Cleaning Plastic cards

[suey]

I keep mine in a plastic case , just use sanitiser on a tissue. Not too worried about notes, I sanitise my hands after touching any kind of cash and use a wipe on the outside of my purse. Looks ott when you leave a shop but who cares.  I’m still only visiting the bank and two local farm shops, an occasional visit to a small corner shop and chemist all of whom have copious amounts of sanitiser.

[BumbleB]

My method is that I have sanitised my hands, so I know that only I touch the card when putting it into the machine, entering the PIN and withdrawing. 

[Crumblie]

After entering the PIN you should sanitise your hand again.

[Gadget]

I have hand sanitizer, lots of rubber gloves, antibacterial wipes, 2 types of mask (3 of one and 100 of an other), disinfectant and milton, a uv lamp, lots of soap, and many other bits and pieces which I've acquired either from my glass work, general household or recently purchased.

Should that be enough to keep me in semi-suspended animation until we are released or is it all a nightmare 

Thanks all for replies.

I regard myself as very lucky that I can be concerned about a debit card getting contaminated rather than anything more serious.

[BumbleB]

Apologies - I'm bowing out.  I can think of only one word "paranoia"    

[Gadget]

It was a joke list, for goodness sake - or have you lost your sense of humour 

These are things that I've mostly collected for my glass work - some of which you've benefited from. Others are general household cleaning stuff.

[groom]

I've used my card twice and to be honest I didn't really think about it - apart from having to wrack my brains to think of the number!

The first time was in the garage when I took the car for service. He wiped the card machine before and after I touched it and I used hand sanitiser when I got back into the car. The second time was when I got petrol when I used the contactless method, so only I touched the card. Most places have raised the limit from £30 to £45. I also have Apple Pay so intend to use that for larger amounts. 

I think there may be more problems using an " in the wall" cash machine as you would need to sanitise the keys yourself. If I need cash I will withdraw it from the post office, where according to a friend, they wipe the keys on the card machine between customers.

[Gadget]

Thanks groom. I only thought of it this week, having used up my spare cash paying some of the people who came to deal with the tree and the fence. I will use my local bank branch not the outside ATM.

[Nick_Ips]

I was thinking of the wipe method BB but there are various methods that I looked at. I'm concerned that I don't mess up the info on the card if the more invasive methods are used.

I've wiped a couple of my cards with hand sanitiser gel two or three times each with no ill effects - the only thing I did was try to avoid getting too much gel near the metal contacts for the chip, I wasn't sure how liquid proof that area is and didn't want to risk it.

I wouldn't put the card in any kind of chip+pin, cardreader or ATM straight after cleaning it with anything wet (gel, wipes, etc) as dampness on the chip contacts could cause the electrical signals to go where they shouldn't.  I'd hope the technology was designed to cope with a card that maybe had some rain splashes on it... but I wouldn't want to test that theory out with a card I was relying on using. 

Otherwise I've gone with leaving the card for 72+ hours, flipping it over at some point to make sure both sides dry out fully. This is probably the safer option (for the card) if you aren't in a hurry.

Also, there could be an outside chance of alcohol in the gel dissolving the ink of your signature, but I can't remember the last time anyone checked my signature on a card so I didn't see that as a major problem if it happened (it didn't with mine).