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."

How well is the government's loan modification working? WalletPop's four-part special report continues with profiles of some of those trying to get help. To read the overview, click here.

Christine Attalla is among the lucky. The suburban Chicago homeowner not only got a temporary loan modification, but she's on track to convert it to a long-term adjustment before Christmas.

She even calls herself lucky, although when she does there's a quiver in her voice. That's because in the process, her credit took a beating.

For a solo entrepreneur -- Attalla, 38 and divorced, runs her own public relations company -- poor credit is a serious problem.

It all began last spring, when Attalla realized the economic downturn was making it increasingly difficult for her to manage her $3,000-a-month payment on her Bolingbrook home. And she was pregnant, so she knew she'd have less earning power later in the year.

Attalla heard from a friend about the modification program, applied in April through her lender, CitiMortgage, and waited.

She was approved for a three-month trial reduction -- for June, July and August -- which cut her monthly payments in half. If she kept current, she said, she would qualify for a permanent modification that started with a 2% interest rate and tiered up after a decade. So far, so good.

How well is the government's loan modification working? WalletPop's four-part special report continues with profiles of some of those trying to get help. To read the overview, click here.

Kathy Partak went into loan modification armed with the powerful combination of knowledge and motivation. She had worked in the mortgage business, so she knew her rights and the right vocabulary to use. And she had a step-rate loan that was about to step up dramatically.

Add to that an on-the-job shoulder injury that left her unemployed and Partak figured she was a perfect candidate for modifying the loan on her three-bedroom home in Auburn, Calif.

But Chase Manhattan Bank denied her a modification, Partak said, telling her, "Unemployment is not a permanent hardship."

"Hopefully not!" said Partak, 42. "But it's one of the reasons they allow for on their paperwork of qualification."

How well is the government's loan modification working? WalletPop's four-part special report continues with profiles of some of those trying to get help. To read the overview, click here.

Public relations consultant Mark Bonacorso faced the good and bad news of divorce with resolve. The good: he got the 3,500-square-foot adobe in northwest Tucson. The bad: he also got the first and second mortgages and the $2,700-a-month payments.

He wanted to make it work, especially since his home was worth less than he owed.

At first, with business strong at his firm, Media Ink, this seemed feasible. Then, as the recession slowed work, forcing him to lay off his two employees in March, those payments became daunting.

Bonacorso was not looking for Bank of America, his lender, to cut his principal. He called hoping to reduce his monthly payments by combining his first and second mortgages, lowering their interest rates -- now 5.875% on his first; 7.625% on his second -- and extending the loan's term from 30 years to at least 40.

The Federal Reserve announced on Thursday that starting July 1, 2010, financial institutions can no longer allow customers to overspend their account and then charge overdraft fees -- in most cases -- unless the customers have signed up for a bank's overdraft protection plan that includes such fees. My guess is, most won't.

As The Washington Post explains, the overdraft fee won't disappear entirely. Banks can still charge overdraft fees on checks or an automatic bill payment. But the days of buying a cup of coffee or stick of gum with your debit card without realizing you don't have the funds and then getting slammed with a $37.50 fee--that will end on July 1, 2010. Instead, you'll simply have your debit card declined. And if that thought truly embarrasses you, then tell your bank you want that overdraft protection.

How well is the government's loan modification working? Find out in this four-part WalletPop special report, which begins with this overview and continues with three profiles of those trying to get help, which can be found here, here and here.

If the goal of the federal government's loan modification program was to frustrate applicants, then it certainly is succeeding. But if its goal was to prevent foreclosures, the effort may simply be postponing that eventuality for many.

With an estimated 3.1 million mortgages at least two months delinquent, through the end of October, just 650,994 homeowners had received adjustments through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) -- a notable uptick from past reports and a measurable step toward the Obama administration's goal of helping 4 million by 2012.

But from the halls of Congress to Internet message boards, anger rises about mixed messages, delays and denials without explanation and, most tangibly, the sharp decline in converting short-term loan adjustments into something more meaningful.

When Intuit, the makers of popular personal finance software Quicken, purchased Mint.com for $170 million, users of both services expressed concerns about the future of their favorite financial tool.

After it became clear that both Mint and Quicken Online would remain free, the only real question left was, "Which service would remain standing after the purchase was complete?"

Last week TechCrunch broke the news that Aaron Patzer, the new vice president and general manager of Intuit's Personal Finance Group at Intuit, would be closing down Quicken Online within six to nine months and migrating users to Mint.com.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd unveiled his financial reform package on Tuesday and consumers could win big if the bill becomes law. Dodd proposes a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency whose sole job will be to protect American consumers from fraud and abuse. He wants to be sure people get the clear information they need on loans and other financial products from credit card companies, mortgage brokers, banks and others.

Dodd introduced the bill along with fellow committee members Jack Reed, Charles Schumer, Robert Menendez, Daniel Akaka, Jon Tester, Mark Warner, Jeff Merkley and Michael Bennet -- all Democrats, so at least it looks as though this may be a partisan effort, but the issue is so important I hope it can become a bipartisan bill.

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.

There's a lot of public anger at banks these days. Pick a bank topic, any topic -- bailouts, executive pay, interest rates, ATM, NSF, overdraft fees -- and it's hard to imagine anyone nodding happily. But all this anger begs the question: When we're frustrated and being thwarted by our bank, what can we do to make ourselves... well, happy?

If you've heard any of the following from your bank lately, here's what you ought to say in return.

"You have six overdraft charges." One or two overdraft charges certainly aren't fun, but five or more, and you can suddenly feel your monthly budget going to ruin. If your bank isn't one of those that's curtailing its overdraft fees (Bank of America), or it is but hasn't stopped yet (yeah, you heard us, U.S. Bank), you may, unfortunately, know that feeling.

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.

It's been an interesting year for GMAC, if interesting means humbling.

Back in May, the government conducted a series of stress tests and determined that 10 of the largest 19 banks needed to have more capital, if they were going to survive any more economic troubles that might come our way. Then, the 10 were given six months to raise a grand total of $74.6 billion in capital.

Well, here's the good news. Monday, the Federal Reserve announced $77 billion was raised.

But the bad news involves the bank hold company, GMAC Financial Services, the 14th largest bank and the lending device used by many Americans to pay for their cars -- those cars that are built by General Motors and Chrysler. GMAC, which is now 35% owned by the American government, has fallen short of raising its required $11.5 billion and will need what will be its third loan from the U.S. Treasury, which it will likely get through the TARP Automotive Industry Financial Program. That will mean American taxpayers will own even more of GMAC Financial Services.

GMAC is believed to need $5.6 billion in capital.