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Comment by superuser2 | Hacker News Reader

If you give teenagers cash, they can't spend it online. Thanks to KYC rules and bank policies, you have to be 18 to get anything that looks like a credit card.

Best plan for teenagers is a joint checking account (dedicated to the child's use) at your bank, with a debit card they can use for day-to-day spending. You can do allowance, etc with transfers, and most bankd will play ball as long as one person on the account (the parent) is 18.

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I had a debit card linked to a bank account well before I was 18, which I used to buy all sorts of things from the internet. Prior to that, when I purchased my first domain and paid shared web hosting in early high school, I remember buying a prepaid gift card which I used to make the purchase.

> If you give teenagers cash, they can't spend it online. Thanks to KYC rules and bank policies, you have to be 18 to get anything that looks like a credit card.

What about those prepaid cards you can buy for cash at B&M stores? I'm pretty sure you can use those online.

sometimes those cards don't work for some online stores because there is no address associated with the card, so card verification systems may fail.

many online stores i've seen/used actively block those cards due to fraud/chargeback/etc reasons

Every time I've bought one of those cards, it has me go to a website to register/activate it (set a PIN, associate it with my email address+password, and most importantly, assign it an address and phone number) before it'll work.

That's what I used in high school, but they're not very good value. You'd often need to pay a few bucks in fees just to use a $20 prepaid Visa card.

Activation requires you to (pretend to) be 18, AFAIK. Also they have quite hefty fees; a checking accout is free as long as you don't overdraft.

Checking account are free? Well, chequing accounts are not :(

Among the downsides of being in Canada is paying higher prices for anything that is not health care.

Sucks to be you. My checking account even gives me interest!

Look at your local credit union - many (not all, sadly) offer a free chequing account.

In the US most bank checking accounts have a monthly fee which is waived if you meet certain conditions, like maintain a minimum balance (I think mine was $1000) or get an automatic direct deposit at least 2 times per month of $250 or more - these would be hard to meet for a childs account. Credit unions are usually free though.

There is usually a "relationship waiver" that eliminates the fees on all the accounts you're party to as long as you have enough total wealth parked with that bank.

Are people also not technically allowed to use a prepaid credit card registered in someone else's name? A parent could activate the card and then give it to the child.

You could, but then you're still paying fees designed to exploit the unbanked. If the parent is financially secure, they can use that fact to get a free checking account for their child.

Why can't you use the debit card online? I had a debit card at 14 that I could use online (UK)

In EU you can have a visa debit/mastercard debit card when you are 13 upwards.

Wells Fargo gave me an account incl. debit card at 16.

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