You should probably buy a shredder today.

March 12, 2006 4:38 PM

The Torn-Up Credit Card Application. Can you get a credit card with a torn-up application? One citizen puts in the minimal effort to find out.
posted by Joey Michaels (49 comments total)

Someone stole a credit card application of mine many years ago and did something like this, as far as could be figured out later. No idea if they stole it from the (apparently secure) mailbox, or if I'd torn it up and thrown it out. Now I tear these things up, and put the pieces in bags of used ferret litter.
posted by dilettante at 4:46 PM on March 12, 2006

Jesus. What assholes. Looks like I'll have to start tearing these up and tossing them in the kitchen trash. A shame. I try to recycle as much paper as I can.
posted by scarabic at 4:48 PM on March 12, 2006

So this is really just viral marketing for shredder sales, right?
posted by drezdn at 4:49 PM on March 12, 2006

This is why I eat every credit card pitch that comes in the mail. I figure if someone will dig through my shit to piece it together, they deserve a credit card.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:51 PM on March 12, 2006

asap. Thanks for the info.
posted by nickyskye at 4:52 PM on March 12, 2006

Actually, despite the headline I used, it certainly isn't impossible to tape things together once they've been through the shredder. Me? I tear them up and throw them away in three different cans and flush part of the paper down the toilet. If I had a fireplace, I would burn it.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:52 PM on March 12, 2006

So this is really just viral marketing for shredder sales, right?

No it's just starters ! The main plate is unasked-for telephone/bank/inet services ! That will make you CRY as much as identity theft or more.
posted by elpapacito at 4:54 PM on March 12, 2006

Heh, I do the rip-into-tiny-pieces thing and then split the pieces between recycling bin and kitchen rubbish. My beloved thinks I'm mental, but clearly I'm on the right track.
posted by jamesonandwater at 5:00 PM on March 12, 2006

Isn't this why cross cut shredders where invented?
posted by public at 5:01 PM on March 12, 2006

I snopes'd this when I first saw it. I still don't want to believe it really happened.
posted by klarck at 5:03 PM on March 12, 2006

Shred your cash receipts and other stuff too, so anyone intending to paste things back together will have to do much more.

(Yes I know you're joking about the multiple disposal and such, but I actually do this.)
posted by jam_pony at 5:13 PM on March 12, 2006

The same guy proved that you can sign anything on a credit card receipt and no one gives a shit.
posted by Robot Johnny at 5:13 PM on March 12, 2006

My mistake... not the same guy.
posted by Robot Johnny at 5:14 PM on March 12, 2006

nice link ... if i didn't live in an apartment, i'd probably burn the ones i get ... and there's some redhead on a bicycle who goes through the dumpster on a weekly basis
posted by pyramid termite at 5:16 PM on March 12, 2006

Oops, some weren't joking. It's all good.
posted by jam_pony at 5:17 PM on March 12, 2006

I throw credit card offers out in the same bag as the dog shit. So far, so good.
posted by stet at 5:17 PM on March 12, 2006

Actually, stet, that is inspired. Maybe I'll shred them into the same bags as the used kitty litter.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:21 PM on March 12, 2006

I just send them all back in filled out, that way I figure no one else can use or abuse them.
posted by drezdn at 5:29 PM on March 12, 2006

I don't know if I'm preaching to the choir here, but y'all should spend some serious time poking around Rob's site. This has been on my firefox bookmark toolbar thingy for a looong time. Rob is awesome.
posted by popechunk at 5:31 PM on March 12, 2006

Need to do what my grandma used to do with financial records: 10 oz of avgas and a match.
posted by nathan_teske at 5:34 PM on March 12, 2006

One summer, I worked processing credit card applications for a major Canadian bank. Everyone who looks at those things is a temp who doesn't care. The only thing we ever had to flag were typed applications. Apparently typed applications were suspicious. I think we gave a card to a dog once....
posted by showmethecalvino at 5:38 PM on March 12, 2006

On the last amex application I received, I wrote "please do not send any more applications" on it and returned it in the postage paid envelope. Hopefully it'll work. But, maybe it's somehow cheaper to keep people on the mailing list instead of paying someone to remove them.
posted by stavrogin at 5:48 PM on March 12, 2006

Better yet, save some trees and stop the damned things from landing in your mailbox at all. Tell the credit reporting agencies you don't want your credit history disclosed to companies that issue preapproved credit applications:

"Credit reporting agencies (including Experian), under legally specified conditions, provide lists of creditworthy consumers for companies to offer credit. These are called prescreened lists" [emphasis mine].

"You may choose to exclude your name from CRA lists for unsolicited credit and insurance offers."

We just did this in December. It's fantastic, how much less aggravation I feel when I open the mailbox now.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 5:51 PM on March 12, 2006

cybercoitus, thanks for the info on how to opt out of this.
posted by selfmedicating at 6:03 PM on March 12, 2006

OK, color me an idiot, but....on the (relatively few, thank god) CC applications I get, I have to fill out all of the fields on the app., including name, address, last 4 of social, etc.

So, let's say someone grabbed my torn-up app from my garbage - they'd still have to fill in their *own* info, right, so who cares? They'd have a credit card in their own name that they had to dig thru garbage for.

Please enlighten me.
posted by tristeza at 6:09 PM on March 12, 2006

Every credit card application you get is now like a villain from a suspense thriller. If you don't figure out how to completely destroy it, it may come back to terrorize you in the sequel.

Credit card companies are ass-holes man. For me, credit is just another word for "the plague."
posted by j-urb at 6:09 PM on March 12, 2006

Now I tear these things up, and put the pieces in bags of used ferret litter.


Similar M.O. here. I tear them up, soak 'em in water and toss them in with the discarded kitty litter.
posted by ericb at 6:10 PM on March 12, 2006

nathan_teske writes "Need to do what my grandma used to do with financial records: 10 oz of avgas and a match."

Yeah, but boxes of checks take forever to burn and they reek.
posted by stet at 6:20 PM on March 12, 2006

I used to get these pre-approved things where all I had to do was sign, and provide an address, or make a phone call (I never did that, so maybe the call would have requested more information). The incident with me happened in 1996, and I always halfway suspected my landlady - who would have had access to most of the useful identifying information anyway. But I'm pretty sure all I had to do back then was sign and give an address.
posted by dilettante at 6:35 PM on March 12, 2006

OK, color me an idiot, but....on the (relatively few, thank god) CC applications I get, I have to fill out all of the fields on the app., including name, address, last 4 of social, etc.

Does anyone else find this hilarious? In an effort to curb identity theft, we've created a world where one need know only the last four digits of someone's social security card number to steal their identity.
posted by delmoi at 6:51 PM on March 12, 2006

stet: Yeah, but boxes of checks take forever to burn and they reek.

Not with aviation fuel!

FWIW I normally take outdated checks to my local bank branch; they'll dump them in with the rest of their shred-ables.
posted by nathan_teske at 6:54 PM on March 12, 2006

Yah, I also do what cybercoitus interruptus did. I also called up: my credit card company to stop sending me those "convenience checks"; my bank to stop putting in those informational inserts (AND stop other marketing offers); and my mobile phone company to stop sending me extra offers.
posted by hooray at 7:07 PM on March 12, 2006

1-800-OPTOUT
posted by dirigibleman at 7:21 PM on March 12, 2006

That's 1-800-5-OPTOUT, actually, but I just called and I am so happy. No more credit card offers for five years! Thanks for the info, dirigible man!
posted by librarina at 7:45 PM on March 12, 2006

Thanks, popechunk, that site is hilariously written. this paper towel efficiency test was my favorite, I was literally in splits.
posted by diocletian at 7:49 PM on March 12, 2006

I write VOID across mine, then tear it in half, then put it back in the post-paid envelope and drop it in the mail. Might as well make them pay for their bullshit.
posted by dobbs at 7:49 PM on March 12, 2006

How often do you fill out a credit card application and then throw it out? Like tristeza, I don't get the point being made here. "I filled out a credit card app and got a card!" Good for you, sweetie. Want some pie? I just baked it!

But mom, I tore the application up before I filled it out!

Why would you do that, honey?

To show how stupid the credit card companies are! They send credit cards to people who fill out applications!

(I cross-cut shred everything. Including one of my ties. That's why they come with a reverse.)

All Cockerham has shown here is that if you tear up an app and then change your mind and painstakingly reassemble it and fill it out, you will get the card from the one company he sampled. So don't worry about tearing up apps from that one particular vendor because based on an N of 1, you have a 100% chance of getting your card!*

Yes, credit card companies are disreputable parasites. This 'exposé' doesn't really add anything to the discussion.

*pending credit approval.
posted by Eideteker at 9:25 PM on March 12, 2006

So, let's say someone grabbed my torn-up app from my garbage - they'd still have to fill in their *own* info, right, so who cares? They'd have a credit card in their own name that they had to dig thru garbage for.

Some apps come with a certain amount of your own information on them -- name and address, at least. There's also a chance that other stuff in your discarded mail heap will have the rest of the necessary information. Or that a crook has sources for it.
posted by weston at 9:37 PM on March 12, 2006

I'm still not sure I get it. If the crook has enough of my info to fill out a card in my name, he does not need a credit card app from my mailbox to do it, does he? He can just go to any of the CC companies' websites or find apps from other sources, and fill those out. He can find most of the info on the credit card apps... in the phone book. Or on my other mail, which I do not shred up.
posted by RustyBrooks at 10:12 PM on March 12, 2006

if you're pre-approved for a card, there will often times be quite a bit of information (your name and address will already be on the envelope)... and like the story says, they end up having the credit card sent to another location anyways. The only information they really need is the last 4 digits of the social security number, and the application #...

this is why it wouldn't work if you just filled out someone else's information... you need the whole "pre-approved" number on the application to get it to go through smoothly
posted by hatsix at 11:07 PM on March 12, 2006

That doesn't sound true. I'm preapproved because I have good credit. If they enter in my information, I still had good credit, seems like things would go pretty smoothly. I guess I could try to apply for a card and see what kind of information they need from me, see if it's more than what the typical pre-approved app wants from me.
posted by RustyBrooks at 11:57 PM on March 12, 2006

What I want to know is why this should be a problem for me.

This should be a problem for the credit card companies. I get these pre-approved things in the mail unsolicited. I did not ask for them. So why is it my problem if someone steals it and uses it to take these idiot Delaware-based institutions for cash?

[In fact I do know why. But until the responsibility and liability is shifted to these corporations, they have no incentive to change things or make them more secure.]
posted by moonbiter at 4:08 AM on March 13, 2006

On another note: A friend of mine's father takes every piece of junk mail he gets that has a business reply envelope, fills it with scrap paper (bits from the local newspaper, thread, or whatever is handy) and sends it back. He does it so that the companies have to pay the return postage.

It's a small thing, but satisfying for him, and he's got nothing else to do with his time (he's retired).
posted by moonbiter at 4:17 AM on March 13, 2006

I feed my sensitive paperwork to an unusual species of troll bred and bonded for that purpose. Their digestive tract combines all three forms of destruction previously mentioned: cross cut shredding, burning in avgas, and mingling with feces.
posted by ryanrs at 7:46 AM on March 13, 2006

If you're really serious about it, try adding some water and running it through a kitchen blender or food processor.
posted by Richard Daly at 8:50 AM on March 13, 2006

Along the lines of how shitty identity theft can be — my fiancee is currently trying to figure out how she can get a copy of her credit report. Several accounts have been opened in her name, and several addresses and even new social security numbers have apparently been added to her record.

The trouble is, when you tries to get a copy of your report, "for security" you're quizzed about the accounts on your report... which, in her case, is exactly what she's trying to find out... They're quizzing her about accounts opened by the crooks!
posted by dmd at 9:03 AM on March 13, 2006

Cool. I've also found a great new web site. It's called gorgle or something. No, Google. Check it out!
posted by Laotic at 2:52 PM on March 13, 2006

The whole security-thorugh-obscurity approach you people use in the US, such as the assumption that your social security number and your mom's name are secret and nobody but you could possibly know them, no siree, strikes me as naive, at best.
posted by signal at 5:37 PM on March 13, 2006

As usual, MeFi-to-Slashdot lag time = 2 days.

[Bad tagging on this one, BTW; needs single words, and "application". I gave up and resorted to brute force searching FPPs page by page.]
posted by intermod at 1:54 PM on March 15, 2006