Last year may have been a bad one for many areas of the financial sector, but not for banks when it came to overdraft fees. A report by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) says banks and credit unions collected nearly $24 billion in overdraft fees in 2008—an increase of 35% from just two years earlier. Fifty-one million Americans were hit with overdraft fees last year, and many consumers now spend more paying these fees than buying books, cereal, or fresh vegetables, according to CRL senior researcher Leslie Parrish. Banks are expected to reap even more money from overdrafts in 2009, including $27 billion alone from ATM charges when withdrawals exceed account limits.