While your parents were probably decorating their checkbook covers and ordering specially designed checks with their family names on them, you have something even simpler and easier:
The “check card.” It’s such a beautiful thing.
Image via Wikipedia
Let’s take you back a bit on the concept of personal banking and finance. You have the checkbook. Lovely thing. It’s a little black, leather-bound book with strips of paper in it. Those strips of paper are called ‘checks.’ You use them to actually pay for things. What you do is write the name of the person you’re buying from, write the amount you’re using to buy, and sign your name at the bottom. Simple, right?
The only problem with them is that it’s easy to screw people over! Bad checks here, bad checks there. To make it even worse — blank checks! Never, ever, ever sign a blank check, because if anyone ever gets a hold of it, they can write it for as much money as they like, pass it off as their own, and — guess what — your bank account is flat empty.
This is actually why writing a check takes so long and is such a horrible hassle. You need an I.D., proof of insurance, an essay paper from when you were in college, your left shoe. Basically everything.
In this digital age of technology, the “check card” solves all those hassles with one swipe of the card. It’s also commonly known as a ‘debit card.’ You can use it anywhere — you can even run it as ‘credit,’ allowing you the ability to build a financial reputation (credit score) that can make it easier for you to buy such things like a house, or a car, or a boat. You don’t need to fill any papers out. All you need to do…is swipe it!
How’s that for convenience? Be positive, though, of one thing: don’t over-use the card. It’s a definite super-power and must be respected in the financial world.
