Get a Cash Back Debit Card

I always love opportunities for free money.   Since most of us use our debit cards pretty frequently, why not get a cash back debit card?  Consider this.  Right now you are using a debit card that doesn’t pay anything back.  If you were to switch, you might get $100 back at the end of the year.  Well, it doesn’t take a genius to know that that is $100 more than you would have gotten had you not switched.  Its free money!I looked for a few minutes to see what I could find.  Here is a short list of a few cash back debit cards you could get.

1. Washington Mutual - WAMU (As they like to call themselves) have a debit card called the WAMU Gold debit card that pays back $.03 each time you use it up to a total annual amount of $250.  www.wamu.com
2. CME Federal Credit Union in Columbus, OH has a cash back debit card that pays .25% back on all purchases that don’t require a pin number (you sign as if it were a credit card).  www.cmefcu.org
3. Umpqua Bank in the Willamette Valley of Oregon has their debit card enrolled in a program called Rainbow Rewards out of Denver that pays a variable percentage back, but only from participating stores, restaurants, etc…  From what I was reading, though, some of the percentages are quite high… up to 25% back.  www.umpquabank.com
4. PayPal has a debit card that you can link to one of your regular bank accounts, and as long as you use it like a credit card (i.e. you sign instead of using the pin),  you get 1% cash back on your purchases.  I think its a pretty good plan, but it doesn’t sound all that great for things like ATM withdrawls.  www.paypal.com
5. U.S. Bank - These guys have a debit card called the ‘Cash Bonus Visa Check Card’ which pays up to 25% back on purchases at 150 participating vendors.  I looked at the participating vendor list and it seems to have just about all the big name vendors, iTunes, Ace Hardware, American Eagle, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, The Home Depot, etc…  Only transactions not using a pin number qualify.  I checked on their free checking accounts and they really do, indeed, appear to be free. www.usbank.com 

As always, do your homework before signing up with anything and make sure you know any and all fees associated with it.