It’s time to get rid of those obsolete practices of carrying hard currency or your cheque book for your shopping trips. It’s time to welcome debit cards into your wallet, a card aimed to improve your shopping experience and prevent you from falling into the trap of credit cards. How? Well debit cards can be used to access your account remotely and use the money in your account to pay for your shopping without having to worry about credit or having to move around carrying heavy currency. The only catch here is that the amount you spend on shopping should be limited to the available balance in your account. This is a blessing in disguise as it lets you shop within limits and not get drawn into the fantasy of shopping for insipid reward points that are offered by credit cards. And at places where payments can be made only through cash, you can withdraw cash from an ATM of your bank through your debit card.
Anyone with a current account or a savings account is eligible to apply and own a debit card. What’s more, there are no restrictions on the balance you would want to maintain in your account (definitely not on the higher side though). You can track the money in your account so that you are well aware before making any purchases. The account balance can be checked either by just the click of a button by logging into your account on the bank’s website or at any ATM. It also makes your shopping experience in foreign countries hassle-free as the amount gets deducted as per the local currency thus saving you the trouble of having to move around with traveler’s cheques. With debit cards, you also don’t run into issues such as late payment, interest etc as these cards act like pre-paid money cards. Debit cards can also be used to pay your monthly bills online thus avoiding the need to stand in long queues.
Though debit cards provide a range of advantages, the real worry occurs when using them at places requiring a certain amount of money for deposit as security. These places might block some money on your card leaving you with less to spend and immobile funds.
But the advantages of debit cards are far more in number as compared to disadvantages leading to debit cards effectively replacing hard cash in wallets and becoming a part of our daily spends.
