Use That Debit Card!

I respect the fact that you were being conservative, careful and concerned about money when you used a personal check. But get that checkbook out of your purse. It takes up space. It's a dangerous key to your finances, and your entire identity, if your purse is stolen.

Using digits instead of paper checks is environmentally responsible. Your debit card will save millions of trees that would otherwise be made into paper checks -- and millions of gallons of gas that would be used to transport those checks from merchant to bank to clearing center and back to your bank.

As Dustin Hoffman learned in The Graduate decades ago: Plastic is the way of the future! And the future is now. You know that. I watched the bagboy ask you the usual question: Paper or plastic? You chose plastic for your grocery bags. Good move. Now think of all the energy -- emotional and otherwise -- you'd save yourself, and those in line behind you, if you would only choose plastic at the checkout line.

And that's the Savage Truth.

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