How The Banks Say To Dispose Of Metal Credit Cards

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Metal Credit Cards are the latest craze. Seemingly, every card with an annual fee of over $100 has to be made of metal. One bank even promotes its card as being the heaviest on the market, as if that somehow makes it better.

There are now limited edition metal credit cards available. For example, in 2022, American Express and Delta collaborated to offer Delta Skymiles Reserve and Business Reserve cards made of metal from a retired 747 jet as a sign-up bonus for new members. The promotion was very popular, leading them to repeat it in 2024, offering twice as many cards as the initial offer.

With all these metal credit cards, we now have the problem of how to destroy them. You could cut plastic cards with scissors or put them through a heavy-duty shredder. Trust me – don’t try that with a metal card. I have a few metal cards hanging around that have expired or where I got a replacement when my account number was hacked. I was doing some cleaning and wanted to get rid of them finally.

There are no directions on what to do on the bank websites, so I went to ask them on Twitter. Here are the answers I got back.

Capital One

Several Capital One cards in the Venture and Savor lines are made of metal. Here’s how you can return it to the bank.

Great to hear from you! You may mail your card back to us, and we will be happy to destroy it for you. If you choose this option, we’d be happy to credit your account to cover the standard cost for first class mail through USPS (in a standard envelope, the postage should only require 1 stamp). Please send to: Capital One PO Box 30285 Salt Lake City, UT 84130.

It’s up to you to mail it back, but at least they’ll refund you the cost of the stamp.

American Express

AMEX has several metal cards, including the Platinum and Gold cards.

American Express’ Twitter team wouldn’t help me on that platform but suggested that I use the chat function on the website or app, which required logging into my account.

The AMEX rep said that return envelopes are sent with replacement cards, but they no longer provide them upon request. However, cardmembers can contact AMEX for an address to return their old metal cards.

Citi

Citi’s metal cards include the American AAdvantage Executive and the Citi Prestige.

Their representative said cardholders could call the number on the back of their card and request a return envelope.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo’s metal cards include the Bilt Rewards Mastercard.

Their representative said cardholders could return metal cards to any Wells Fargo branch.

Chase

Chase offers many metal credit cards, including the Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, United Club Card and Amazon Prime.

It took a few tries, but I did get a response from Chase.

If you contact out to our Secure Message Team at http://chase.com/secure, or call us at 1-800-945-2000, a return envelope can be sent out to you. Let us know if we can give any other guidance or support. We’ll be here for you

Final Thoughts

The consensus seems to be that the way to dispose of a metal card is to return it to the bank. There are, of course, other ways to dispose of a metal card. If you choose to return it, the only difference is how easy or hard the bank makes it for you to get a card to them.  [Note from Sharon: I have a better idea. Stop using metal cards. They’re heavy and, as seen above, much more of a PITA to properly dispose of than their plastic counterparts.]

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary