So the Chase Sapphire preferred card was one of the first credit cards that I got as part of my first ever credit card signups. It was 40,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards, which are one of my favorite rewards currencies to have since they transfer to several different programs (like Southwest, United, and many more)
Recently I signed up for the Chase Freedom card when they doubled the signup bonus to 20,000 points. My plan there was to get the signup bonus on the Freedom, and then cancel the Sapphire and transfer the credit limit over to the Freedom.
That all went according to plan, and my Sapphire card was canceled, with the $95 annual fee being refunded.
Destroying the card
That left me with a new problem. I was doing a bit of cleanup today around the house and took the time to destroy the credit cards that are no longer open, including the Sapphire.
All went fine with my Citi Aadvantage card (got a replacement card in the mail), and my Starwood card, as well as a local store rewards card (I just look it up with my phone number). But then I took the scissors to my Chase Sapphire Preferred card and… it was not good! 🙂
Clearly the scissors were no match. Which makes sense, since it’s a metal card. So that got me wondering, well how DO you destroy it?
Captain Google to the rescue!
So I went to my first resource for just about everything – the Internet. A quick Googling yielded a few tidbits:
- Scissors obviously don’t work
- Shredders also are no go
- One site suggested that you could call Chase and get a postage paid envelope to send it back in
- Rene at Delta Points suggested tin snips
- Don’t try to burn it
So what do you think?
I ended up going with the tin snips which seemed to do the trick.
Have you ever had to destroy a metal card? How did you do it?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Fire can work very nicely!
http://deltapoints.boardingarea.com/2014/02/06/creative-ways-destroy-old-chase-sapphire-preferred-cards-fire-anyone/
(notice the background music?)! 🙂
LOL! I think I’ll stick with the tin snips 🙂
I just bent it back and forth numerous times until the metal weakened and it broke. Then I peeled the plastic off so it was just a piece of metal. It probably took longer than using tin snips, but it was faster for me than trying to find where I misplaced my tin snips.
Hi Dan,
Speaking of cancelling the chase sapphire preferred card, wouldn’t you lose the ability to transfer any points out by doing that?
Yes! You would need to transfer them out to another Chase account (such as a Freedom or a family member’s account). See Transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards between accounts before closing an account
Thanks for the quick response! After reading the link, I really hope you managed to get your 40,000+ points back.. 🙁
Now i have a new question: I currently only have the Chase freedom card and am thinking about getting the chase sapphire preferred soon. However, I’ve noticed that with just chase freedom, one is not able to transfer any ultimate rewards points out to airline and hotel programs, nor even between spouses/significant others! So far I have not found an option on my ultimate rewards webpage to transfer any points out.
I am very new to points&miles so maybe there is a way around it that I’m just unaware of? if so, could you let me know? Thank you in advance! 🙂
I did – I was able to transfer them over to my Chase Freedom account, so that’s good!
Now try to destroy a Ritz-Carlton card. Not sure even the tin snips will work for this!