Quick Take Review

Tactical credit cards — you know, those 2.25 x 3.5-inch items that include a set of “survival” tools — have been around for a while. Heck, my father packed one of the early versions around for years, often pulling it out for light duty here and there. Most are pretty flimsy made of thin plastic with even thinner metal tools encased within. Luckily the Survival Hax Tactical Credit Card delivers a more robust solution built of a solid ABS plastic and boasting a set of steel implements.

As a company, Survival Hax aims to help the weekend warrior with a range of products as varied as $50 pop-up tents and sleeping bags, flashlights, paracord bracelets and the $13 Monkey Fist Self Defense Keychain (designed to crush bones in the face of a would-be mugger). As you will see when you visit the Survival Hax website, nothing is crazy expensive. And honestly, based on what I saw and read, I wouldn’t advise you to count on any of their items for real serious outdoor duty.

As for the Tactical Credit Card, it looks solid enough. The one-piece plastic sleeve comes in at about four millimeters thickness. That’s about four times the thickness of a normal credit card and makes this tactical version impossible to actually carry in a wallet.

Specs:
Material: ABS plastic, steel
Features: Knife blade, compass, magnifying glass, sharpening steel, fire starter, toothpick, tweezers, whistle, paracord

The included tools nest snugly within that ABS plastic sleeve. The knife includes a serrated blade, a notch line cutter and a set of small hex head cutouts (for bolt tightening). The fire starter generates a decent spark. The magnifying glass does magnify but it’s tiny. So is the compass. The opener includes a small standard screwdriver head which can get you by in a pinch. I’m sure the toothpick will do a reasonable job in its prescribed role. The tweezers on the other hand look useless. Too small, too thin and too flimsy. Survival Hax also includes a tiny whistle and some paracord in the box as added bonuses. They don’t integrate into the Tactical Credit Card however, so I guess the company expects you’ll just drop them into your backpack.

As these credit card tools go, the Survival Hax Tactical Credit Card does a fine job. Pack it in your hiking kit or elsewhere and it might just get you out of a jam. With the blade, however, you won’t get it through a security check, so leave it at home if you’re traveling by plane. About $15 at Amazon.

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