Yes Mary, you are reading right. There are several softwares that allow you to download free or purchased designs from the internet to your computer. Then you transfer from computer to the 'cardwriting box/card' for using in your machine. The most popular is the Brother PED Basic that I mentioned above. It only writes .pes format, which is what the 270 uses, and can be bought...sometimes used, from ebay. Normally, you can find new there, as well as Walmart on line, Allbrands.com, and other sites. You may pay from $50to $100+. Then you can download a free software to change other design formats to .pes for your machine to use. There are many many free designs available and a good place to start is to join Sewforum.com. It is a forum for embroiderers, where you can ask questions, request someone create a design for you free or for fee. It is not very active now as the site is also on Facebook, but still, there are thousands of free designs still there. I hope I have explained-helped you. Good luck!

chisue - It may have become easier for Canadians but a few years ago it was a nightmare. That said (and I worked in a bank at one time) my boss in an M & A company used to just write U.S. $ on his Cdn. cheque and mail it off and it always cleared, but then I know that the Bank cleared it "by hand" - he was extremely well to do, which can make quite a difference as opposed to being a fee-paying middle class person. I remember before GardenWeb was taken over and I was going to join and pay the $15 US I think it was and the hoops I was going to have to go through - so I only looked at the "free" forums - wasn't worth buying a U.S. $ money order and paying the fee for that. Many Cdns. now have U.S. $ bank accounts so that might be helpful as well - we don't. And it used to be to get a U.S. $ credit card you had to have an address in the U.S. to have the statement delivered to. We are so similar yet when it comes to anything involving buying something ("shopping") we become international! Just ask any Cdn. ordering or trying to order something on-line from the U.S. - even if it is allowed, versus an American ordering from Canada. Big difference. By the way, I don't like PayPal - maybe because I almost signed up one day then changed my mind and even though it has been 5 years I keep getting e-mails regarding hacking into my account - spam of course - but rather alarming since I didn't even complete half of the application and of course did not submit it. It used to be that there was a bank in Wilmington, Delaware that could clear Cdn. cheques. When we were in NY last month I did see lots of TD Banks - we bank at TD in Toronto - but to do anything with my debit card I would have had to use the ATM machine - which thankfully had a PLUS sign - the way my day had been going I was expecting it not to. (I had just been trampled by a gaggle of teens who saw Jennifer Aniston and wanted to get to her.)

Responding to what 'bonelady' said - (about 9 posts up - Posted by bonelady (My Page) on Wed, Aug 2, 06 at 15:36) Something similar happened to me quite awhile back. I did a balance trf on a card. Got first statement and paid minimum due (it was like $120.00 min due at the time). Then I made a 2nd pymt of $120.00 very close (either before or after the "due date"), expecting the 2nd pymt to "HIT" (be processed) in the NEXT billing cycle. (Taking into consideration mail delivery & processing time) I think I mailed it the day before or day OF due date. My next statement arrived, and I had a minimum pymt due of about $118.00 or $116.00 - something like that. I called them up to inquire. Well...They rec'd the pymt AFTER the due date. However, that 2nd pymt applied to the previous month! Here's why: Let's say the "Minimum Payment Due Date" is the 17th of the month. Pymt is mailed on 1st of month (PRIOR to the 17th) and gets processed/paid on the 8th. (I'm being 'generous' here on time) Now, send a second pymt - lets say mailed on the 16th or 17th or 18th - because you KNOW it needs to travel thru the mail, arrive, be processed, etc. SO, you EXPECT it to arrive AFTER the "Due Date" - (17th). And indeed it DOES arrive and is processed after the due date. So, You're paid for the next month...RIGHT? NO PROBLEM! EXCEPT!!! Hello? Your 2nd payment arrived and was processed on the 23rd. Your new "BILLING CYCLE" STARTS on the 24th! That 2nd payment applied to the previous billing period. They don't "tell you" that there's this one week "GAP" between pymt due date and beginning of next billing cycle! So, now you have to make yet ANOTHER minimum pymt that month! I used to do the extra pymts once in awhile years ago. It was (if I'm not mistaken), if my due date was the 17th, my next billing cycle would start on the 18th. Not that way anymore! I was shocked when this happened to me awhile back...But HEY!...At least I made an extra pymt and was still able to pay the minimum due next statement. PLUS, I learned something I was not aware of then, but I am NOW! Helps for better planning...

kathsgrdn-"I just use my debit card to buy gas. " You might want to be little extra watchful when using your card at the pump. Here is one reason why I pay with cash. Happy Birthdayâ¦Iâve stolen $2500 from your account October 27th, 2008 by John Carroll Identity theft is a fast-growing problem, and Iâve taken it seriously for quite awhile. I pay to have people monitor my credit to ensure someone doesnât open accounts in my name, and I try to use temporary credit card numbers when I make online purchases. I shred personally identifiable information that I receive by mail, the better to deter âdumpster diversâ who might use it. Iâm also a stickler for using complex passwords on any site that provides access to financial information. There are many, many ways, however, to have your identity stolen, and though from hindsight this should have seemed an obvious possibility, it wasnât something that I had taken sufficient care to avoid. As the title of this post implies, someone managed to fraudulently withdraw $2500 from my bank account using an ATM card that was a clone of the one my wife and I have in our wallets (Iâm not sure whose card was the original source of the information). This was discovered the night before my birthday, and though I am sure to get all the money back (banks do insure for these kinds of things), it did mean that I spent all day Friday running around faxing, mailing, and filing police reports, which wasnât exactly the way I intended to spend the day. According to a detective at the West Hollywood Sherrifâs department, a group of individuals had apparently installed a device inside a gas station pump in the area. This device had access to all information entered through the payment point. This includes full details of information stored on the magnetic strip on the back of cards (why, oh why, arenât smartcards as common here as they are in Europe), as well as anything entered via the keypad, such as a PIN number or a zip code. The device included a wireless transmitter that broadcast 300-400 feet, allowing someone seated in a car located nearby to capture all the information generated at the pump. At the end of a hard dayâs work, the thief would use this information to print the data onto card âblanks.â Given that my information was for an ATM card, they used it to visit bank machines far from my area of town." A link that might be useful: blogs.zdnet.com/carroll/?p=1887