How many times...

... can Allan repeat the same mistake?

Well, let's see... earlier today, he ran a quick errand: get some cash from our joint checking account so he could pay a holding deposit on a new apartment we plan to move into soon. The items needed? His debit card and an ATM machine. Any ATM machine, in fact. Simple, no?

Off he drove. Stopped at the first one. Inserted card. Punched in PIN. And was promptly greeted with "Card ineligible for this service" or something like that. Hmm... odd. A little different from the usual "Card not valid" or "Invalid PIN" messages you tend to get at ATM machines. But hey, ATM machines act oddly sometimes, so he shrugged it off and trooped off in search of another machine. Repeat the above steps. Receive the same error message.

Scratching his head, he went to yet ANOTHER machine and again got the same results. Thoroughly fed up, he finally pulled out his debit card for his own private account and finally managed to get some cash that way. Off he went on his errand.

When he returned, he briefly explained that our ATM card wasn't working. That's strange, I thought. Just a couple weeks ago I managed to use my card just fine to withdraw cash. I figured maybe he just had an expired card, as that's happened before. I pulled out my card to compare expiration dates. And Allan obligingly pulled out his.... credit card! That's right, the *credit* card issued to us by the same bank with which we keep our joint checking and savings accounts! And last time I checked, those particular cards weren't eligible for cash ATM withdrawals (a good thing, of course!)

Lesson learned? A credit card is not the same thing as a debit card. They don't even look the same! One is plain green the other is blue with silver trim. Funnier still? That Allan managed to run around and hit nearly every ATM machine near our house before giving up... and still didn't realize his error till he got back!

Time to pull out that special helmet of his from storage...