Credit cards have to be among the most useless things in the world. Aside from their symbolic financial function – which, for most of us, is no longer valid – and the deceptive comfort factor of having a nicely padded wallet, they’re just cheaply made rectangles of embossed plastic with magnetic strips and computer chips stuck on them.

It’s true, they’ve served many a movie character as lock-picking devices (does that work in real life?) and cocaine cutters, but what else? As it turns out, the latter two functions are covered in Scavenging’s listicle of 10 Unexpected Uses for Credit Cards. You’ll be surprised by some of the others, like credit card snow goggles, picture frames, golf putters and light switch covers, as seen at right.