GOBBLE GOBBLE: Banks projected to rake in $1.8 billion in overdraft fees over holiday season

Thanks to dubious banking practices, your end-of-year holiday shopping could end up costing a lot more than you realize.The Center for Responsible Lending is warning today that excessive fees that banks charge for account overdrafts cost U.S. consumers $24 billion a year. That comes out to $65 million a day -- adding a hefty price tag to holiday shopping over the next month:

This means our nation's financial institutions will collect some $1.8 billion during the 28-day holiday shopping season, through practices such as charging $34 for an average $17 debit card overdraft and manipulating the order in which they subtract debits from their customers' accounts.

More people are affected than you might think: In 2008, 50 million U.S. consumers overdrew their checking account at least once over a 12 month period; 27 million got socked with five or more overdraft fees.

It's no accident: Banks have seen overdraft fees as a growing profit center: Bank revenues for such consumer charges rose 35% between 2006 and 2008. The amount the average U.S. household spends on overdraft fees is now nearly double what it spends on books.

The solution? The Center argues that a recent Federal Reserve Board ruling on overdraft fees failed to tackle the problem of excessive bank charges, moving the issue to Congress. They support two bills -- S. 1799 in the Senate and H.R. 3904 in the House -- which would require consumer consent before being enrolled in an "overdraft protection" policy, capping fees so they more closely resemble the bank's real expenses, and stopping re-ordering of charges that would incur more fees.