When the recession hit, Americans in every social strata were forced to pay more attention to their account balances. In the process, many moved away from spending with credit cards and money they did not actually have.

"Previously I have been using my credit card for everything," says Jennifer Pyatt, who manages a toy store in Arlington County, Virginia. "But now I am just using my debit card and paying in cash."

And so do her customers.

"At the end of the day, there are more 20-dollar bills in our cash register," says Pyatt.

Credit card debt in the U.S. reached 972 billion dollars at the end of 2008, according to a Nielson report. The outstanding debt per households that have a credit card was 10,679 dollars.

Debit card spending 71 percent of Americans aged 18-24 used a debit card in August 2008, up 20 percent from a year earlier. Source: Javelin

"For some reason many people started to look at credit card usage as extra cash," says John LaBounty, a consumer credit counselor. "It was extra income that they had to make end's meet or to keep up with the Joneses."

78 percent of American household, about 91 million, had one or more credit cards last year.

"America is a very consumerist culture," says Jonathan Levav, Marketing Professor at Columbia University. "It's consumerism on steroids."

People will save more money in uncertain times, says Levav, and a debit card provides a much tighter link to cash and therefore to a consumers' actual endowment.

"Now, I went from a situation from where I felt like I had no budget to having a budget," says Levav.

In 2007, 65 percent of consumers said they had used a debit card in the past year. That number grew to 72 percent in 2008, according to a study by Javelin.

"Some people got the message," says LaBounty. "They learned to live within their means and they don't need the credit card anymore."

Whether or not Americans will continue to use their debit cards, even after the recession is over, largely depends on the length of the crisis, says Levav.

"There is a good chance that people will stick with debit card spending and cash, but part of that will depend on how used people get to their debit cards," Levav says.