dealing with banks

I called a friend of mine that has retired from the banking industry and explained to him my situation. What he said made a lot of sense to me, so I am writing it here in the hope that it will be as plain to you as it was to me after hearing it. T he banking industry has us kind of brainwashed. We use our cards like credit cards, but navfed has their cards named right (chekcard), if your card is linked to your checking account, it is in essense a check and should be treated as a check, when we spend money using our debit/check cards we should use the check register given to us when we opened our checking account and deduct the money from our account like we would if we had written a check, and not to pay attention to what is on our balance statement, we should depend on our check register. The debit/check card makes it easier for us to spend money because it is accepted at places that wouldn't accept a check from us, but because of the visa/mastercard logo on them they are accepted, but should be thought of as just a check and treated by us as a written check. He also said that the best way to keep from being overdrawn is to do as him and most bankers do, when you deduct the money from your check register, round up to the next dollar. example, if you spend $3.45 , don't deduct that amount , deduct $4.00 from your register and you should never be overdrawn.