We know all about the lousy home loans that have gotten so many people into so much financial trouble. Interestingly, however, not much has been made of the trouble our future generations are getting themselves into.

I'm not talking about credit-card solicitation, a predatory business practice we take for granted when it comes to those endless offers in the mail. I'm referring to banks — those big ol' shining symbols of trust — and something we forget to tell our children: Watch out for them.

You know the place, with its smiley employees and free coffee and plenty of disclosure paperwork that most young adults — or us old folks, for that matter — are never, ever going to read.

Did you know that, on student accounts, at least one big bank charges a $20 penalty the first day on each item overdrawn, then a $35 penalty for up to five items, per day?

Did you also know that certain banks will give a "general default value," a spending limit that allows your adult child to make a purchase for up to five hundred bucks even if he doesn't have that in his account?

Some banks show an actual balance on a receipt and an available balance, meaning Trevor or Tiffany can ignore the paltry actual and look at the tempting available withdrawal limit, working their way into the negative numbers in no time — and continuing to be penalized that usurious $35 per day, digging a hole they might never get out of.

When I found out my kid and several of her friends were suckered into this pitch, I called the Federal Reserve. Its media rep told me that it is only responsible for making sure disclosure paperwork is in order. I then spoke at length with Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, http://www.uspirg.org/. Mierzwinski gave me some interesting information about our flawed banking system, including the fact that some banks run under the auspices of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. If you go to the OCC's Web site, http://www.occ.gov/, it has an FAQ section that pretty much says it's the consumer's responsibility to understand what he's getting into when he signs up for these types of accounts.

OK, I agree with that — we should all try to be informed when it comes to finances. But we're talking about teenagers or those just barely out of their teens, talked into opening student checking accounts with "courtesy" overdraft protection — ostensibly a "convenience," but really a heck of a profitable way for banks to make money off those who swipe their debit cards as if they're magically infused with a never-ending pot o' gold.

I spoke to the media rep at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation who told me that it's currently conducting a study on overdraft protection to find out what's going on. He said he wasn't aware of any complaints other than mine, but it's pretty telling that the FDIC is suddenly concerned.

What can you do if your adult child — and it's not just the "irresponsible" ones — gets into one of these messes? Until the Fed fixes the problem, you should tell her to go to the bank and change her checking account to one that does not have a required minimum balance and does not offer overdraft protection. It may be embarrassing when her debit card is rejected and she can't buy that latte at Starbucks, but if your teen doesn't learn this very adult lesson right now, she may end up being next in line for a big bailout.

— Wendy Dager of Simi Valley writes a biweekly column for The Star.