According to Consumer Reports, bank customers should watch out for several different fees the banks are likely to introduce in the next 12 months.

The magazine warned that the banks will look to increase fees via the following:

Higher overdraft fees: Consumer Reports notes that it costs the bank pennies for a normal transaction but the cost rises to $13 when you overdraft. Naturally, you should avoid overdrafts in general but this should give you extra incentive not to spend more than what you have in your account.

Pushing credit cards: You already receive countless offers for new credit cards through your bank. Well, now that debit card transaction fees have been capped, the banks will try to induce customers to use their credit cards instead.  Expect to see a lot more offers with points or cash back incentives coming soon to a mailbox near you.

Human transaction fee: Like gas stations, the banks want to move more and more toward customers serving themselves. After all, it’s cheaper than hiring employees. If you do need help from an actual human, the banks may begin charging for that service. Consumer Reports says that the banks will likely present this as a ‘perk’ rather than couching it as regular customer service.

More premium services: In addition to talking to human tellers, other premium services will likely have an increase in fees as well.  Consumer Reports cites such services as safe-deposit boxes, online budgeting tools, or person-to-person payments, such as Chase’s QuickPay service, which allows you to send money to someone else using just an e-mail address or cell phone number.

For the full list of expected fees, check out Consumer Reports’ website or consider becoming a subscriber.

Talk about money before you walk down the aisle.

Dating can be hard enough without bringing up the touchy subject of money.

But, if you’re serious about someone, it can be an important topic to broach before you decide to take the next step.

Here are four important questions to ask your sweetie before you take that magical walk down the aisle:

How did you learn about money?

What we’re really after here is a discussion about how the other person learned about money from their parents. Did their parents fight over money? Did mom keep cash hidden from dad? Did they experience a significant trauma such as bankruptcy?

You want to see how your beau was affected by their parents’ actions and attitudes towards money. Believe me, it can explain a lot and it can encourage a healthy discussion about financial fears, pet peeves and aspirations.

What is your credit score?

OK, so this obviously is not a good question to ask on a first date.

But, at some point when you’re comfortable, you should tactfully broach the subject of credit score with your potential wife or husband. You can bring it up in the context of hypothetically buying a house or a car and wondering how much you can afford.

On the other hand, at one point you might want to just flat out ask if you feel comfortable. There’s a lot of history in there and it’s probably a good thing to know what’s happened in the past. You will either be relieved or you will re-think your decision to marry if you think there might be some serious financial issues your potential mate has yet to work out.

How should we share financial responsibilities?

This one really comes down to who does what. In other words, if your wife likes to keep track of all the bills, she might want to take responsibility for paying them each month.

If you like investments, perhaps you should volunteer to keep tabs on them each month.

Either way, you and your spouse-to-be should make sure you have your bases covered. After all, you don’t want the electricity getting shut off because you both thought the other one was taking care of the bill.

How rich do you want to be?

Again, not a great question for a first date. But, it’s a good idea to get on the same page financially and make sure your goals are aligned.

Believe it or not, some people don’t care as much about money as others. In fact, some don’t care at all.

This can add strain to a relationship if it turns out that one person is a spender and the other is a saver. To prevent this sort of tension, discuss your goals beforehand and try to come to an agreement on what the financial future should look like.

Got other ideas for money questions for dating couples? Leave me a note in the comments.

(Photo: Affiliate/Flickr)

Here are some of the best new personal finance books coming out between now and the first of March.

I hope you use them to pick up some investment advice.

Several already have some very interesting reviews on Amazon. Enjoy!

1. Debt Free For Life: The Finish Rich Plan for Financial Freedom by David Bach

2. Cash in a Flash: Real Money in No Time by Robert G. Allen and Mark Victor Hansen

3. The Wall Street Journal Guide to the New Rules of Personal Finance: Essential Strategies for Saving, Investing, and Building a Portfolio in a World Turned Upside Down by Dave Kansas

4. What Should I Do With the Rest of My Life?: True Stories of Finding Success, Passion, and New Meaning in the Second Half of Life by Bruce Frankel

5. Never Lose Again: Become a Top Negotiator by Asking the Right Questions by Steven Babitsky and James J. Mangraviti

6. Living in the Village: Build Your Financial Future and Strengthen Your Community by Ryan C. Mack

7. Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber

8. Your Money Ratios: 8 Simple Tools for Financial Security at Every Stage of Life by Charles Farrell

9. The Prosperity Plan: Ten Steps to Beating the Odds and Discovering Greater Wealthand Happiness Than You Ever Thought Possible by Laura Berman Fortgang

10. The Real Cost of Living: Making the Best Choices for You, Your Life, and Your Money by Carmen Wong Ulrich

(Photo: nexthttp/Flickr)

When it comes to homeowner’s insurance, there is an important distinction between an actual cash value policy and a replacement-cost policy.

The actual cash value policy will pay you for the value of the item at the time it needs to be replaced.

In other words, if you bought a entertainment center for $1,000 a few years ago, the cash value policy will take into account depreciation on that furniture. If the entertainment center depreciated in value by 20 percent, the cash value policy would only pay you $800.

On the other hand, a replacement-cost policy will pay you enough to replace the entertainment center with the same one.

You can see why it’s an important lesson because you don’t want to be surprised when you get less than the amount of money needed to buy new stuff in the event you need to replace something.

(Photo: Alan Cleaver/Flickr)

There is an important difference between being prequalified for a mortgage and being preapproved for one.

Even so, a lot of lay people don’t know there’s a difference.

When you prequalify for a loan, it is an informal process where a lender says what you might be able to borrow.

Oftentimes, you simply speak with a lender on the phone for about a half an hour.

The lender will ask you some questions about your income, your expenses and your other debts. You should try to give the lender accurate amounts because it’s the best way to find out quickly what you can actually borrow.

After doing a few calculations, the lender will tell you how much you can borrow.

But, because it’s an informal process, you don’t have any real advantage in negotiations with a seller.

To do that, you need to be preapproved.

Getting preapproved for a mortgage

With a preapproval letter, you can make a bigger impact on the seller because they know you’re good for it.

The drawback is that the process is a bit more involved.

The lender will review your earnings, assets, and credit history, verify your employment, and read through your tax returns.

In the end, you get a letter from the lender saying that he or she would be willing to loan you a specified amount over a certain time period.

That time period is often 60 days.

Lots of people say the hassle is worth it when you might be looking at a home where several buyers are making bids.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. All things even, a seller would naturally want someone who’s preapproved for a mortgage because it’s one less thing to worry about.

(Photo: BookMama/Flickr)

Not sure what bad credit looks like?

Here’s what lenders will look for in assessing whether or not you might be a risky creditor.

If you do have these types of things on your credit report, you might be considered a subprime borrower.

Here’s what you want to watch out for:

• Mortgage and rent payments past due. To keep your credit score pristine, you should not have any past due payments in your current mortgage or rent.
• Missing installment credit payments. An installment credit payment would be for things like an auto loan. You don’t want any payments that are 60 days or more past due and no more than two payments that are 30 days past due.
• Credit card payments missed. Credit cards and other revolving credit instruments should have no payments that are more than 60 days past due and no more than two payments that are 30 days past due.

If you have these types of things on your credit score, it doesn’t mean you will never get a loan. You might need to work harder to find a lender who will work with you and, unfortunately, you will probably need to pay a higher interest rate.

(Photo: azrainman/Flickr)

When it comes to a tanking stock portfolio, you should repeat this mantra: sell your worst performers first and keep the winners a little longer.

A general market decline can help you identify the best stocks in your portfolio. On the other hand, it will also point out the dogs (and cats).

The better stocks will normally correct one and a half to two and a half times the general average stock in the market.

Generally speaking, many say that growth stocks that decline the least in terms of percentage will ultimately make for the best investments.

Those that plummet in the bear market are typically the weakest stocks to hold.

There is no standard definition for a bear market but in general it is considered to be any time there is a 20 percent price decline in the stock market over a two-month period.

(Photo: meddygarnet/Flickr)

A FICO score is a numerical value given to assess how much of a risk you might be when borrowing money.

It’s the best-known and most widely used method of calculating credit-worthiness in the United States.

Roughly speaking, the higher the FICO score, the better.

The lower the score, the higher the interest rate. Or, you might not get a loan at all.

What is exactly is the score? It will fall between 300 and 850. According to FICO, the median score is 723.

Many people say a FICO score higher than 660 is considered good.

If you are between 620 and 660, you might need to work to convince the lender than you are good for the loan.

There are five factors that influence your FICO score. Here’s what the lenders take into account:

Use of credit. This is really an assessment of your spending habits. If you constantly max out your cards and carry a high balance, the lenders might think you are more of a risk.

Credit history length. If you have a short history of using credit, the lender may assume you are not used to using credit and this will count against your FICO score.

Number of requests for credit. Asking for credit cards, loans or other types of debt over a short time span will make you appear to be more of a risk.

Mix of credit types. It looks better if you have different types of credit uses, instead of just credit cards. Don’t take out a loan just for your credit score but it will be boosted if you have been responsible with car loans or some other type of credit instrument.

Past trouble. For some, this will be the biggest problem. If you’ve made late payments or you’ve had past delinquencies, you’re liable to do it again in the lender’s eyes.

Don’t worry if you’re score is less than 620. You’ll probably still get a loan but it’s going to be more difficult and you can expect to pay a higher interest rate.

For those of you in the upper range (more than 700), don’t be so smug. You’ll find that that having a great credit score don’t get you that much of a break on interest rates when compared to those people who have ‘good’ credit scores.

Meredith Whitney (Photo: EnergeticNYC/Flickr)

Municipal bonds have a reputation for being among the safest of all investments.

That’s because state and local governments often use the taxes they collect to pay back the bonds. In other instances, the bonds are repaid with the proceeds from whatever project they fund.

But, with state and local governments being squeezed by the economy, noted analyst Meredith Whitney says we may soon see a number of defaults in municipal bonds.

On tonight’s episode of 60 minutes, she was quoted as saying that she thought state governments would be able to meet their obligations.

But, local governments are another story. They will be squeezed by the states as the states tighten their fiscal belts this year.

It’s going to feel particularly acute this spring when $160 billion in federal stimulus money runs out.

As a result, Whitney said she expects the trouble in the municipal bond market to start in the next 12 months. She predicted that there will be 50 to 100 or more “sizable” municipal bond defaults.

That translates to hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of municipal bond defaults.

You may recall that Whitney rose to fame by predicting the 2008 housing crisis while S&P and Moody’s missed it.

Certainly the airing of the program will set off some alarm bells but I think inertia will keep us invested in municipal bonds until a real crisis hits. In other words, once that first sizable default comes down the pike.

We could soon be reliving the banking crisis all over again. Oh, boy.

(Photo: borman818/Flickr)

It’s been challenged in the courts and so far differing opinions have been rendered. It will likely end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Until then, here are a few things we know about the healthcare law thus far.

Most of the changes won’t take effect until 2014.

By then, the law will require all U.S. citizens and legal residents to have health insurance. Otherwise, you will need to pay a penalty. Also, insurers cannot reject anyone due to a preexisting condition.

If you get coverage through your employer, you likely won’t notice much of a change.

Individuals and small businesses, however, will be eligible to purchase insurance through an exchange and low-income people will receive help with their premiums.

High earners will see a difference in their paychecks: starting in 2013 these high earners will pay higher Medicare taxes.

There also will be higher taxes associated with high-cost health plans.

In 2018, the government will begin taxing these high-cost health plans and the increased costs are expected to be passed on to the employees.

A lot of observers expect businesses to trim back on these high-cost plans in order to avoid the tax in 2018.

Lastly, the new law limits contributions to health-care flexible spending accounts to $2,500 in 2013.

Health-care savings accounts will continue to be the best way to set aside tax-free money for medical expenses.