Why do they do this?

[Lazmarr]

Watching a movie and a guys credit card is declined. He goes to see the cachier who then procedes to cut it in half as there is no credit.

Why does the cachier cut it in half?

[FloRolf]

it's more dramatic.

[harrynowl]

You're supposed to cut it through the chip when you dispose of it.

[Trik'Stari]

I don't think I've ever actually seen that happen, and as someone who has been a cashier at multiple different businesses, I've never been told to do so. I guess maybe if the bank calls and says the card is stolen? Only time I've ever broken someones credit card was when our internet and phone lines were down, and some asshole decided he was too good to walk next door to get cash, so he made me run his card over the phone with the F#$^@%$%^&%@#$%#$^#$%&^%^$&%^&*$@$@#%#$%^KING annoying as hell carbon copy thing, and the ghetto ass, older than me, carbon copy device ripped his card in half, after which I could not complete his transaction.

 

And he did this, with like, 15 people in line behind him, and we only had 2 registers in the entire store.

 

Karma is AWESOME sometimes.

[Totallycasual]

Because many years ago credit cards were manually run through a hand machine with carbon paper receipts etc with only a small amount of cards getting digital verification, i think if a business with the account verification picked up someone using a maxed out or stolen card they would cut them in half to prevent the person continuing to use it in stores with the old manual systems.

 

In the old days you could run around for months racking up charges on a credit card that was already maxed out or reported stolen. 

[atoff]

Because many years ago credit cards were manually run through a hand machine with carbon paper receipts etc with only a small amount of cards getting digital verification, i think if a business with the account verification picked up someone using a maxed out or stolen card they would cut them in half to prevent the person continuing to use it in stores with the old manual systems.

 

In the old days you could run around for months racking up charges on a credit card that was already maxed out or reported stolen. 

 

This.  They don't do it any longer.  I've seen it happen ONCE back when I was a kid in the 80's.  Also, ATM's wouldn't eject your card if you happened to use one.  I don't think this happens anymore either.  Most machines now use a swipe style reader anyway.  

[LancerBG]

So....What movie was this?

[Totallycasual]

So....What movie was this?

 

I'm pretty sure it happens to the FBI guy the hackers are messing with in the film Hackers. 

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

Great movie btw, love the soundtrack.