Credit cards are evil! Cut them up! Burn them! Freeze them! (In water, literally.)

The standard advice for people looking to get out of debt has always been anti credit card in a radical, fundamentalist way. But that ignores some of the real benefits of using credit cards as well as failing to point out some real concerns with the most likely replacement, bank debit cards tied to a checking account.

So while one of the first tidbits of information that people get when looking to get out from under debt is that it’s better to trade one form of plastic for another, and this is generally sound advice, there are some catches.

Giving up credit cards typically means giving up reward points and cash back when shopping, and there’s no risk of overdrafts on your checking account when using credit cards. Add one more thing to that list.

From the folks at MarketWatch and the Wall Street Journal we got an interesting video about the dangers of using debit instead of credit when shopping retail.