Every time I shop in Target they offer me a credit or debit card. I already have their credit card and usually ignore the quick hard sell for the debit card. After all, I don’t want another bank account and the credit card is great. They give you a 5% discount when you use it in store and they take a percentage of your purchases and donate that amount of money to the school of your choice even if your kids are not in school, so it’s great for grandparents and aunts and friends, etc.

What I didn’t know is that with the debit card, you don’t need to open a new checking account. You hook their card up to your regular checking account at your own bank. They need a blank check to set it up.

This is a great option for two reasons:

1. You still get the 5% off when you use the debit card.

2. You pay for the purchase with the money in your checking account, so it’s like using cash. No monthly bills.

I’ve had the debit card for a couple of months now. You use it like any other debit card, with a pin number, and you only use it in Target. Since we get a lot of our groceries at Target and all of our bathroom items and kids’ school things there as well, we save a lot of money with the 5% off and never pay an interest charge since it’s paid for out of our checking account.

If you shop a lot at Target, do yourself a favor and look into it.