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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Debit : Bank Definition

Debit and credit are just two very familiar, most often used terms in any accounting matter. Such is being defined as two aspects of every financial transaction (Wikipedia.com). Nevertheless if you are in highschool and have an Accounting subject you have once tried to debit cash, credit furniture and fixtures per se? Or you remembered being confused analyzing a given transaction and which of it has to be written in the left side of the ledger (debit) and its right side (credit). I did! I still do sometimes.

Today we give honor to DEBIT.  Debit as a term commonly used in the bank.  But going back a little basic let's define debt which I assume as DEBIT's root word as something owed. Such something could be in forms of money or goods or services. When I say: “Kristine has a debt to Raphael due next month”. It is saying that Kristine has a liability or obligation to pay or perform something (defined earlier) to Raphael.

Thus to debit, (as per bank perspective) means to charge a person's account  with a debt or simply to pay out from. One would say: “I DEBITed your bank account in expense of the replacement of your ATM card. This would mean I charge your account in payment of the new ATM card (which is the debt) or I payout the charge from your account. 

Another scenario:  “The ATM savings account can also be used as DEBIT card”. It means that the ATM savings account can be used as a means to pay out for something. This something could be purchases from the department stores or some groceries you have to pay using your ATM savings account through Express Payment System or EPS. (We'll talk more about the debit card and EPS on my succeeding notes)

So remember, when you hear the word debit, most especially in a bank scenario, it’s actually taking money from you. A withdrawal through the ATM is a debit transaction. Be careful with your DEBITS, you don't want to end up losing all your savings. Right?

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