Are You Sick of Getting Nickle and Dimed to Death?

CNNMoney.com has done a story about the 15 most hated fees and how to avoid them. They are taking polls and breaking down the various least favorite surcharges. I thought we'd take a look at these and offer our opinion on the pesky charges.

Here's a look at their first group:

• Being Charged Overdrafts from your savings: Banks charge $10 to $20 every time they transfer your money between your checking and savings account and you can end up paying as much $30 according to Bankrate.com.
• Paying to use your frequent-flyer miles: Redeeming your miles on U.S. Airways, for example, costs $25 to $50.
• Laying out who knows how much in annuity fees: If you buy a variable annuity, the fees are disclosed in the prospectus. To find them, however, you'll have to comb through hundreds of pages and do some mathematical heavy lifting. 

Here's what we think you should do about them:

Hate forking over new charges for overdrafts? Balance your checkbook. Keeping your checkbook tuned up will keep you from overdrawing your checking account.

The fees charged for essentially conducting an automatic transfer are still cheaper than the overdraft fees banks charge. Bank of America will whack with a $35 charge if you didn't balance your register properly and overdraw your account.

So how can you avoid any of these fees? Go to to you banks website or Mint.com and try to automate your finances. You can sign up for text banking and receive text messages or emails when your account runs low. That way you can transfer money yourself before the overdraft fees hit.

Hate paying to use your frequent-flyer miles? Quit using that type of credit card. Heck quit using your credit cards at all if you are in debt. You only end up spending more by using credit cards. When you pay with cash you feel a bit of separation anxiety. But the opposite happens when you use credit cards. Using your credit card does not hurt  you emotionally. By using plastic over cash you will spend 12 percent to 18 percent more. This is money that could have gone towards debt or savings.

The best plastic to use is debt cards. You can use them for travel and for ordering something over the phone or the Internet. The next best thing to debit cards is cash.

Get rid of your habits that cause you to spend more. The credit card industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and if you think you can bet them at their own game you are sadly mistaken. You can't beat them, so don't join them.

Laying out too much in annuity fees?  I admit that I am not really knowledgeable on the subject of annuities, but according to Allan Roth, a financial planner in Colorado Springs, "variable annuities rarely make sense," because of the high fees. A lower cost immediate annuity is probably better. If you already have a variable annuity check out the surrender charges, which run as high as 10%, before switching.

What are your most hated fees? Sound off let's hear from you.

[This post is written and copyrighted by Financial Elite (http://financialelite.blogspot.com/ ).]

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