How much punishment can a credit card take?
By Jay MacDonald • Bankrate.com

"Cool, man, these thing are really way tough," Travis Staebell, 11, and his brother Jacob, 8.

How much abuse can your credit card stand before it bites the dust?

We take a break from the pressing concerns of finance and commerce to answer the burning question that has surely occurred to every credit cardholder at one time or another.

Perhaps your card accidentally went scuba diving with you. Or basked in the sun on your dashboard one triple-digit afternoon. Or entertained your schnauzer in your absence.

The question is, will it still work?

To conduct our own independent credit card crash test, Bankrate enlisted top demolition experts Travis Staebell, 11, and his brother Jacob, 8, of Naples, Fla.
We asked the brothers how tough they thought the cards would be.

"Pretty tough!" said Jacob.

"No," countered Travis, "I think you could bust them."

Takin' it to the limit
The brothers put four cards through independent endurance tests.

• Card One they baked in an oven at 300-degrees uncovered for five minutes, then cool and serve.
• Card Two the boys cut in half across the magnetic stripe and taped back together.
• Card Three they submerged in a swimming pool.
• Card Four the brothers wheelie-pounded, scraped and skidded on with the full fury of their BMX bikes.

All in the name of science, of course.

The next morning, we took the cards to the bank. The results were somewhat surprising.

Card One, our baked entrée, had shrunk to half its horizontal size but retained its length without undue warping. The hologram was destroyed. The embossed numbers had fallen but remained readable.

Because of its size, it wouldn't swipe through a card scanner, nor would it be usable at an ATM. But a merchant could read all the necessary information, even the tiny signature and expiration date, to complete a transaction.

Card Two, which we cut, registered invalid when taped together and swiped.

Card Three was unaffected by its pool time.

Card Four, which had been reduced virtually to rubble, its magnetic stripe scuffed and cracked, surprised our teller by registering as valid when swiped.

The Staebell brothers had given it their best, but three of the four cards had survived.