Covid-19 Credit Card Cross-Contamination

Clean your cards regularly with alcohol or Clorox wipe to prevent transmitting  germs.

Remember high school heath class when they said if you kiss someone it is like kissing the last 10 people they kissed?  Fast-forward to today when just touching something could transmit something harmful to you or your family.

While the dining room of every restaurant around me is currently closed, many of us are trying to support our local business by utilizing the drive through.  A recent visit to a local fast food restaurant confirmed something I assumed for a long time.  Credit Card Contamination.  

Cashier gloved up taking a card that has been
“who knows where”.

The person taking payments in the drive-through was wearing gloves.  Great for them!  They are protecting themselves.  However, they were not changing gloves between each transaction.  For the customer, this is like wearing no gloves at all.  While you’d love for the restaurant to have the cashier change gloves between every transaction.  This is not logistically possible.  Especially with a shortage of personal protective products and front-line health care workers needing priority to essential supplies. 





So, how do you protect yourself?  Something you can do (and should do anyway)...clean your cards!  Every time I get home from shopping, I use an alcohol wipe to clean my cards and wipe off my wallet (also keys, cell phone, AirPods—and, of course, the pocket-sized bottle of sanitizer that goes where I go).  I’d would love to use my digital wallet and use a contactless payment method every time I pay for something, it not always an option.  So cleaning my cards is the best defense against contaminated credit cards.  Of course, wash your hands throughly with soap and water when the cleaning process is done.