Originally Posted by sdsearch

With some banks, mostly with MasterCard credit cards, that PIN is not just for ATM machines (which I agree are not good to use with credit cards except maybe in a real emergency). They are also the PIN for EMV purchases in some countries in Europe (where some automated kiosks require a PIN for you to make a purchase).

In those cases, if you are going to be traveling to Europe and possibly using that card at automated kiosks, I would not recommend shredding it, but instead either memorizing it or changing it to a PIN you can remember (but you need the original PIN that they issued to change the PIN to a new one). If you're worried about using the card at an ATM (or somewhere else where it's treated as a cash advance rather than a purchase), request that they lower the cash advance credit limit to $0 (or the lowest they allow, at least).

Having said that, Amex (USA) does not support chip + PIN on any of their cards that's I've looked at with Cardpeek, so for Amex (Surpass) it is indeed shreddable.