If you want to follow blakem advice and use the POSIX module, here is how to do it. There is no newline here, plus you don't fork an external process just to fetch the date.

use POSIX qw/ strftime /;           # standard module
$today = strftime("%D", localtime); # localtime in list context
[download]

You could even do it this other way, but be careful with embedded %-sign in your variables. That might bite you.

use POSIX qw/ strftime /;
open  trf, ">/tmp/.$handle";
print trf strftime("$handle|$crpw|$first_name|$last_name|$email_addy|0
+|%D", localtime);
close trf;
[download]