(MONEY Magazine) – Retailers love plastic. Instead of worrying about whether your check might bounce, they collect from the card issuer, who in turn bills you. As a consequence, credit cards have become even more prevalent than you may imagine. Today you can charge just about everything from diapers to caskets. Some examples and the cards accepted (AE: American Express, C: Choice, MC: MasterCard, V: Visa):

-- Four week's diaper supply from Dy-Dee Wash in Milwaukee. About 500 of Dy- Dee's 2,000 customers charge their diapers (MC, V). -- Customs duty, Discover Card only. -- Library fines of more than $5 at the Denver Public Library (MC, V). -- Escort services around the country. ''It's a way of knowing you will get paid,'' says Sydney Biddle Barrows, a.k.a. the Mayflower Madam, who ran a now defunct call-girl ring in New York City. ''A credit card is almost always good; a check may not be. At least 80% of my business was done by credit card.'' (MC, V). -- Tuition at Mount Saint Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md. (C, MC, V). -- Express mail service at post offices in New York City, Dallas, San Diego, Boston and Norfolk (MC, V). -- Milwaukee's Yellow Cab Co-op. Some 40% of its passengers flash plastic for $5 fares and over (AE, MC, V). -- Bail at Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis. Goldberg Bonding Co. accepts two cards (MC, V). -- Traffic and criminal fines for parking violations, drunken driving, battery and resisting arrest of $50 or more at the Livermore Pleasanton Municipal Court in Alameda County, Calif. (MC, V). -- Ski-lift tickets at three Vancouver ski centers. You insert your plastic into a terminal on the slope (MC, V). -- Funeral service expenses at Parkside Memorial Chapels in Forest Hills, N.Y. (AE, MC, V).