It's a bad time to be a bank. With jobs failing, homeowners struggling, and inflation putting even basic necessities out of the reach of many consumers, some banks are scrambling just to stay afloat. The government is helping, but even with Treasury Secretary Paulson's massive influx of money, America's financial institutions are having to find ways to ensure a steady income when the economy is rising and falling like a rowboat in the North Atlantic.

One major revenue stream that they've been tapping is fees. According to USA Today, most bank fees hit all-time highs in 2008; for example, consumers using an out-of-network ATM can now expect to pay an average surcharge of $3.43, 13% more than a year ago. By comparison, bounced check fees hit $28.95, 2.5% more than last year, and minimum balance requirements for free or online checking have also gone up considerably.

Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to reduce the subsidy that you, personally, pay to the bank:

Earlier this month I took a look at Bank of America's saving plan, called Keep the Change, which didn't live up to the hype, due mostly to the abysmally low interest rate that your saved change earned.

One of the commentators shared why they thought Bank of America's plan was worthwhile, including the fact that they thought the match made up for the low interest rate as well as the program being an easy way to save. This comment got me thinking that there had to be a middle ground that provided a good upfront match as well as the potential for growth over time that comes from a good APY.

While watching the news this morning I found out that Wachovia stepped up to the plate with Way2Save, its own automatic savings plan, which seems to meet my criteria for a good savings program.

Savings accounts can be boring, especially in the current interest rate environment, where Uncle Ben is determined to make it impossible for retirees living on fixed incomes to keep up with inflation.

Anyway: if you're looking for more excitement in your your savings, check out this promotion from Wachovia. According to GolfWeek, "Wachovia, the nation's fourth-largest bank, has debuted its "Save Like A Champion" initiative. It will reward customers enrolled in the bank's Way2Save savings program with an interest rate in June, July and August equal to the tournament's winning score in relation to par. In the past five years at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, that number has ranged from 10 to 13 under."

For more on the promotion, visit the Wachovia site here.

The action starts tomorrow, so you may want to follow the scores to decide whether to go with Wachovia -- it's a lot more interesting than checking BankRate.

Wachovia Bank has entered into a settlement agreement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to pay restitution to consumers who were defrauded by certain telemarketers and third party payment processors. The companies that defrauded consumers included Payment Processing Center, LLC, FTN Promotions, Inc. dba Suntasia, Inc., Netchex Corp., and Your Money Access LLC, and related companies.

After an 18-month investigation, the OCC determined that the companies were getting bank account information over the phone and withdrawing funds from the accounts without authorization. The telemarketers had very a very high number of their transactions returned by the consumers as unauthorized. This high rate should have alerted the bank that these account holders were engaging in fraudulent transactions. Wachovia is believed to have participated in these fraudulent schemes because it profited from the fees collected on the telemarketers' accounts and transactions.