As soon as we get a hold of our paycheck, we have a choice to make: Do we save it or do we spend it?

While some people prefer to save their money, others like to spend it as soon as a paycheck is in their hands.

For this reason, banks offer two mediums to store money: a savings account and a checking account.

A savings account is designed to hold money and make it grow through interest. The positive side of storing money in this type of account is that your money collects interest simply by being in the account.

The negatives to a savings account are you must leave your money with the bank for longer periods of time and the bank puts limitations on transactions involving the account.

For example, you cannot use checks or debit cards to pull money from your savings account.

A checking account is a “transaction account,” which means it is meant for daily use, be it by use of checks, debit cards or cash withdrawals.

The main strength of using checking accounts is that they are more liquid, which means you can make cash withdrawals from them more easily.

The downside to checking accounts is no interest is earned on money, and you have to be careful to monitor your account — or you’ll find yourself paying hefty fees.

Both types of accounts are similar in that they are safe and convenient places to store your money.

If you’re a saver, rather than storing cash at your house, you can leave it in a savings account where it will gain interest.

If you’re a spender, rather than carrying cash around with you at all times, you can just carry a debit card or checks and use them to instantly pay for transactions.

Last week’s feature was on credit cards, but according to academic advisor Dr. Kathleen Stephens, debit cards are better for students than credit cards.

So what exactly is a debit card, and why is it better than a credit card?

Often used in place of cash and checks, debit cards automatically deduct funds from your checking account to pay for a transaction. This can be done until there is no money left in your account.

If you try to pay for something with insufficient funds, it is called overdrafting.

When this occurs, the transaction will most likely be rejected, and banks typically charge what are known as overdraft fees for trying to spend more than you have.

It can also damage your credit score.

To protect customers from this, some banks offer what is called overdraft protection. This feature acts as an instant

loan to the account holder.

The bank agrees to pay for the transaction, but the account holder must pay them back with interest.

Overdraft protection can be helpful, but students should know that most banks charge additional fees for overdraft protection to keep people from abusing the system.

“[Debit cards] have all the security and safety features of a credit card if someone steals it,” Dr. Stephens said.

“Debit cards won’t put students in debt, because it won’t allow you to overdraft your account if you have overdraft

protection”.

If there are lessons to be learned here, they are that

sometimes saving money can be much more rewarding than spending money and to never spend more than you have.