Do any of you issue debit cards to minors? We allow minors to open checking accounts along with a parent or guardian. Mgmt wants to issue debit cards to the minors. Can you think of any issues I need to consider?

You might want to look at your individual state statues - here in TX if you put a minor on an account, you are allowed to put them on by themselves and we are allowed to treat them the same as you would adults. We, however, make a case by case decision on issuing debit/ATM cards and Overdraft Privilege, but I will tell you that we encourage our banking centers not to!!!

We don't allow minors to have a debit or ATM card. It can get them into a whol lot of trouble. What we usually suggest is to get a card in the parents name and then if the parent wishes to let them use for gas or something that might be ok, but never a card in the childs name until they are 18.

My son was offered one (age 16) when he opened his savings account.....I said NO WAY. He has an ATM card.....I am fine with that.

Our visa department manager lobbied hard against issuing any plastic to anyone under 16, and no CheckCard to anyone under 18. She's got a teenager, and from her experience doesn't feel that they're good candidates for debit cards.

Teens like to show off to their friends - who may have ideas about "borrowing" the card and making unauthorized transactions - and tend to lose things that aren't of utmost importance to them at that moment. They also may not want to report a lost card right away, for fear of a parent finding out, or may just not understand the need to report it.

And since we have all the liability (thanks Visa), the manager wants to try and keep that to a minimum by not even providing access in the first place.

We will not issue them to minors even if they have a checking account (with a parent only).

We went back and forth on this issue for years. Finally, we committed our plan to paper and put the matter to rest. First issue, can a minor even have an account? Our bank, yes, if he is able to sign his name, he can have a joint account with a parent/guardian. ATM or debit cards are ordered by the parent and the parent sets the daily limit. Parents are counseled regarding minor's rights to withdraw all of the money and parent's liability for the account.

Our state law recognizes that any transactions conducted by the minor are binding on all parties to the account, which gives us some protection.

Lastly, so many of these kids travel to camps, school trips, vacations with other families, etc. and in alot of cases, the card must have the minor's name on it in order for the vendor to accept the card. Besides, if these little darlin's don't figure out how to handle money while they are minors -- they sure won't know how to handle it when they are adults.

First sign of trouble, we hot card and that ends the issue.

We discourage the issuance of such cards but have on had need to issue a few... with the few that we issued we had the parant or other legal joint account holder sign a form similar to a hold harmless. As with the other responder we watch the account and first sign of trouble we hot card.

We will allow a minor (on an account with an adult) to be issued an ATM card, but not a debit card until the age of 18.

We issue debit cards to minors case by case. We do require a parent or legal guardian to be on the account. It is best if the minor has had the account for a few months to be sure they are handling it correctly. We can set our daily limits by the account, therefore, we issue debit cards to minors with a daily limit withdrawal of about $50 to begin with. We can always change it if need be.

I personally taught all 3 of my kids how to handle a checking account as minors. Gave them all a debit card and carefully explained how to use. None of my 3 kids have ever had an overdraft. They are all very responsible.

I feel if you explain how to use the card properly. Make sure they understand that it is their money that is being spent (not mom & dad's), the minors do very well. Our bank has not had any loss due to minors having debit cards. If you can limit how much they can spend per day- that seems to help. If they start having problems....bam...there goes the card.

On this same general topic, can we require a minor to have a parent/guardian on the account with them if they have a debit card? I'm concerned from a fair lending standpoint since ECOA states we cannot require coborrowers to be relatives. Just how far does this statute cover deposit accounts, especially when we have plastic involved? I don't want to "cross-polinate" a bunch of regs, but I don't want to get burnt with a fair lending violation either. My preference would be to state that we need an "adult" on the account, not necessarily a relative. Anyone have any knowledge or experience here?

Unless you are truly granting credit -- an overdraft line, for example -- Regulation B isn't in the picture.

Just thinking out loud here, but just any 'adult' wouldn't help. To ensure that you have someone to accept the responsibility and liability for the account, you'd have to have the adult who is responsible for this minor, wouldn't you?

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you'd have to have the adult who is responsible for this minor, wouldn't you?

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We would.