TD customer questions $50 charge for donating to Ukraine aid efforts. The bank is now among those waiving fees

A Toronto woman is questioning TD Bank after she was charged —  then later reimbursed — a $50 fee for donating to Ukrainian relief efforts several days after Russia unilaterally invaded the country in Eastern Europe. 

Krystyne Rusek, who is Ukrainian-Canadian, went to her local TD branch in the city's west end on March 1 to contribute $1,600 to a special fund set up by the Ukrainian government. The donations are to support Ukraine's military as it defends against Russia's attempts to take control of the country.

Rusek's donation, and those of other Canadians supporting the fund, were being collected by a downtown Toronto BMO branch before being transferred to the National Bank of Ukraine, the central bank, and then sent to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

After arranging the transaction, the teller told Rusek she had to pay a $50 wire transfer fee — the standard charge for customers sending a wire payment from a TD branch to a non-TD account in Canada or abroad.

"I paid it and I wasn't upset about it," Rusek told CBC Toronto. "But the next day, I started to think about it and realized that this was not right."

Canadians have been contributing to humanitarian and military efforts in Ukraine since the start of the invasion nearly two weeks ago. Rusek believes Canadian banks shouldn't have been charging for donations to the war-torn country while it faces what the United Nations General Assembly has condemned as an act of aggression that violates international law.

"For me, the $50 was not an obstacle," said Rusek. "But, you have to consider that some people might only be donating $100, and, for them, to be charged a $50 wire transfer fee may actually dissuade them from making that donation."

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Rusek said she wrote an email expressing her concerns to TD the day after making her donation, and was told two days later — after CBC News approached the bank about the situation — that she would be reimbursed. 

In a statement to CBC News, TD spokesperson Erin Sufrin didn't address questions about Rusek's donation. Instead, Sufrin said TD began temporarily waiving all fees associated with wire transfers to Ukraine on March 3, and added that customers who sent a wire transfer before that date could receive a refund.

The National Bank of Ukraine's military support fund opened on Feb. 24 — a week before TD started waiving fees.

"Like the rest of the world, we are deeply concerned about the crisis in Ukraine," Sufrin wrote in an email.

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CBC News reached out to all five major Canadian banks. They said they are either waiving or reversing wire transfer fees to Ukraine.