3 banks fees you can easily dodge

New federal regulations targeting checking account overdraft fees, credit card penalties and debit card "swipe fees" were all designed to protect the consumer from costly or deceptive practices by banks and financial institutions. And in many ways, they have.

But these new restrictions have also forced banks to look elsewhere for billions of dollars of revenue, and that means consumers, despite all the new federal protections, have to be even more cautious than ever. Banks need profits, and they're looking to get those profits from you.

With that in mind, here are three things you'll need to pay attention to this year as your bank does its best to squeeze profits from your checking account:

1. Overdraft fees

   Banks were forced to stop charging hefty overdraft fees on your checking accounts, including interest checking and rewards checking, unless you opted in for the service. This was supposed to cost them billions of dollars a year, particularly after it was reported that only 22 percent of the nation's bank customers opted in.

   But banks are nevertheless expected to reap a record $38 billion in 2011 from overdraft charges, according to a study by the Pew Health Group. How is that possible?

   According to Investopedia, many banks have raised their already steep overdraft charges even higher on some checking accounts, with some topping the $40 mark. And banks often reserve the right to reorder transactions in a way that maximizes overdraft fees on checking accounts. It's also possible that more bank customers than originally estimated have opted in to the overdraft protection.

   • To protect yourself, find out what other services your bank might offer. Many banks studied by Pew had less costly programs to cover overdrafts, but banks often don't give their customers all the information they need. So ask about overdraft penalty plans, which cover overdrafts for set per-overdraft charge, and overdraft transfer plans, in which you can have funds from a savings account, money market account, or line of credit transferred to your checking account to cover an overdraft.

2. Checking account fees

   The free checking account was declared dead months ago, but chances are you can avoid monthly maintenance fees by maintaining a certain balance or setting up an automatic deposit at least once a month on certain checking accounts. Check with your bank on what you need to do. If the requirements are too onerous, pull out your money and go to a credit union; most of those are still offering free checking. You can also find an online checking account that doesn't charge any fee.

   Also be on the lookout for other fee changes: debit card rewards are expected to become a threatened species, and ATM fees are also likely to get higher for noncustomers using a bank's machines and bank customers who access other banks' ATMs. If you use another bank's ATM machine, chances are you'll get nailed with fees from both sides.

3. Mortgage Insurance

   This perennial money-maker for banks may not be returning as much revenue to banks as they used to but it is still a great deal for banks and a crummy deal for consumers. The insurance is required for anyone who is putting less than 20 percent down when they buy a house, and it pays off the balance of your mortgage if for some reason you are unable to continue to make payments.

   The problem is that you continue paying the premium long after you've built up more than a 20 percent stake in the home. You continue paying the premiums over the years even though the principal--and the amount of the insurance policy's payout--shrinks.

   If you find yourself in this boat, you have to write to your bank and ask that they end the mortgage insurance now that your equity in the home is more than 20 percent. Banks typically won't tell you that you have this right. If you still want insurance, get a term life or whole life policy; the benefits won't shrink over time and they might actually grow.

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