I've seen many questions and answers about mapping strings to enums and vice-versa, but how can I map a series of localized strings to enums?

Should I just create an extension method like this that returns the proper string from a resource file? Is there a way to localize attributes (like "Description") that are used in solutions like this?

Which is the preferred solution - extension method or attributes. It seems to me that this isn't the intended purpose of attributes. In fact, now that I think about it, if I were to use an extension method an attribute seems like something I'd use to specify a key in a resource file for the localized string I want to use in place of the enum value.

EDIT - example:

Given the following enum,

public enum TransactionTypes {
    Cheque = 1,
    BankTransfer = 2,
    CreditCard = 3
}

I would like a way to map each type to a localized string. I started off with an extension method for the enum that uses a switch statement and strongly typed references to the resource file.

However, an extension method for every enum doesn't seem like a great solution. I've started following this to create a custom attribute for each enumerated value. The attribute has a base name and key for the resource file containing localized strings. In the above enum, for example, I have this:

...
[EnumResourceAttribute("FinancialTransaction", "Cheque")]
Cheque = 1,
...

Where "FinanacialTransaction" is the resx file and "Cheque" is the string key. I'm trying to create a utility method to which I could pass any value from any enumeration and have it return the localized string representation of that value, assuming the custom attribute is specified. I just can't figure out how to dynamically access a resource file and a key within it.