Years ago, a listener who happened to be a disgruntled bank employee shared a trade publication called Fee Income Report with Clark. In the pages of Fee Income Report, bankers would share tips about ways to take advantage of customers via fees.

Clark also learned from the publication that banks typically raise fees and change terms and conditions twice a year: Once during the summer (usually in August) and then again around Christmas.

Those are the 2 times of year when most people are out of their routine and focusing on family and vacation. Perfect times to stick you with a gotcha, right?

In that spirit, USA TODAY reports that the giant monster mega-banks are getting ready to pile on checking account fees.

Wachovia, for example, is doubling its fee to transfer money from one account to another to cover insufficient funds to $10. The actual real cost to the bank for such a transfer? Zero dollars.

Bank of America, meanwhile, is increasing the monthly fee on MyAccess accounts by 50%.

So what can you do about it? Take your business to a credit union (where customers are owners) or to a smaller community bank (where they build relationships with customers).