1. Payday Loans

Payday loans are a treacherous beast. They're small in size: The typical borrower takes on just $300 to $500, according to Carol Hammerstein, spokeswoman for the Center for Responsible Lending. The fee is typically $15 per $100 borrowed, and there's no interest. They're meant to be paid off within two weeks, so a $45 or $60 fee to help you patch things up until the next paycheck seems like a small price to pay. As collateral, the borrower typically writes a personal check for the total amount owed to the lender, to be cashed after two weeks, or signs over electronic access to his or her bank account. (These places often use illegal tactics to discourage people from bouncing checks like telling them they'll be placed in jail, according to consumer advocates.)

What often happens however is that the borrower can't scrape together the money to pay off the loan within two weeks and ends up renewing it, Hammerstein says. To renew a payday loan, you pay the fee to the lender and re-borrow the money. So if you owe $300, you pay $45 and continue to owe that $300. In the end, payday borrowers pay back on average $793 for a $325 loan, after carrying the loan for about four months, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. So even though officially these loans carry no interest, the fees paid over the life of the loan technically translate to an APR of more than 400%. The consumer group estimates that payday loans cost consumers $4.2 billion in fees each year.

The good news: So far, 11 states have banned payday loans. Combined, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont and West Virginia have saved their residents an estimated $1.4 billion in fees.