A different, slightly cheaper kind of overdraft protection

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: We don't want you to overdraw your checking account. Spending more money than you actually have is not ideal, to say the least, and always winds up costing you more -- sometimes much more -- in the long run.

But banks made more than $38 billion in overdraft fees alone in 2009, so it's apparent that a lot of Americans are spending more money than they have in their checking accounts.

New rules about overdraft fees kick in this coming July. As we've pointed out in other posts, though, this doesn't mean you're off the hook if you try to buy something when you account balance is at zero. Rather, you'll just get slapped with an "insufficient funds" fee, which can cost as much as that overdraft "protection" fee you thought you were avoiding.