Reuse and recycle those old credit cards

What do you do with your credit cards when they're worn, expired or no longer fit in your wallet? Salt Lake Tribune writer Robert Kirby offers a suggestion in his column that made me laugh, then think. He uses old credit cards to scrape and chip ice from his car windows. Hmmm. A credit card ice scraper for the car windshield. Not a bad idea.

Although I'm a Southern girl, I've spent 15 winters in the north (Chicago, New Jersey and Detroit). I've probably scraped enough ice from windshields to fill an igloo.

Rock, paper, scissors
I've always taken a pair of scissors to old credit cards. Such was my paranoia about someone getting hold of the card and piecing it back together to get my account number that I put the shredded shards in different trash cans. A colleague just told me she burned her old cards along with the convenience checks that keep coming in the mail in her fireplace. She also notes that she has tried the ice scraper credit card bit and it only works on frost or very thin sheets of ice. Anything thicker and you're wasting your time.

Kirby, the Salt Lake columnist, seems to have the right idea, though. Put those worn out plastic plates to work. Reuse and recycle them. How about a house of cards doll house? That would be expensive real estate when you add up how much you spent on the credit cards.

If you don't want to scrape windshields, read "10 ways to cut up your credit cards" from the Gather Little by Little blog.

A short, unhappy life
Check out Jay McDonald's article for a whimsical, first-person view of a credit card's sad, unhappy life.

See related:  "Anatomy of a credit card", "The short, unhappy life of a credit card"