Whether your credit card has expired or you’ve decided to cancel to avoid paying an annual fee, you need to know the proper way to get rid of it. You don’t want that credit card information (even if outdated) falling into the wrong hands. The best practice is to destroy that old card.

But what if you have one of those fancy metal credit cards? A standard paper shredder won’t get the job done. Thankfully, you’ve got a few options that are nearly as effortless.

How to destroy a metal credit card — or at least dispose of one

Metal credit cards are becoming more ubiquitous. Some of the best credit cards on the market, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred? Card and The Platinum Card? from American Express, are garbed in shiny armor impervious to the likes of a pair of scissors.

You don’t need a circular saw or an induction furnace to dispose of your metal credit cards. Here are a few easy ways to do it.

Mail your card back to the credit card issuer

Issuers know that destroying a metal credit card isn’t as straightforward as plastic credit cards. When your metal card expires, you’ll likely receive a prepaid envelope with your new credit card. Just insert your old card into the envelope and drop it in the mail.

If you’re canceling your credit card, you probably won’t receive a prepaid envelope, but you can still call the phone number on the back of your card to request one.

Visit a local bank branch

If you have a rewards credit card that’s issued by a bank with physical branches, you can swing by and drop it off at a nearby location:

• Chase locations (metal cards include the Chase Sapphire Preferred? Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve?)

• Capital One locations (metal cards include Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card, and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card)

• Citi locations (metal cards include Citi? / AAdvantage? Executive World Elite Mastercard?)

In many cases, the bank will take necessary measures to safely dispose of your card with no further action required from you.

Use tin snips instead of a paper shredder

If you’d rather handle the matter yourself, you can quite easily slice through a metal credit card with a pair of metal shears, such as tin snips or steel-cutting pliers. You can find these at hardware or home improvement stores.

Just remember that a simple halving of your credit card isn’t good enough; you should make ribbons out of it, deliberately cutting through the EMV chip and the metal stripe multiple times. For further protection, sprinkle the metal confetti into multiple trash bags.

What not to do when disposing of metal credit cards

Beyond dulling scissors and jamming paper shredders, there's one absolute "do not" when unloading your metal credit card.

Toss it directly into the garbage

Throwing away your inactive credit card without any effort to prevent fraud is tempting the universe. Again, it’s not likely that something may happen, but who knows?

When you’re mailed a new credit card to replace an expired one, your credit card account number stays the same — only the expiration date and security code change. In other words, someone experienced in identity theft could pick up your active card number.

Of course, you can always choose to keep your old card. If you’re not worried about the real estate it occupies in your home, there’s no harm in storing your metal credit card somewhere safe.

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