How to Clean Your Credit Cards
How Dirty Are Credit and Debit Cards
As the COVID-19 pandemic is making us more conscious about sanitized environments, it’s probably a good time to consider how germy high touch items like cash, phones, and cards are. You have no idea how many people have touched coins and bills, after all, so you probably handle that cash with the knowledge that you’re going to want to wash your hands or work through a wallet cleaning checklist soon. Your credit card and debit card, though? Do you even know how to clean credit cards? Probably not—and that’s a bit of a problem.
It turns out that credit cards card are dirtier and carry more bacteria than paper bills and coins. According to LendEDU‘s recent study, credit cards even beat out public train station bathrooms and subway poles—that’s a lot of invisible grime. LendEDU’s average germ score for credit cards was 285; surfaces in restaurant kitchens should have a germ score of 10 or less to be considered sanitary. Eating off something with a surface germ score of 10 is defined as unsanitary, yet you carry something more than twenty times as dirty around in your pocket.
You could shake off these findings; it’s not as though you eat using a credit or debit card, after all. But you do often use that little piece of plastic to pay for lunch, say, during which you’d begin eating (maybe even with your hands and fingers) immediately after touching the card. And you probably touch the card at least one time, if not multiple times, each day, meaning you’re passing those germs on to almost everything you touch. With the
Fortunately, your favorite piece of plastic doesn’t have to be a carrier for Coronavirus or bacteria. You can learn how to clean credit cards. Think about it: You clean your hands and your shoes and your phone, right? Why not clean your cards every once in a while? The process is simpler than you might think, and it won’t mess with your spending habits or ruin your go-to travel rewards credit card.
How to Clean and Disinfect Your Credit Card
- The standard cleaning method is to use rubbing alcohol or an anti-bacterial wipe all over the card. Give it time to sit and make sure the card is completely dry before slipping it back into your wallet. Repeat with all those germ-covered debit cards, IDs, membership cards, and more.
- For a chip card or a card with embossed letters, you can also use a cotton swab to get in the grooves.
- You can always te techy route. UV light sanitizers—such as PhoneSoap—clean phones without damaging them, killing 99.9 percent of bacteria on the surfaces; they can do the same thing for your credit card or debit card.
One last pro tip: Clean your keys and coins while you’re at it.
ABOUT US
Motus Financial, located in Sun Prairie, WI provides Point-of-Sale (POS) technology solutions and credit card processing services. Locally owned and operated Motus Financial provides a complete suite of POS technology services to assist merchants in processing payment from credit cards, debit cards, and checks. Motus Financial can also provide a customized gift card program for your business.
For more information, please contact us at 608-819-8666 or check out our website at www.motuscc.com and we look forward to assisting you.
Our POS systems are designed to streamline in-store transactions. With features like inventory management, sales reporting, and customer tracking, our POS solutions help you run your business more efficiently. Our terminals are compatible with various payment methods, including chip cards, contactless payments, and mobile wallets.
