Making Ends Meet

I found a good reason to use debit cards- they help when you have junk you need to return to the store.

A pair of Old Navy jeans ended up in my possession. They were the wrong color. That dark dark blue makes me legs itch.

So I went to return them. As it turns out my wife had used Ye Old Debit Card to buy them. My receipt was long ago sent overboard somewhere. Ah, but this is where I got a little education in “The Ways of the Modern Retailer”

If you pay for your jeans with plastique (plastic- for the less French of you) then Old Navy can track them, determine that indeed they are Old Navy Jeans- for some reason the “OLD NAVY” label is not proof enough. From there you can exchange your purchase.

This isn’t the first run in I’ve had with the debit card trail.

But it is the one that got my head spinning on the age old question of what’s best- Cash or “Credit” (or debit- but Cash or Credit has a better ring to it.)

I work from a human behavior point of view and, right now, my gut tells me that human behavior works better when dealing with cash. It is easy to see– when it’s gone, it’s gone. And even better, you can easily see when funds are thinning up for the month.

So the debate continues- what works better- using cash for Everyday Money or using a debit card.

If you are a user of the Three Piece Plan you know we pull out a weekly amount of spending money (if you are not using the Plan click here and sign up to get started!) So I have two concerns with using a debit card for Everyday Money-

1. When you use a debit card you don’t know exactly how much money you have to spend.
2. You run the risk of incurring over draft fees.

So I am working on what I think the final answer is- let me know what you think…