When your bank doesn't want you

Banks are getting better at figuring out when they have to raise fees, and which customers they can afford to lose.

People who don't bring at least $100,000 to the table in investable assets, loans and deposits will be largely unprofitable to banks once Dodd-Frank financial reform rules are fully phased in, Todd Maclin, head of consumer and business banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co., told investors at an event earlier this month.

This is not necessarily the ethical / moral problem that some consumerists suggest; it's more of a practical dilemma for bank customers.

Consumers have alternatives, so the giant banks don't have all the power in those relationships. After all, what customer wants to be a big profit center for their bank?

Here are some tips, and a short shopping guide for financial customers who are in that less-than-$100,000 category.

And you don't need a high-priced banker or broker to do that for you; a computer can. Some companies that are doing a decent job of managing portfolios on autopilot include FolioInvesting, Marketriders, Betterment (which just dropped its fees) and Wealthfront, which offers free advisory services for accounts of less than $25,000 and charges just 0.25 percent on accounts over that.

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said recently it is accepting consumer complaints about bank accounts at consumerfinance.gov/.

You can file a complaint, print it out and -- ahem -- take that to the bank.