According to Bankrate, "Legislation has virtually eliminated the grace period for bill payers." That means most check writers, especially the ones whose bill-paying schedules depend on payday schedules, are going to need to buy some "check floating" time to avoid bouncing checks and earning late fees.

Bankrate (via this handy AOL Money & Finance slideshow) is offering up six ways to buy that time. Some of them are pretty simple (Sign up for direct deposit), some are somewhat technical (Sign up for account alerts), while others are downright OCD (Customize your due dates). Color coding might help, as well.

If you ask me, No. Five is the way to go: Use online banking. You'll never bounce another check. The computer just won't let you.

B. Brandon Barker also writes for Political Machine.

Plastic is the devil. All of it. Whether it be plastic surgery or plastic credit cards, it is all evil. I've become so accustomed to using my debit card that I use it for literally everything. People tell me, "Just leave it at home," or "Don't use it," but that's hard. Especially since I have memorized the number.

I don't need to have my credit card on hand to order the new Ipod when I can just punch my number onto the internet. I've even got the expiration date and the CVV number in my head. It's horrible being blessed with a photographic memory.

That leads to the problem of overspending. It's so easy to spend money with a debit card. You want to know what's worse? My bank pays everything. All checks...all debits. Even if I'm about to go into the negatives. That has led me to some deep red numbers.

Turn on a television during tax time, and you will see plenty of commercials for tax preparation chains offering to help you get your money fast. What they often don't say is that they intend to get you that money by way of a Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL). Essentially, they prepare your tax return and see how much your refund is going to be. They will give you a loan against that refund so that you can walk out with your money today.

But here's the catch: There are fees associated with those loans, and they're not cheap. Taxpayers will pay, on average, about $100 to get one of these loans. That might not sound like much, but when you figure that they are paying this $100 just to get a ten day loan, it's astronomical.

Ten day loan? That's right... if a taxpayer files electronically and does direct deposit of their refund, it will usually take ten days or less to get their refund. These tax preparation chains are counting on you wanting your money right away, and that's why they push these loans. But you can get your money pretty fast for free. So why not save yourself the money and just do the regular electronic filing and direct deposit!

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.