How to Avoid Getting Nickel and Dimed With Fees

These days, it seems as if everyone's trying to squeeze every penny out of us. From banks to colleges, American consumers are being nickeled and dimed like never before. Here are some of the biggest offenders, and your best defense against them:

Banks

As banks try to shore up their balance sheets to make up for the billions of dollars in revenue they stand to lose from new regulations this year, they're tacking on more and more fees. The nation's largest bank, Bank of America, which does business with half of all American households, gets an easy 12% of its revenue from fees, according to financial services firm Sandler O'Neill. From account service fees, transaction fees, surcharges to overdraft fees, consumers are paying through the nose. And it doesn't stop there. Banks are now raising fees on the old standbys (like stop payments and wire transfers, for example), and dreaming up new fees for 2011. Expect to see monthly fees on checking accounts (a hot topic right now), fees if you don't bank electronically, fees for paper statements, fees if you want to speak with a bank teller, annual fees on debit cards, and even monthly debit card fees unless you meet certain -- high! -- thresholds.