On August 5, 2010, banks had to change the rules and require customers to opt into overdraft protection, defaulting accounts to no protection. The reasons for this federal rule change were many, but the point is that you should have been asked by your bank if you wanted to have overdraft protection (and it’s resulting charges).

Many chose to opt-in, thinking they needed this coverage. The fees are horrible, however, and can be avoided. Here are 3 ways to avoid those fees and still have the security of overdraft coverage.

Many banks offer lines of credit, which are similar to personal signature loans. If you have good credit, you can likely qualify for a line of credit for $500 or more to use as overdraft protection. This is especially true for those banking with credit unions. These lines of credit have much lower “overdraft” fees when used to cover overages on your checking and often have no fees at all – just interest on the loan.

Possibly the surest way to provide overdraft protection without the fees, this method is simply an accounting trick many use in their check registers. This is basically a buffer in your checking that you use to cover yourself – a sort of checking-based, small savings account. Simply save money in your checking account and deduct it from the register so that your accounting shows it as not being there. A $300 buffer is fairly easy for just about anyone to keep on hand. So a checking account with a balance of $500 would appear in your personal check register as having a balance of $200 with the other $300 being an overdraft buffer.

A similar method to the above, but with the added bonus of gaining interest, is to tie a savings account in with a checking account. Most banks allow customers to do this and will use your savings as a buffer. Some charge small fees for the funds transfers, but many do not. If your bank does charge a fee, you can transfer money yourself (using an ATM or the Internet) to avoid the fees and “pad” your checking.

Fred Leo runs OnlineBanksBlog.com, a personal finance website dedicated to helping people find the best bank rates. Please check out his articles on PNC Online Banking and SunTrust CD Rates.