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Comment by gambiting | Hacker News Reader

Hang on,so you cannot open a bank account before you are 18 in the US? In most EU countries you need to be 13 to open your own bank account.

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Nope. You can have access to an account with your name on it, but it needs to be held jointly with an adult (typically a parent) and they have to accompany you to the bank and give permission to open it.

.....nothing is going to surprise me about the US anymore.

We just opened a checking account for our 17 y/o daughter.

To be specific, the account must be opened in the minors name with a legal parent or guardian as a co-signatory.

Either way, you're right. Minors can not, in the United States, enter into a legally binding contract. They can't even legally purchase a car as there is an implied or express purchase contract.

Minors can enter into a legally binding contract in the U.S. However, the seller in a purchase contract cannot enforce a contract against the minor if the minor does not pay (though the minor can enforce the contract against the seller if the minor pays but does not receive the purchased item, i.e., the car). The purpose of making the parent a co-signatory to the contract is to enforce the contract against the parent if necessary.

Correct. Technically, the contract is voidable by the minor in most cases. There's exceptions, and state rules come into play. For instance, I believe, in CA if a minor misrepresents his/her age, then the contract can not be avoided. In IL, I believe, that's not the case, the contract can still be avoided.

Yep. A Wisconsin auto title has a "parent signature" line - your parents must give you permission to hold the title for a car you purchase with your own money.

A bank savings account has no liability, so I was able to open mine when I was 15 or so without any parental involvement.

A bank checking account has all kinds of interesting legal issues WRT bounced checks, so I couldn't open my checking account until after my 18th birthday. Also no credit cards until I was 18.

Nothing defines arbitrary and capricious like our financial and legal systems, so this could have changed last week, probably to "protect us from the terrorists" or "save the children".

At my bank, they won't touch you without a parent if you're under 18. A lot of 12-18 kids "have" savings accounts but they're custodial - they're the child's in name only, and only parents have withdrawal privileges. The tellers seemed confused every time I had to tell them that yes, I do have permission to withdraw my own money.

Only one of my friends was allowed to use their bank account - for everyone else it was college savings only, and all spending money had to be cash.

With my parents' permission, I was able to have a debit card (which processes in the payment network like any MasterCard but has no line of credit) attached to my checking account at 17.

IIRC, when I got a bank account at 15 or so, my parents had to go with me to the bank and they had to also have their names on the account.

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