What do you do with expired credit cards when the newer, shinier ones arrive in the mail?
Cut them up. Into tiny pieces. I had a few of them hidden somewhere in the house, not knowing what to do with them. After several years, I finally discovered that the official advice is to make sure nobody can duplicate them and with some, err, creativity, put their shopping bill under your tab.
This is probably one of the little things that credit card companies forget to advise their customers, or perhaps I just didn’t pay much attention. But these days, you can’t be too careful about protecting your identity. Remember that Filipinos are geniuses when it comes to IT crimes! Remember the “I love you” virus?
I also hope credit card companies would make it harder for these guys, you know? It came to my attention that some credit card companies mail cards to customers that are ready for use –- no confirmation or activation required. That’s a red flag! If for some reason that card reached the wrong person with the wrong intentions, goodbye peace of mind!
It was surprising to discover that a lot of very intelligent people make extremely (pardon the word) stupid mistakes when it comes to protecting the security of their credit cards, debit cards, or ATM cards. Here are the 5 craziest mistakes I have seen people make:
- Writing down their PIN on a post-it note attached to their ATM. Yes, folks! Believe it or not, some people still do this. And you know what I don’t understand is that these people are intelligent and smart and brilliant!
- Announcing PIN numbers to officemates and using the same PIN for computer logins. You know what happened? The ATM got stolen and the thief was able to withdraw everything. Duh moment?
- Asking someone to withdraw money for you. Spouses are probably a logical exception to the rule, but the friend, driver, messenger, or helper? You’re setting yourself up for something that will only hurt.
- Using birthdays, anniversaries etc. as PIN or password. Come on, it won’t take a serious hacker to crack that code.
- Tossing credit cards or ATMs somewhere convenient when in a hurry. Hey, if it gets lost and you discover it a week later, it would be hard to convince the credit card company to reverse any fraudulent charges.
Someday, I will get the courage to create a tin medal to put around the neck of some people I know who do these things. Really.
33 Responses to “5 super stupid ATM and credit card mistakes”
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Pages: « 7 6 5 4 3 [2] 1 » Show All
August 30th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Another mistake I might add is using publicly used computers in paying bills or shopping in the internet via credit card. Identity thieves are getting sophisticated. So its better to be safe than sorry.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Cutting them with scissors to pieces will suffice.
August 30th, 2008 at 1:28 am
duh moment? - so gay! haha
August 29th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
i think ordinary shredders can do it pero it is not advised to do so kasi mabubungi agad ang shredder. mas maganda siguro na way to dispose of old credit cards is :
1. cut it to many small pieces.
2. bury it 6 feet below the ground on different places and dont leave any markings like “here lies my old credit card, name is ______ . credit card # _______.” hehehe
August 29th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
One thing you can do with old cards–
ATM and cred cards– use them to roll tape. Use them to roll Masking tape and Duct tape on one card and Cellophane tape on the other. You can slide this on your wallet and they come in handy for any emergency where mending is needed.
Another is to stick your spare key and make it a card key… Lifehacker.com has very good ideas on what you could do with stuff…