Debit cards are those handy little cards that look like a VISA card, but actually deduct the money directly from your checking account instead. Yes, they are quite popular these days. Banks everywhere are trying to sell them to their customers. Banks make a lot of money off of these cards. A debit card brings lots of money to a bank because the card is fee-based.
Fees are one of the greatest earnings sources for banks right now.
They apparently don't make that much money off of simple things like loans anymore. By fee-based, I mean that there is a yearly maintenance fee, an ATM fee if you don't use their ATMs, and overdraft fees, of course. The biggest fee, however, came from overdrafting my account. So, during a particularly difficult time one semester, I found out that I was seriously in the red. The debit card.