Get ready to pay higher bank fees in you don’t make sizable direct deposits to your checking account each month, maintain a healthy balance or have an outstanding loan. Financial stocks are boosting charges as limits on credit card and debit card fees roll out.

Come May 24, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) will raise the monthly fee on its most popular checking account from $8.95 to $12. It also plans to start charging customers a $35 fee if they overdraw their account by less than $10 and replace its basic checking account with an account that comes with a monthly fee that cannot be avoided.

JP Chase Morgan (NYSE: JPM) already raised fees on most of its customers, charging $10 to $12 per month on basic checking accounts. Only those customers who maintain a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or set up a direct deposit of $500 or more each month into their account can avoid the fee. Well Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), meanwhile, is discontinuing Wachovia’s free checking for new customers.

The large national banks are doing anything and everything they can to recoup or boost declining revenues and profits in the wake the Great Recession and Credit Card Act. The recession left many consumers in financial ruin and the new law cut or limits the amount of fees banks may charge consumers and retailers who use credit and debit cards. Banks are using the Federal Reserve’s recent decision to limit the amount banks can charge retailers to 12 cents from 44 cents per transaction as their latest excuse to raise fees, impose new ones and nix debit card reward programs.

But banks shouldn’t take it for granted that Americans will accept the additional bank charges. Many Americans blame the multinational banks for the country’s financial meltdown and still are upset about the taxpayer bailouts the received that helped many banks quickly return to profitability. What’s more, after the bailouts banks have pushed to raise credit card interest rates, overdraft fees and embrace robo-signer foreclosure procedures to generate more revenue.

Angry protestors recently crashed or protested the recent shareholders meetings for Chase and Well Fargo banks. Reneging on promised free checking may be the last straw for some customers, especially those who believe they could apply that money towards a tank of gasoline or the food bill.

Switching banks is a lot easier than it used to be. Just ask the lower or no account fee credit unions and brokerage accounts who have seen their checking account memberships increase in recent years.

The big banks better beware of this trend before the tighten the screws on consumers with higher fees.

As of this writing, Cynthia Wilson did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.