When we wrote about sneaky bank practices, a lot of readers wrote in suggesting that fee-weary customers ditch the big bailout-recipient banks in favor of small community banks or credit unions. In fact, many professional personal finance advisers say exactly the same thing, so WalletPop talked to a few of them to get their recommendations and advice for how to go about finding one of these friendlier financial institutions.

First, you'll need to find a place. While finding a bank can be as easy as driving down your local main street or commercial district, finding a credit union can take a little more sleuthing. Since credit unions are membership organizations, you need to find out which ones you are eligible to join, says David Beck, director of policy at Center for Community Self Help, an organization which includes the Self Help Credit Union and the Center for Responsible Lending.

In many cases, this may be as simple as living or working in an area that is home to a particular credit union, but being a current or former member of the military, many trade unions, religious communities and educational institutions may also qualify you for credit union membership.

In yet another sign that Americans are still cautious -- and growing more so -- about their spending, new research shows that fewer of us will be using credit cards to make our holiday purchases this year.

According to a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation (as reported here by Reuters), the number of consumers using credit cards for holiday purchases will drop more than 10% this year. Only 28.3% of shoppers say they'll use credit cards to buy presents, down from 31.5% last year.

What are we doing instead? Paying cash. The number of survey respondents who said they'll be using cash to buy holiday gift this year rose by almost exactly the same percentage as the drop in credit-card users, at 9.1%. This is a step in the right direction for consumers, as more of us are making a conscious decision to live within our means.

It's bad news for the already-beleaguered credit-card industry, though; we've recently written about new data showing that credit-card companies will probably have many more defaults next year.

It's also bad news for the nation's retailers, which are already bracing for a weak holiday shopping season. The National Retail Federation survey also revealed that we're buying more practical gifts this year. A greater percentage of consumers plan to buy clothing this year, and fewer are buying electronics and jewelry.

A recent report shows that credit card charge-offs have dropped a bit from their highs, but delinquencies -- that is, payments more than 30 days overdue - are still on the rise.

This article from MSNBC says that spells continuing trouble for Americans' personal finances and our nation's still-shaky economic recovery.

While the drop in charge-offs -- meaning that the issuer writes off the amount owed as a loss -- was attributed to people funneling tax refunds into their credit card debt, the high and still rising level of unemployment triggered the growth in delinquent payments.

As we told you earlier, the Federal Reserve just announced it would begin reigning in the scourge of debit-card users nationwide: overdraft charges. The good news is that the new ruling will prohibit banks from foisting this so-called protection on customers automatically; instead, consumers will have to voluntarily sign up (don't all line up at once, now!) The bad news: It's going to be another eight long months before this relief comes.

The government is making Americans wait until July 1, 2010, to get the relief they've been literally begging for, even though Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke called the new ruling "an important step forward in consumer protection."

Finally, a survey confirms what women may have suspected all along: Dudes only drop dough on drawers when they're searching for a mate. A British retailer conducted a study which found that male shoppers don't buy their own underwear until they reach the ripe old age of 19. Who keeps them stocked in skivvies before that? Mom.

Seriously, guys? Doesn't that get a little embarrassing, oh, roughly around the time you outgrow cartoon-emblazoned Underoos? Teen girls begin buying their own undergarments at around 13 years old, the study found. (Anyone who wants another bit of "girls mature faster" ammo, there you go.)

At 19, young men go on a boxer-and-brief buying binge, buying up to 31 pairs a year for the next four years of their life. What's behind this sudden urge for unmentionables? According to the survey's authors, they're stocking up on skivvies to lure a potential mate. Whether or not designer underpants lead to Ms. Right may be up for debate, but it's interesting to note that underwear purchases by men start tapering off at around the age of 23 and continue that downward trajectory for the next decade. This indicates, the researchers say, that men are settling down into partnerships and turning over the task of underwear-buying to the women in their lives once again.

The study also picked up on midlife-crisis impulses. Between the ages of 38 and 40, the rate at which men buy underpants picks up; the researchers say this is due to men who have been through a divorce getting back in the dating game. The flirtation with underwear this time around is more -- ahem --brief; it begins to taper off when men are around 40 and drops off almost entirely shortly thereafter. By the time men are 44, most of them abandon underwear-shopping entirely.

Readers, who buys the boxers in your house? Is it a woman's job, or are American men are more in touch with their underwear purchases than their British counterparts?

More companies are looking for ways to demonstrate that they're environmentally conscious, and one way they're doing so is seeking out eco-friendly hotels for their employees to stay in when traveling for business, according to this USA Today article.

If all other factors, such as cost and amenities, are identical, corporations today seem more willing to choose eco-friendly lodgings for their employees. More than one in five now ask about hotel environmental policies before signing contracts with them, according to a survey taken this summer by the National Business Travel Association cited by the article.

As reported in the New York Post, Citibank plans to eliminate the two fee waivers that had been available on its two basic checking accounts nationwide early next year.

Previously, customers who had an "EZ" or "Access" checking account and didn't keep a minimum balance of $1,500 could avoid paying $7.50 or $3 per month, respectively, by arranging a monthly direct deposit or using the account to auto-pay two monthly bills.

Beginning in February, those fee waivers are being eliminated, so the only way a person who has one of these accounts can avoid the fee is to keep $1,500 or more with Citibank. Now, that $1,500 doesn't all have to be in that checking account; it can be in another Citi account or a CD, but it needs to add up to $1,500 if you don't want to pay the fee.

In a move that could be an indication of how the U.S. will handle the problem of banks deemed "too big to fail," the United Kingdom is forcing some of Britain's biggest banks to split themselves up.

According to this article in the Washington Post, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock have all been ordered to scale down. RBS and Lloyds are shedding branches and spinning off various divisions; Northern Rock is being split in half.

We here at Walletpop have decried the rate-raising, fee-slapping tactics of the credit-card companies making one last grab at America's wallets before the new credit card reform legislation passed by Congress earlier this year goes into effect. Credit card companies' practices got so out of hand that the House of Representatives voted this week to put the changes into effect sooner.

More than 100 banks have failed this year, and even the government acknowledges that many more will probably fold before 2009 draws to a close. In most cases, ordinary citizens who have accounts are protected by FDIC insurance. Yes, there's certainly a hassle involved, especially if you have bills set up on auto-payment with the failed bank, but the FDIC guarantees that they'll make good on your money up to $250,000.

Unfortunately, this guarantee doesn't extend to the interest rates on long-term savings vehicles like certificates of deposit. As this article reports, a growing number of people are losing the high interest rates on their CDs when a bank with which they have money invested folds.