non-current account? [LWN.net]

non-current account?

Posted Nov 8, 2002 11:19 UTC (Fri) by Wol (guest, #4433)
In reply to: non-current account? by xoddam
Parent article: Your weekly report from LWN

Q) What sort of account can be upgraded to a current account?
A) A current account for minors.

The score with UK bank accounts is simple. It is a legal requirement to provide a proof of identity, and a proof of address, when you open an account. Seeing as we don't have any form of official identity other than a passport (only required if you travel abroad) this can catch many Britons, who have no "legally acceptable" proof of identity/address.

It is also illegal to seek to enforce debts against minors (under 18s). So banks don't give minors the ability to go overdrawn.

Within those constraints anyone can open any account. There's no reason why children can't have debit cards, provided the technology is there to provide instantaneous verification. That's probably why you don't see many children using plastic - so much of our banking system relies on end-of-day verification. But my step-daughters have been using cash machines for years - and the eldest turned 18 only last year. It's just that they could only use a Building Society card in the Society's own machines, because real-time checking wasn't available to other cash machines :-(

Cheers,
Wol

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OT: non-current account?

Posted Nov 8, 2002 16:03 UTC (Fri) by robot101 (subscriber, #3479) [Link]

Certainly in my early teens I had live-balance-checking cash and debit cards on networks like Plus which changed to Visa Electron and Solo which is on the Switch network. Shops that take Solo are becoming more common, but Visa Electron is still pretty few and far between.

The Link network of cash machines does live balance checking, and most of my cards have supported that, so since I've had a real bank card I've been able to use it at most banks and in some shops. I didn't need to be 18 or have a job.

Incidentally, I did manage to get accounts overdrawn once or twice, once with a standing order they paid out on my account at the wrong time, and another by spending in a shop with the solo card and then using a cash machine very soon after. In the former case they put my balance to 0 because it was their fault, in the latter they sent me a nasty letter so I had to go and pay money in to my account, but I got them to repay the charge they gave me for sending the nasty letter. =)

Being a student now they're happy to give me a huge overdraft and Switch or Visa debit card to indebt myself as much as I want, and being 18 I can get a credit card if I wanted too. Evil people.

Regards,
Rob