They seem innocent enough and they sure are handy.  But don’t let them fool you with their convenience and sparkly veneer: debitcards are the devil.  Mostly because they make balancing your checkbook practically impossible, even if you are one of those people who is capable of keeping all the receipts for your purchases. I have always been a fan of checks; they come with those helpful little duplicates that you can refer to later on.
Here’s the real issue, however: debitcard charges are finicky when it comes to appearing on your account.  As I work at a bank and spend a good part of my day explaining this particular phenomenon to customers, you’d think I’d be able to apply it to my own situation…but no.  It works like this: when you initially use your card, the charge shows up on your account.  Then, if the merchant doesn’t balance out their credit card terminal at the end of their business day, that charge falls off your account.  It disappears, only to reappear for good when the terminal is batched out.
So yesterday I was trying to get a grip on our account, but couldn’t get my figures to work out.  It was making me bonkers.  It turned out that two items I had previously marked off as clearing the account had since fallen off the account, and not yet magically reappeared.  It took me about 2 hours to figure this out though.  !?!?!!  Very frustrating.