In today’s world, you have access to a variety of payment options that fit your daily needs. While it should be simple for you to choose, it’s also easy to miss what each form of payment can offer you. Below are just a few examples and benefits associated with each payment option.

Debit Cards
In short, debit cards allow you anytime access to your money by withdrawing funds directly from your checking or savings account. In fact, today it’s more accurate to call a checking account a “debit account.” That means no monthly bills or interest charges. Debit is the most popular form of payment among many consumers today because it’s a convenient way to access money.

• Draw money directly from your checking account
• No future bill payments or interest payments
• Offers two forms of cardholder authorization – PIN- and signature-based – allowing you to choose how you want to complete your transactions
• More and more financial institutions offer rewards for using your debit card

Prepaid Cards
Prepaid cards operate like a debit card in that funds are directly debited from the actual balance of the card. It’s a payment alternative for people who do not have a bank account or wish to access a certain amount of money that is preloaded or reloaded on the card. Prepaid cards are not necessarily associated with an individual account holder and, instead, represent money deposited onto the card, either by you or a third party. You may use only the amount of money stored on the card. Should your card get lost or stolen, many prepaid cards may offer replacement cards and replace the remaining funds, subject to certain conditions.

Cash
Cash is the most traditional form of payment. You carry what you have and spend what you have, making it easy to know how much is available at your disposal. There are risks for carrying cash because you are not protected if your cash gets stolen. There is often little you can do to retrieve money lost.

Checks
Checks allow account holders to access money directly from their accounts, but without the transaction-processing speed of PIN-enabled debit cards. While checks have been around longer than debit cards, they don’t offer many of the same conveniences of debit and, historically, have had higher rates of fraud associated with them than debit cards.

Credit Cards
Credit cards enable you to access funds from a previously approved line of credit and pay off those borrowed funds, plus interest in most cases, over time. Credit card transactions are authorized by signing a receipt. Responsible use of credit cards – which includes making at least the minimum monthly payment, on time, each month – helps to build your credit record, which can assist you in securing future loans such as mortgages. Most consumer credit cards offer zero liability, and many include rewards programs.