Banks are making it increasingly easy for you to overdraw your bank account. And the money they're reaping from your mistakes has likely hit a record high.

So says a new report from the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer advocacy group. Its research found that customers are paying $17.5 billion annually in fees for overdrawing their bank accounts, up 70 percent from the $10.3 billion they paid in 2004, the first time the center collected this data. The fees — assessed when banks pay for, rather than deny, an overdraft — exceed the $15.8 billion that consumers are overdrawing.

Banks have long allowed you, for a small fee, to transfer money from a credit line or savings accounts if you mistakenly overdraw an account. But you have to sign up for this protection.

In the late 1990s, banks began automatically covering overdrawn transactions — even if you didn't sign up for such protection. But there was a catch: They charged you a fee for it. These fees now average $34 per transaction, much steeper than the cost of the regular overdraft programs.

Banks adopted this policy because customers don't want their transactions to be denied, says Nessa Feddis of the American Bankers Association. That could cause the customer other problems.

Does the policy provide "income to the banks? Clearly, it (does) ... But they're doing it to accommodate their customers," Feddis says.

Banks are making it easier for consumers to overdraw: