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in many places. It's known informally as bouncing a check. People
do not arrange overdraft limits in advance.
DEBIT CARDS
Debit cards are becoming more and more common in the
United States, especially because you need no other form of ID to
use them. Many ATM (automated-teller machine) cards double as
debit cards. Some places will have you sign the receipt as if you
had paid with a charge card, and others will ask you to key in your
PIN on a special keypad. Some cards can be debit or credit cards,
depending on what you want, so clerks will usually ask you "debit
or credit?" when you hand them your card. You can also ask for
cash back from many stores when you use your debit card to buy
things, which is a way to avoid ATM fees.
Debit cards are not called check cards (and certainly not
cheque cards).
THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
In terms of vocabulary, this tends to be a rather tricky category.
The official service is known as the U.S. Postal Service, yet what it
does is regulate and deliver mail, not the post. The place when
people go to purchase stamps (also called postage stamps) and to
send letters and packages is the post office, but the place you put
your letters in is called a mailbox, not a post box.
Post offices do not act as banks, but you can buy money orders
there if you don't have a checking account, and they have tax forms
and passport applications. You also cannot make long-distance
telephone calls from a post office.
There are four classes of mail in the United States. First class is
for sending letters and postcards; second class is for magazines and
newspapers; third class is for sending books and circulars and
fourth class includes everything else. Mail that needs to arrive
overnight should be sent by express mail. Mail can also be sent
special delivery for an additional charge, and it will be delivered
by messenger rather than by a regular delivery.
The term mailman is more commonly used than postman