According to BusinessWeek (registration required), some banks now make over 75% of their money from hidden fees on their customers -- account
closing fees, customer service fees, and many more. All in all, these service fees raked in $32 billion for the banks in 2004.

That means each American family spends almost $300 on surprise fees every year, on average. Many pay nothing, of course, but that also means that millions pay even more.

"Protection" fees (super short-term loans to cover checks before they bounce) are some of the biggest and the worst. Banks let you choose at the time if you want to pay $1 and use another bank's ATM. But the bank never told college student Chris Keeley that his $230 worth of Christmas presents would cost him $447.

That's because the $217 in (unrequested) "overdraft protection" never showed up on his receipt -- until the bill appeared right after Christmas. Only after the gifts were unwrapped did Chris's bank let him know he had accidentally taken out a "loan" at 1130% annual interest.

Banks used to profit when they lent responsibly and kept deposits safe. Now they profit by springing fees on depositors that put their savings at risk.

Some people will say, Chris should have read the fine print. Sure. (I'm a lawyer-to-be, what else can I say?) But his real mistake was much bigger. He trusted his bank, assuming they wouldn’t gouge him the minute they got the chance. Nowadays, that’s a high-cost assumption.