topic Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability in SmorgasBoard

Plastic vs. metal card durability

wasCB14 — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 16:39:29 GMT

Years ago, as metal cards were becoming more common, a lot of people said the metal cards would last longer than plastic ones. Are others finding this to be the case? I'm certainly not.

I've had a few plastic cards reach their natural expiration date in the last year...including my Costco card which saw significant physical use. I'm not sure that has ever happened with a metal card, at least the "sandwich" variety. My current Platinum card (replaced maybe 2 years ago) is peeling and I've probably used it less than 50 times in person (though frequently online). Add to that a few dozen swipes for airport lounge access. Yet it's peeling 3 years before its scheduled expiration? If Amex CSRs weren't so busy with bigger problems from other customers, I'd call and ask for a plastic card to replace my metal one.

CSP and CSR both saw significant physical use, so it's harder to know how long they would have lasted as plastic cards. I barely used Savor in person and it fell apart after about a year. It seems like sandwich cards are just time bombs.

My guess is that plastic cards are more affected by the number of swipes or inserts than by age, whereas sandwich cards tend to have their layers separate over time. Even it they don't get much use, whatever sort of glue that keeps them together breaks down. Hot weather may accelerate the disintegration.

I make a lot of payments online or with my phone, and with 18 cards no single card gets the majority of swipes. Maybe metal lasted longer in 2014, when I didn't have an NFC-capable phone and used Freedom and Discover for most transactions...but not anymore!

Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability

iced — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 17:14:22 GMT

Apple Pay has greatly extended the life of both for me as they can now sit undisturbed in a wallet or desk drawer.

If we go back a couple years to a day when I carried a wallet daily, though...metal wins by a nose. My plastic cards would crack and break after about 18 months. My metal cards would split and peel after about 19 months.

Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability

Gunnerboy — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 17:36:48 GMT

My issue had to do with the EMV chip on two Gold cards and one CSP card. They would stop reading. Upon examination of the first Gold card, I noticed a cut in one of the copper traces. I didn't see this problem on second defective Gold or the CSP. though.

Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 19:33:28 GMT

My new metal Delta Platinum AMEX is terribly skinned up from being carried in my wallet for 3 weeks...no swipes, just from rubbing its neighbor in my wallet. I'm not impressed.

Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability

Ficoproblems247 — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 23:33:44 GMT

The issue with plastic I have, and have always had, is they crack along the top where they begin to be visible above the sleeve in my wallet. My preference has always been a wallet that holds my cards horizontally which means the cracking occurs right along the strip. Savor is my first metal card and I've only had it a couple months, but where my plastic cards see the beginning of bending usually during the first couple of weeks, the metal in that card seems to be unaffected. I have been purposely cautious not to snag the edges of the card when inserting it back into my wallet due to a lot of folks, just like you, saying the same thing about the peeling issue. I guess time will tell.

Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability

FireMedic1 — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 09:29:37 GMT

Yep. Got a replacement for my Savor card. The back peeled away to where the reader strip quit working.

Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability

coreysw12 — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 03:58:43 GMT

My first CSP card needed to be replaced rather quickly, I'd say about 6 months after I got it. The problem was that the plastic started to delaminate from the metal, and when that happened, it was only a short matter of time before each swipe of the card was taking off chunks of plastic.

But, it's been 6 months since I got my new one, and the new one is holding up MUCH better so far, in fact it still looks pretty new. So I guess I just got unlucky with the first one.

The card that fell apart the worst was my plastic Citi Diamond Preferred card, which was also incidentally the nicest-looking plastic card I've had (at least for the first few days). It had a thin plastic film on it that would start peeling off after being in a wallet for more than a few days.

Probably my most durable card is my CFU, which still looks nearly new after a year, despite being the most frequently used card in my wallet.

Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 06:49:51 GMT

Aside from a few rub marks, my Rose Gold has held up really nicely for the 11 months I've had it. No issues. I've also had no issues other than rub marks on my plastic cards but part of it may be that I have a very slim front wallet that holds the cards from the chip end and keeps them from cracking. In a traditional wallet they'd crack along the strip where they protruded from the sleeve.

Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability

Deuter — Sat, 02 May 2020 18:02:23 GMT

I am female so my cards usually tend to look pristine. As i keep them in my purse i don't recall one looking worse or falling apart but i can say this: Citi cards, plastic sandwhiched are really bad. As for Metal cards. i have done better with the metal than plastic... i like them better and are more durable to me.

I like to use the physical card but sometimes not use it much as i use Apple Pay on my watch as my preference, or if i am in a nice dinner i can take out the Prestige physically, which is not made of the most quality.. but the design is really pretty.

Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability

TSlop — Wed, 06 May 2020 11:50:17 GMT

@Ficoproblems247 wrote:
The issue with plastic I have, and have always had, is they crack along the top where they begin to be visible above the sleeve in my wallet. My preference has always been a wallet that holds my cards horizontally which means the cracking occurs right along the strip. Savor is my first metal card and I've only had it a couple months, but where my plastic cards see the beginning of bending usually during the first couple of weeks, the metal in that card seems to be unaffected. I have been purposely cautious not to snag the edges of the card when inserting it back into my wallet due to a lot of folks, just like you, saying the same thing about the peeling issue. I guess time will tell.

I've had this problem with cracking across the top/strip but I attributed it to sitting on my wallet when I used to carry it in my back pocket. The top/strip area would show over the card below it and I'm sure the pressure would bend the tops of the cards over the lower card and crack them over time. I've been carrying my wallet in front pocket for maybe 10 years now and that has not happened anymore. I started doing that after getting a sit down job and taking my wallet out. Putting it back in for a car ride home started to make my butt hurt. Switched it to the front and have never looked back.

Re: Plastic vs. metal card durability

GApeachy — Wed, 06 May 2020 11:56:04 GMT

My Savor card peeled front and back along the top edge.