WASHINGTON—Cracking down on the common but unethical practice seemingly rampant in department stores, the Federal Trade Commission began issuing fines this week for any sassy retail employee who held up a customer’s declined credit card and cut it in half. “A lot of these snobbish retail employees seem to derive a…
There are a few versions of “pick up card” responses that require the merchant to hold on to the card and contact the issuing bank. I’m not sure if a bank would instruct them to destroy it, probably more likely they’d ask the merchant to hold on to it until law enforcement showed up.
https://www.totalmerchantconcepts.com/educational-resources/credit-card-issuer-response-codes.html