Cutting Credit Card in Two

I received a new debit card from my bank today with an attached letter.

This is what it says about disposing of the old card.

"Please destroy your old ********** card right away. If you shred or cut your card make sure you cut through the chip and the 16 digit number that runs across the front of the card."

Who do I listen to, my bank or Max?

It's a no brainer, I've never listened to anything Max said before, and I'm not going to start now.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

My advice to you Izzy, is that you listen to your bank

(..... Izzy has painted hmself onto an amusing logical paradox.)

It's strange that no one else seems to get notices like this from their banks. I wonder what is different about Izzy.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Nobody else gets accompanying letters with their debit/credit cards?

They just send them out on their own do they?

You're clutching at straws, and looking really desperate and quite pathetic.

Next time you get your renewal card I suggest you read the accompanying letter.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

In the US, the bank can "cancel" a credit or debit card. This means that the number on the card and any information an the chip are "deactivated". That means that the card is useless. Neither the card or the number can be used.

You can cancel a card yourself by calling your bank. Here in the US we do this if we misplace or lose our card. Of course, with American technology the cards are cancelled automatically when the expiration date is passed.

I would think that British banks would have similar technology by now.

Here in the US cards come glued to a sheet of paper. There is generally marketing for the bank and instructions on how to activate the card (generally this involves calling an automated phone number).

I am a bit surprised that your bank isn't advanced enough to simply deactivate an expired credit card. It might be a UK thing.

What do you do in England when you lose your card? It sounds horrible.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Once the new card is activated then the old one is cancelled, yet they still advise you to cut it up.

Don't come that superior technology bollocks either. I used to work in an international bank and the American banking system lagged behind the rest of the developed world by quite a way.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Not surprising. Wells Fargo were still doing crap to increase their customer base to get a bonus'. So one customer turned into several. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/04/wells-fargo-fake-accounts-scandal-employees

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

I worked in an international bank, pretty much every other part of the developed world you could do business with. Not America, there were two particular branches everything had to go through. One for NYC, the other one for everywhere else.

Let's say you're a businessman in Dusseldorf or Dubai, or Hong Kong, your bank can liaise directly with your customer's bank. Not so a businessman in San Francisco, his bank has to go through another bank in Boston.

It's another unnecessary layer and it's bad for business.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

I've done my share of international travel (128 countries), and I always knew to take enough cash with me. I never worried about taking cash from an ATM in foreign countries. I recently found a stack of foreign currencies, and the total didn't amount to much. I think most were Turkish and Bhutan currencies. There may be a few from Cuba,UK and Canada. I don't think we were allowed to take currency out of Russia, and I've visited there twice. BTW, I met Sergei on able2know, and when I visited Moscow, he was good enough to spend the day with me showing me around his city. He met me at the Tretyakov Art Gallery, and returned me to the ship that I took from Moscow to St Petersburg. I met another Muskovite on my visit to Havana, Cuba. He was the general manager for McDonalds in Russia, Oleg. I met him in a cigar smoking room not far from our hotel, the Parque Central Hotel. That's what I loved about world travel; meeting so many people from around the world. Tito is a police investigator in the Dominican Republic, and I also met him at the National Hotel in Havana.

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

I made the mistake of taking UK currency when I went on holiday to Texas. In Europe bureau de changes are everywhere, but it took a lot of phone calls and driving around to find a bank that could do it in Houston.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

When we used to do business with Citi Bank, they offered currency exchange. The only place I know of today for currency exchange in Silicon Valley is at Valley Fair SC in San Jose. I think they charge around a 10% fee for buying or selling. I usually get my first exchange at the airport, then at banks/cadeca in Cuba.

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

My bank lets me take out local currency from ATMs in most countries at a very good exchange rate. I don't have any need for currency exchange. I usually end up with a little foreign currency (less than $10) that I keep as a souvenir or in case I ever return. I go to Mexico quite often, and I always plan to return with at least 500 pesos so I don't need to worry about finding an ATM in the airport the next time I travel.

I remember buying traveler's checks 25 years ago. I studied in Guatemala. I went down there with something like $1,500 in travelers checks in a security belt. The official currency exchange wasn't very good. After I had been there for a week, I learned that there was a black market exchange that catered to students and offered much better rates.

Traveler's checks were a pain in the neck. It is much easier to just use ATMs.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Your mention of travelers check gave me a good laugh; I remember those days too! Many of my family and friends ask me where my favorite destination is, and I always answer, "all of them." I have never been disappointed during my travels, even after I contracted shingles in London on my first day of my tour of England, Scotland and Ireland. A doctor in our group from Singapore had pain killers, and he fed me pain killers for the duration, so when I planned my visit to Singapore, I told them I was visiting and I wanted them to be my guest for dinner at the restaurant of their choice. I told them which hotel I was staying at, and they said they'll come and pick me up at 6pm. They did pick me up, and took me to their home, and fed me dinner! So, I had to make another trip to Singapore, and insisted they be my guest for dinner at the restaurant of their choice. Many years before then, I had met another Singaporean man, and he owned several businesses including an import-export company in addition to a publishing company. These are the kinds of experiences I have had on my travels; they are priceless, and most memorable.

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

I have just been to Albania, Nicaragua and Colombia and found all people we met to be sooooo nice - walking us to the restaurant or bus stop, offering to drive us places, cooking us food, sharing raki and espresso.... I think it's really about speaking a little (Albanian) or more (Spanish) of their language, being open, staying safe (not hanging out in bars, esp at night), and just connecting with people. The whole world is full of lovely people.

2 Replies

@Mame,

Mame wrote:

I have just been to Albania, Nicaragua and Colombia and found all people we met to be sooooo nice - walking us to the restaurant or bus stop, offering to drive us places, cooking us food, sharing raki and espresso.... I think it's really about speaking a little (Albanian) or more (Spanish) of their language, being open, staying safe (not hanging out in bars, esp at night), and just connecting with people. The whole world is full of lovely people.

You were always high in openness, it was obvious.

This is a good thing, make no mistakes here!

0 Replies

@Mame,

So true! I've experienced the same thing. I've never felt unsafe even at places most people claim are unsafe. I even visited Egypt soon after the German tourists were killed at Hatshepsut Temple. My family and friends warned me I was crazy to go, but our group had the safest trip ever. I took my sister with me, because my nephew knew I traveled a lot, and he asked me to take her on my next trip. I took her to Egypt and Jordan. We had police escort from the airpot to our hotel in Cairo, and most of the famous sites were empty of tourists. Our hotel room balcony had an unobstructed view of the Pyramids of Giza. We had the best time with small crowds. We cruised from Cairo to Abu Simbel. It was not, "Murder on the Nile." It was a trip of a lifetime to enjoy the sites without the huge crowds. I've been one of the fortunates ones, having visited 132 countries in all! Travel has been my passion ever since I spent one year in Morocco with the US Air Force. I had the opportunity to visit Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangiers, Madrid, Paris, and London. I was a young man back then, and I still remember my date with a very beautiful Spanish woman in Tangiers. One was a meal at a restaurant on the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea where we spent almost half a day enjoy a great meal with wine. I took a picture of her, but I can't seem to locate it after all these years, but good memories still remain.

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

So true! I've experienced the same thing. I've never felt unsafe even at places most people claim are unsafe. I even visited Egypt soon after the German tourists were killed at Hatshepsut Temple. My family and friends warned me I was crazy to go, but our group had the safest trip ever. We had police escort from the airpot to our hotel, and most of the famous sites were empty of tourists. We had the best time wish small crowds. We cruised from Cairo to Abu Simbel. It was not, "Murder on the Nile." It was a trip of a lifetime to enjoy the sites without the huge crowds. I've been one of the fortunates ones, having visited 132 countries in all! Travel has been my passion ever since I spent one year in Morocco with the US Air Force. I had the opportunity to visit Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangiers, Madrid, Paris, and London. I was a young man back then, and I still remember my date with a very beautiful Spanish woman in Tangiers. One was a meal at a restaurant on the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean where we spent almost half a day enjoy a great meal with wine. I took a picture of her, but I can't seem to locate it after all these years, but good memories still remain.

You do worse in SF, which is a huge problem for you but back when I knew you you were never honest enough with yourself to comprehend this part of reality.

R U Better now?

0 Replies

Cutting Credit Card in Two

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