Across the United States, most major banks make it impossible for minors to open and manage their own bank accounts without parental involvement. Even though teenagers today often earn income through part-time and full-time jobs, online work, or entrepreneurship, the banking industry continues to impose rigid age restrictions that prevent them from having true financial independence.
At Capital One, for example, anyone under 18 can only open a joint account with an adult, or (with parental approval) a “MONEY Teen Checking” account, where the parent has the ability to monitor balances, deposits, and spending in real time.
Banks like PNC bank, US bank, M&T Bank, TD Bank and Regions Bank also require parental consent for minors to open a bank account.
There are a few banks with unclear age requirements for opening a checking account. For example, Chase Bank offers a high school checking account for minors, where a parent acts as a co-signer and can control the account. Their website doesn’t list the age requirements for opening an independent, unmanaged checking account, but we’d assume minors can’t.
Wells Fargo requires an adult co-signer on all checking and savings accounts for people under 17, with the adult having full access to the account.
These policies mean that even when a teenager earns their own money, their access to it is conditional. Parents have the right to freeze, withdraw, or monitor funds, and banks will side with the adult co-owner in the event of any dispute. While a handful of banks or credit unions do offer independent “minor accounts” at age sixteen or seventeen, they remain the exception. In practical terms, this structure leaves most minors without a private or autonomous place to store or spend their earnings. The result is a system where financial responsibility is encouraged in theory, yet independence is restricted until adulthood. This is discrimination against young people, limiting their financial independence and harming their ability to build money for themselves during their teenage years.
Table of Contents
- Contract Law
- Why Youth Should Have Financial Independence
- The Dangers of Parent Managed, “Teen” Bank Accounts
- What Should Banks Do?
- How Can Teenagers Acquire Independent Bank Accounts?
- The National Youth Rights Association
Contract Law
You may have heard that minors are not legally able to sign contracts without parental permission. This is not quite true. Contracts signed by minors are usually legally voidable by the minor. What this means depends on what contract they sign. For example, if a minor invalidated a Non-Disclosure Agreement (where someone is not allowed to share certain confidential information with others), the minor would usually then be able to share the information. This can sometimes apply to banking as well. For example, if a minor took out a loan (without an adult cosigner who would share legal responsibility), they may be able to void the contract without paying back the loan. However, with just a checking account and debit card (with no overdrafting), the minor voiding the contract would most likely result in them just losing access to the account, with little risk to the bank.
Why Youth Should Have Financial Independence
One reason people may oppose financial independence for youth is that they believe young people are inherently more likely to be irresponsible with their money, and make bad decisions. This may stem from the fact that debt for young Americans has been growing recently. However, this can be attributed to many other reasons. Student loans, rising inflation and unemployment can lead to young people taking on debt in college before they have a completely stable job.
Additionally, a study by Brigham Young University summarized in their news release that children who are given opportunities to manage money when they’re young are more likely to be financially responsible as they enter adulthood. The article states: “Children… who are allowed to make some choices about their money are much more likely to be able to manage a bank account, budget, and know how to handle spending as they grow up.”
Another recent study in the journal Young Adults Constructing Financial Agency (Sept 2024) examined how young adults develop financial agency: having early exposure to financial decisions and autonomy supports building “agency”, their capacity to manage money, budget, and invest successfully later in life.
These studies show that financial independence as a young person is associated with greater financial responsibility as a young adult. So it is logical to assume that a contributing factor for young people gaining debt is their parents not allowing them enough financial independence as they grow up. When money is completely controlled by parents, teenagers may not gain the ability to understand risks, consequences, and other important aspects of managing money, so when they enter adulthood, they won’t be prepared for all of the aspects of finances. Giving a teenager financial independence is a responsibility of parents in order to make sure their children are well prepared for the adult world.
The Dangers of Parent Managed, “Teen” Bank Accounts
Even though parents have this responsibility to prepare their child for financial aspects of the world, there are often instances where parents do not respect the financial independence of their children. Because parents do not always have their child’s best interest at heart, there are major risks in requiring teen bank accounts to be managed by a parent. Giving parents complete and unfiltered access to their teenager’s money allows the parents to remove any amount of earned or saved income from the teen accounts, whenever they want, without any restrictions.
This empowers parents to hold their child’s money over their head, using their financial control to punish the child in the event of a household dispute. Imagine a teenager finally is able to acquire a job, trying to build up responsibility, and put their life on the right track. They put in long hours after school, making sure they show up to their job on time and get all of their tasks done. They did this so they can earn money as a reward for their labor, so they can have a sense of financial freedom. But then, their parent doesn’t like their behavior, and decides to remove all of that earned income as a punishment. Imagine hours of work accumulating to nothing, just because a parent has the ability to hold their kids’ earned income over their heads. It’s purely oppressive.
These circumstances that I have described are not hypothetical either. I myself, have been a victim of this type of financial oppression by a parental figure during my teenage years. When I was 15 years old, I was legally employed by my father’s company, and worked that job for about a year. In order to set me up with direct deposit for my paychecks, I acquired a “teen” bank account from Chase bank, where my father was the co-owner and manager. During my time working, I saved most of my money and rarely spent it, and amassed over 6,000 dollars in legally earned income for my labor.
However, problems soon arose during a vacation I had with my father. During the vacation, several arguments erupted all stemming from issues such as me being on my phone at a restaurant. My father, who has always been a relatively impulsive individual, proceeded to explode with anger over these insignificant problems that occurred between us during the vacation. In one instance, he proclaimed in a fit of rage that I was fired from my job working for him. Subsequently, when the vacation ended, and I returned to my mom’s house, I no longer continued working for him. But for some reason, this actually enraged him even further, and caused him to go into my bank account and remove 6,000 of my earned income, as a “punishment”.
His reasoning differed every time he was pressured on it. He first stated that the removal of my money was a punishment for me not doing my job, but when I brought up the fact that he had proclaimed me fired during the vacation, he switched up and asserted that he was actually punishing me for my “behavior” during the vacation. This is a brutal violation of independence, and shows how parents should not have this unbridled control over their child’s financial assets. This wasn’t just a few dollars that I had earned from chores around the house; this was 6,000 dollars I had accumulated from a year of being legally employed, working diligently almost every day after school and during the summer. Imagine all that hard work just flushed down the drain as a “punishment”. How can you expect a kid to have any motivation to work, and save, and build up to being a responsible adult, if their reward is just wiped out from under their fingertips whenever their parent deems necessary. This behavior is by parents undisputedly wrong, and takes advantage of the oppressive power imbalance they have to control every aspect of a teenager’s life due to the systematic discrimination that minors face.
Furthermore, parents using earned income as punishment is far from the only risk of parents’ managing a teen’s bank accounts. Sometimes, parents will just decide to rob their children for their own selfish desires. Imagine a drug addict or alcoholic parent who will do anything to get their next fix of their poisonous substances. They already spent all of their disposable income on their vices, but they still crave more. They check on their teenager’s bank account, seeing all the money saved up from working, and see it as a free piggy bank, that they can empty as they please. Suddenly, all of a teenager’s hard work is gone in a heartbeat, because their addict parent wanted to fund putting toxins into their body.
Once again, this situation is far from hypothetical, as I have known someone who unfortunately lived through this circumstance. I recently interviewed my friend, who goes by Dani, about her own life story which puts on full display exactly why parents should never have full control of their child’s finances. Dani described her mother as neglectful, saying that she would often fail to provide her and her brother with basic necessities such as food. This led her and her brother to acquire jobs and bank accounts so they could hopefully provide for themselves. But her mother took advantage of this income, treating it as her own despite working none of the labor.
“If either of us got paid, she would put the money in our accounts, then change it over to hers.” Dani said, recounting how her mother would blatantly rob her.
“How she would justify this was: ‘I need the money to pay the bills’”… “But half the time, she wouldn’t even buy us food,” Dani explained.
When I asked her where the stolen money went, the answer was heartbreaking.
“To alcohol and other substances,” she said.
It hurts so much to know that this is a real struggle kids have to deal with in their daily lives. If being abused and neglected wasn’t already a depressing enough experience, banks’ discriminatory policies make it so kids in these situations can’t even build up towards escaping, since their parents control every aspect of their income. Allowing parents this control perpetuates abuse, manipulation, and other selfish qualities within parents who do not value their children as anything more than material possessions. Because we cannot trust parents to respect a teenager’s financial independence, it is imperative that a minor’s right to control their own money, by opening an unmonitored bank account, is allotted to them.
You can listen to the full interview with Dani here.
What Should Banks Do?
Now of course, there are certain teenagers who will be more likely to make reckless decisions involving money. However, this same logic can apply to anyone of any demographic getting a bank account, credit card, or other financial asset. Because certain people tend to be irresponsible with their money, banks already have systems to ensure only people with a good financial record or “credit score” are able to access certain banking services like taking out loans or making large purchases with credit cards. This way, they look at the context of the individual’s financial history, and judge them independently, rather than stereotype them by their unalterable factors.
But this doesn’t apply to minors, instead of banks judging by their individual history, banks completely bar them from financial independence on the basis of their age. There is no name for this type of policy other than “discrimination”, and it’s quite depressing how financial discrimination against minors has become so normalized and accepted within our society.
The ideal solution to this oppression would be for banks to judge minors to use banking services that are low-risk for the bank until they build financial history. For example, since a checking account is not providing the individual with a line of credit, the bank wouldn’t have to worry if the owner has the ability to pay money back. Additionally, most high school checking accounts already don’t have the ability to overdraft like other bank accounts do, meaning that the bank wouldn’t have to cover a teenager spending more than what they have. Once a minor has a checking account, they can build some financial history. From this point, banks could look at a minor’s financial history when they are trying to open a line of credit.
Even though independent checking accounts hold little risk for the bank, most banks refuse to allow minors to have that basic freedom. Instead, most banks choose to strip financial freedom from an entire group of people.
The limitations minors face in opening independent bank accounts mirror earlier forms of financial discrimination, most notably the historic barriers that prevented women from controlling their own finances. For much of U.S. history, banks refused to let women open checking or credit accounts without a husband or male co-signer. This practice did not formally end until the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, which made it illegal for financial institutions to discriminate on the basis of sex or marital status. Before that law, many banks required spousal permission for women to take out loans or open any kind of checking account.
As the Smithsonian Magazine notes, “Until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, banks could, and did, deny women credit cards, mortgages, and bank accounts without a male co-signer”. The persistence of legal and institutional barriers preventing minors from managing their own money reflects a comparable dynamic: a group deemed “incapable” of financial autonomy is restricted not by ability, but by legal and systemic assumptions about maturity.
This type of historic discrimination is exactly what young people are still facing. Their individual identity is thrown out, refused to be looked at by banks, in favor of being judged on nothing but their age, a demographic factor which they have no control over. It doesn’t matter how responsible or independent they may be, they are still infantilized by the system that doesn’t see them as capable individuals. It is imperative that in order to move forward as a civilized society, this type of discrimination must end.
How Can Teenagers Acquire Independent Bank Accounts?
For teenagers hoping to open a truly independent bank account without parental monitoring, the options in the United States are limited.
Bank of America seems to be the most youth friendly of all the major banks, and gives the lowest age limit for teenagers to open independent checking accounts. Bank of America’s “getting started” page says that when creating a checking or savings account, there only needs to be a co-applicant 18 years or older “if any applicant is under 16”. This policy means that minors 16 and older are allowed to have access to their own, financially independent checking and savings account. We were able to independently verify Bank of America’s age policy. NYRA member Underdeveloped Prefrontal Cortex, aged 16, had no issues getting an independent checking account and debit card at BofA, without parental consent. However, minors under 16 are still subject to the same restrictions and parent monitored accounts that other banks enforce. Multiple forms of identification (that minors may not be able to get without parental consent) are required.
There are a few other exceptions, but they primarily exist among smaller community banks and credit unions. For example, Credit Union West in Arizona allows minors aged 16 or 17 to open an “It’s My Money Savings” account without a joint owner, though you still need an adult cosigner for a checking account or debit card.
Please note that according to the According to the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, five US states (and DC) place additional financial restrictions on young people, at least for non-custodial (accounts with plain money that can be spent directly, not just having stocks or other investments that could fluctuate) accounts. In Texas and Oklahoma, parents have the right to deny their minor children from having checking or savings accounts. In West Virginia, parents have the right to block payments to their minor children (if the minor is using a bank and not a credit union). In Florida, a parent must consent to the account opening for non-custodial checking and savings accounts. In Washington D.C, minors need consent from parents to put money into non-custodial credit union accounts.
In Missouri, the requirements are extremely complicated. You have to be 16 or over, and you then have to be homeless or a victim of domestic violence (with an exception for minors serving a sentence or minors under the supervision of Missouri’s version of CPS), and you have to not be supported by your parents physically or financially, and a parent has to have consented to the child not living with the parents (not to the bank account specifically) or the parent has to have kicked the minor out or they have to have refused to provide any financial support or abused or neglected or committed domestic violence (with Missouri’s definitions of those things, do note that Missouri allows corporal punishment) against the minor.
So while options are extremely limited by the discriminatory policies of banks, there are a few options that do exist. Although teenagers won’t have any luck at most major banks, there are certain smaller banks that could offer them this semblance of independence. So if you are a teenager who desperately needs to acquire a bank account free from parental monitoring, there are ways you can do this. It is extremely important that you research local banks and credit unions, and read their policies to find out the extent of their age based restrictions. Though there are options for older teens, like Bank of America, the banking industry as a whole must allow young people financial independence.
The National Youth Rights Association
If you’re interested in Youth Rights, consider volunteering with us. We are always looking for new members and would love to have you on board.
The text of How Banks Discriminate against Youth – The Dangers of Parent Managed, “Teen” Bank Accounts © 2025 by Xillion is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
