http://wii.yahoo.com/buyers-guide

I dont know how well it works, but it may be worth a shot.

Let us kow if it works.

... ! Who is "us"?

Us.

All your base are belong to us!

What's kow?

A Japanese cow?

heh.

I saw two Wiis in Target yesterday but I didn't have enough money with me! *whimper* Words cannot describe how crushed I feel.

Credit cards for the win?

I don't have a credit card. I'm only 16 after all. Checking account, though. I definitely need one of those.

Get a checking account with a debit card. If you can get a checking account you can get a debit card. Getting a checking account at 16 may or may not be easy, but parents exist for a reason you know, to co-sign .

I'd NEVER get a debit card; if you lost it, someone could drain your banking account before you ever knew what happened.

Co-sign++

So now the real question is, just how much do your parents trust you?

Get a debit-check card; most of them have some sort of fraud prevention layer to help you avoid such situations.

Besides, if you lose it, just call them and tell them and it gets turned off.

That's what I would be concerned about, having read about it over at 419Eater.

I was under the impression that you also needed a PIN to take money out of a checking account.

But you don't need it to buy on debit.

Not all of them. Bank of America allows you to use your debit card as a credit at the counter, but still have the money come out of your checking. I use that when I don't have the cash on me.

Yes and no. As mentioned, some debit cards allow you to run them as credit cards...in general they need to be affiliated with one of the major credit card companies, like Visa or Mastercard. Other debit cards that aren't affiliated have to be run as debit, with a PIN # entry. This, at least, from my experience running a cash register at my store.

On the flip side, I've seen (to the best of my knowledge, though the person(s) may have been mistaken about their cards), people use a credit card as a debit card by using a PIN # assigned to that card by the CC company. Never tried it myself, however, so I can't say for certain that it works.

That seems to make sense. Now that I think about it, I've had to key it in, had to sign receipts, or nothing at all.

As for taking cash directly out of the bank/ATM, are there times you don't need a PIN?

I've never come across an ATM that doesn't require a PIN. Of course, you can likely go inside the bank and get money out at a teller, I would imagine - although they tend to prefer some of the accompanying withdawl slips to be filled out, I think you can just get te cash with your bank card.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were some "biometric" indicators that can be used in lieu of a PIN in development, but I havn't seen them.

I've never had to use a PIN when dealing with a clerk at the bank, I only needed an account number and a ID.