[sarettah]

I spent 2 minutes this morning researhing the actual laws for the U.S. and basically confirmed what I already knew.

This is no law restricting creadit cards or debit cards by age other than what you cited which is that you have to be 18 to enter into a contract.

The actual law dealing with credit cards that started this thread is changing from 18 to 21 to get a credit card without proof of income basically. You can still get one if you have a c0-signer or if you can provide proof that you can pay the bill. So basically anyone with a $10.00 an hour job over 18 that is not encumbered could get a cc.

On credit cards, you can have one at any age if someone makes you a secondary card holder on their card. Now, some banks have policies restricting this by age.

Back when they tried to get Coppa through and had the part in there about using a cc to provide proof of age I knew that it would not work.

'Sides, even on the various consumer sites they warn not to use a cc or debit card as proof of age or identity.

As far as using for payment, a debit card is a hell of a lot harder to charge back on then a cc.


On a cc, you are by law (in the US) limited to like $50.00 of liability on a lost or stolen card. On a debit card there is no such law. There is a "courtesy policy" that some issuers have established that says they will limit the liability but from what I could find there is no legal limit on liability if you lose or have a debit card stolen. So as a form of payment, a debit card is actually probably more secure for the merchant than a cc.

just my two cents of course.