A Debit to Society

I know, I’m showing my age when I think about the “good ol’ days” but on certain occasions I tend to reminisce to simpler times.  Remember when someone pulled out their check book and you rolled your eyes because it was such a hassle? They had to pull out a pen, fill out the check and then show their I.D. Of course you were behind the person who was taking forever to pay and of course you decided to buy ice cream that day…and it was melting because their purchase was taking so long. With a debit card it was just a quick slide and out the door you went.

Nowadays it takes me an hour just to get past the register if I use a debit card. “Are you a member of our store?” If you answer “yes” tack on five minutes scrambling to find their card somewhere buried in your black-hole purse or racking your brain trying to remembering that stupid number they assigned you (note: the number is stupid, not you). If you decide to pay by debit card tack on extra 10 minutes of punching "this and that" before you get your receipt: verify you are using a debit card, punch in your “secret” pin number, verify whether or not you do or don’t you want extra cash, verify the amount charged is correct, verify you agree to pay this amount and finally, verify your grandmother’s middle name is “Mamie”. Ok, I added that last bit but it wouldn’t surprise me if that showed up some day. Sheesh! Weren’t these newfangled (that’s right, I used the word “newfangled”!) improvements supposed to make our lives easier and the process quicker? It makes a person long for the days of that super-simple ol’ school method of carrying around cash.