Overdraft charges on account opened by minor.

Hi,
I live in California. My 17 year old son was away from home (on a visit) and opened a checking/savings account with BofA on the 15 of July. He returned home on the 25 and told me of the account. He had been using online banking to keep track of his accounts and checked them daily. When he checked his account on the 25 (a Friday) he saw that he was overdrawn by $2.96, which I immediately transferred to his account from my own. He has not used his card since, and at that time, it showed no overdraft charges. I told him to expect one and had to explain to him that it didn't matter that we immediately covered it, they would still see it as basically a "loan" for $2.96 and they charge $25.00 for that loan. By the following Monday, it showed 3 separate overdraft charges of $25.00 each, and a few days later, another for $35.00. Apparently he had gone over by 2 or 3 dollars a couple of times the day before he came home, and had transferred the difference from his savings on the same day and like I said, it showed no overdraft charges. The $35.00 charge was from a charge he made on the 24th, but didn't show up until the 28th. Anyway, I guess my question is really this: Is it legal for a minor to even open an account without a parent? Had I known that he was going to open an account, I would have made SURE that he understood how it all works. He didn't realize that not all transactions are immediately deducted from the account, and just because it says he has the money there, doesn't mean that he does. I thought that minors couldn't enter into a legal contract. Wouldn't that be what this is? It's not like he has a job or any way to pay the fees, and I certainly can't afford to pay it for him. I hate the idea of him having bad credit before he's even of age. I plan to go to the bank with him tomorrow and "make nice," but if that doesn't work, do I have any options. To tell you the truth, I would have had him get a pre-paid credit card where you CAN'T spend more than what is there.

 

Thank you for your reply. I didn't have time to go in today like I had planned, but yesterday when I was scouring their website to try to find out how old one had to be to open a checking account, (I had to actually click on "open an account" to get this info) an online representative told me that I had to be 18 to do it online, but only 16 if I went into the branch office. So apparently they think it IS ok to open an account for a 16 yr. old.