You can't just put it through a shredder. So when we received an email from TPG reader Wajid K. about his DIY experience trying to destroy his Sapphire Reserve, we knew we had to share his story. (His email has been lightly edited for clarity.)

Wajid writes:

"I recently renewed my Chase Sapphire Reserve and received a new card, interestingly it came with a return envelope to return the old card. Chase is providing this service to destroy your old card free of charge.

Instead of availing myself of this service I challenged myself to destroy the card.

I gathered all the tools I had at my disposal. I started with the paper shredder as I had used the shredder to destroy enough plastic credit cards in the past, I figured it would do the job. But soon found out that my shredder was not capable of eating away a metal credit card. It started to go down the shredder but got stuck. I did that a few times, it started to chew the card but was not doing the job, finally it got to a point where it got stuck and I had to use pliers to take it out.

Next I got hold of my zip tie cutting tool, which was no help either. Next came the final tool in my arsenal, a bypass lopper, which I have used in the past to destroy a lot of things. I started using the lopper and it started to cut through the metal, but soon I found out that it was not going to do the job."

That looks pretty well destroyed enough to us. So we emailed back asking Wajid if he was able to actually, totally obliterate the card, and he replied:

"I was unable able to destroy it completely, in the interest of time I gave up, now I have it saved as a souvenir."

But although it's still technically in one piece (more or less), it definitely looks like Wajid, or anyone else for that matter, will not be able to use the card again. So, mission accomplished!

What's been your experience when trying to destroy a metal credit card? Sound off in the comments below.