I thought they were the present.  Ezra Klein, who normally blogs and writes about politics and policy, has discovered debit cards.  From his Washington Post column:

Credit, with all its benefits and dangers, and convenience. But with debit cards, you can now have the convenience of plastic without the temptations of credit. I, for instance, use a debit card exclusively. And so do many others.

Well, aren’t you special.

Those last two sentences epitomize elitism.  He and his friends have enough money in the bank to whip out their debit card where ever they go.      Many Americans don’t, Ezra.