Piggy banks come in all shapes and sizes. In college I had piggy bank shaped like Mr. T's head head. We kept this piggy bank on the top floor of our closet, my roommate and I. In the dark, when reaching for a shirt in the closet, I would sometimes be surprised by this piggy bank and mistakenly think it was an intruder. When I was younger I had piggy bank shaped like a dog. My sister had one shaped like a cat. We would let part to piggy banks battle it out.

Today I simply use an empty milk jug as my piggy bank. Every day when I come home from work I empty out pockets of change and drop the coins into this milk jug. It's suprising how many coins a person can collect throughout the day. I probably put a dollars worth of coins into this milk job most every day. I suspect there is probably about $100 worth of coins at this point in check. I intend to take it to the bank and let one of those coin sorting machines count the change. I will deposit this money into my savings account and pay for my children's college education.

I have asked my son to begin saving his coins in his own piggy bank. He says he wants to piggy bank that looks like a pig. We have looked for such a bank at garage sales, department stores, and online.

I actually don't care what sort of piggy bank my son gets, provided he start saving for college. Every penny counts.

I am so sick of paying outrageous debit card fees. It seems there are fees for everything about my card. I thought I didn't have to pay an activation fee, but it turns out the card just called that fee something else, so I had to pay it anyway. So now I am out $10. However, I've learned that most of these cards charge that $10 activation fee. Actually, the specific charge is $9.95. I would rather not pay an activation fee, because that comes out of the first amount of money I put on my card. So if I add $50 I'll actually have just $40 on my balance. The good news is that this is just a one time deal. I'll never have to pay activation again, even when my card renews in a couple of years.

Another fee is a monthly fee. In my case I am paying five bucks a month for keeping the card. So, if I don't use my card at all next month I'll have just $35 on it. The month after that, $30. So you can see in six months I will have no money on my card unless I put more money on it. So why do I have this card, you might ask? Well, I'm sick of paying check cashing fees for my paychecks. I pay $20 a check, and that bites. Or rather I was paying that. Now I just go with direct deposit on my prepaid card. So I am avoiding those fees altogether.

I also like the fact that I can gas up my car at the pump on plastic. I learned however that you need to keep a balance of at least one hundred bucks on your card, because the gas station puts a temporary hold of $75 on the card. This means they charge the card $75 and then put that money back in a day or so. Why? Who the heck knows, but it is annoying.

I take my kids to restaurants all the time, and now I can put it on plastic like so many other people. It makes me feel legitimate in their eyes. My son is at an age where he loves Hot Wheels. He has about 100 of those things. He used to have 150, but he smashed a bunch of his cars with a hammer. You'd think he'd take care of his toys, but he knows I will buy him more. What are you going to do?

Anyway, just watch for those hidden fees if you are considering getting one of these prepaid cards.  

This weblog is all about debit card. Now, if you don't care about them, then this site isn't for you. But if you want to better understand the debit card industry and the banking rules around the use of the cards, then keep reading. If you want to save money and get the most out of using a debit card, then keep reading. If you are just fascinated by my writing style, then keep reading. 

Debit cards are huge today. Some would argue that they are more important than credit cards when it comes to how people use plastic to pay for the things they want and even they things they don't need. 

I checked my wallet right now and I have four debit cards. Two are tied to checking accounts. Two others are more accurately called prepaid cards. A prepaid card is as debit card that is not tied to a checking account like a traditional debit card. Rather, you load money on the card and draw from these funds as you use it. When the card's value is depleted, you can "reload" it with more money and keep using it until it expires. 

Debit cards have been around for a few decades now. In all that time, the size and format of them have not changed. It would be weird if they got smaller, wouldn't it? But if everything we carried in our wallets got smaller, maybe we could wear smaller wallets. Maybe in the future we won't even have wallets but just spend money on a microchip. Maybe we won't even have cash. Certainly pennies need to go away.