Just curious what bank and what the fee was for? I work for a Canadian bank and to me $50 sounds like an NSF fee for bouncing a cheque or for going over-limit on a credit card, in which case total YDI. I can't imagine any monthly account fee or overdraft fee being nearly $50.

I'm guessing it was an NSF charge... that's pretty universal with Canadian banks... don't spend money you don't have and then you won't get the charges. it's that simple. Also when you signed up for the account you would have known about any charges they put onto your account for low balances, overdraft, or NSF. By law they have to provide that when they open the account, so you can't say you didn't know. Source: I work for a big Canadian bank.

What I don't understand is, why don't the bank charge the overdraft once there is actual money in the account?

America

because then they would likely keep doing it, or the customer may keep doing it if they can get away with it. or they may just keep running in the negative and never put money in.

That happened to me too

It's called a maintenance fee...sneakily little f*ckers...

and that is why I use a Credit Union.

I hope you are smart enough to understand how a bank functions and that for them it is a necessary fee. I know banks frequently rip people off with excessive fees, but if you give them no money to invest they can't perform their function.

switch to a bank with overdraft protection. I think cibc has this. it'll protect you from being charged when you dip below minimum balance. if you're so poor you can't keep the minimum balance, you might consider saving a few dollars for a week or two to have a cushion before opening an account so you don't get slammed again. call someone from your preferred bank and ask them to walk you through it. they're happy to help you, it's their entire job.