Minimum Age for Contract?

Just call your parents up at 5.30ish, and have them come sit in the car. When they call you to get your iPhone, wave at them or something, they will come out, and explain whats going on.


Hopefully the people you're in line with will be reasonable people...if not, all may go to hell

Jeffrey903 said:

Does anybody know if you have to be 18 to sign the contract? I am 17 (will be 18 in September, grr), and AM getting the iPhone on June 29. I know that AT&T requires credit checks (and I don't have a credit card, only debit, so I believe I have no credit), but I'm willing to pay the $750 upfront fee because of it, but are they still going to deny me because of my age?

I was looking all of AT&T's website and could not find any information about it.

If so, I'll just have to force of my parents to join me in line at about 5pm (they don't want an iPhone, so hopefully the people in line won't care, I'll just have to be sure that they know well and early that my mom/dad is coming just to sign the contract).

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I am pretty sure you have to be 18 to sign a contract. Most likely you will not have enough established credit either.

I suggest calling ATT and finding out.

you have to be 18 to sign a legal contract. period. Have your parents come with you and sign you up for it.

This is my understanding of this legal thing, in the us anyways.
Until you are 18 you can do nothing, you have very few legal rights on your own. You cannot sign any contracts, agreements, licenses, well with any meaning, until you are 18. But your parents have the rest of the legal rights that you don't so they'd have to sign for you.

Hope this helps.

im 18 and really have no credit. what can i do? can i legally "borrow" my dad's CC? or can i pay the 750 upfront (or w.e amount) and just go frmo there?

in order to have capacity to contract with another party, you must be 18 years old. You will need a parent or guardian to set up the contract with AT&T. The credit check is in order to measure you ability to pay the monthly bill, not the initial fee.

I'm in Canada so the laws are probably different, but I signed my contract with Rogers by myself when I was 15

jialuolu said:

I'm in Canada so the laws are probably different, but I signed my contract with Rogers by myself when I was 15

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hmm... the law are probably different between two completely different nations, good assumption.

You must be 18, and you must have credit. With no credit, you will pay a $750 deposit that you won't get back until a year of payments have been made on time.

Personally, you'd be much better off putting that $750 into a high yield CD for a year, instead of giving it to AT&T interest-free for a year, and using it to buy an iPhone next year, but that's just me.

Your parents are NUTS if they're going to let you give a $750 deposit and $500 for a phone. If my kid ever came up with a harebrained scheme like that, you can bet I wouldn't be buying said kid food or clothes anymore, since he's obviously flush enough to buy them for himself.

The actual answer is that you need to be of the "age of license" in your respective state (similar to "age of majority," but pertaining to legally-enforceable rights acquired by the individual). For instance, in Nebraska, you must be 19. Same with Wyoming, Alaska, and Alabama. In Pennsylvania and Mississippi, you must be 21. But that doesn't mean all wireless providers care--some in Nebraska, for instance, go by "corporate policy," and allow individuals to sign, legally, at 18 despite it not being a valid binding contract. Theoretically, the contract only then becomes valid upon the 1st bill payment after the account holder turns 19... but just you try getting out of that contract without an ETF (Early Termination Fee) being charged to your account. Additionally, one can cross state lines and thereby circumvent age of license if the visited state's age of majority applies to your age (e.,g. at 18, a Nebraskan can sign a legally-binding contract in Iowa).

wongulous said:

The actual answer is that you need to be of the "age of majority" in your respective state. For instance, in Nebraska, you must be 19. Same with Wyoming, Alaska, and Alabama. In Pennsylvania and Mississippi, you must be 21. But that doesn't mean all wireless providers care--some in Nebraska, for instance, go by "corporate policy," and allow individuals to sign, legally, at 18 despite it not being a valid binding contract. Theoretically, the contract only then becomes valid upon the 1st bill payment after the account holder turns 19... but just you try getting out of that contract without an ETF (Early Termination Fee) being charged to your account. Additionally, one can cross state lines and thereby circumvent age of majority if the visited state's age of majority applies to your age (e.,g. at 18, a Nebraskan can sign a legally-binding contract in Iowa).

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Actually, you have no idea what you are talking about. Age of majority is a concept wholly unrelated to an individual having the ability, or capacity, to contract with another party. Majority relates to one's status and control over decision-making power and certain privileges. To keep the example simple and illustrate the point, age of majority is implicated when, for example, a person wants to be emancipated from their parents or the age in which the parent need to care for and has majority control over the child's decisions.

The ability to contract is based on having capacity to engage in a legally enforceable contract. Capacity can relate to being of sound mental capacity or in our example of a suitable age to contract. Very often this aspect of capacity is referred to as age of license.

Aniej said:

Actually, you have no idea what you are talking about. Age of majority is a concept wholly unrelated to an individual having the ability, or capacity, to contract with another party. Majority relates to one's status and control over decision-making power and certain privileges. To keep the example simple and illustrate the point, age of majority is implicated when, for example, a person wants to be emancipated from their parents or the age in which the parent need to care for and has majority control over the child's decisions.

The ability to contract is based on having capacity to engage in a legally enforceable contract. Capacity can relate to being of sound mental capacity or in our example of a suitable age to contract. Very often this aspect of capacity is referred to as age of license.

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Okay, you're just mincing words here. Age of majority and age of license are essentially the same thing except used differently when considering whether the rights are legally enforceable from within the individual or if the rights are transferred to another entity such as a parent that is of the age of majority (and license). I used the wrong word--but my comment still applies. That does not mean that I "have no idea what I am talking about," but that I am not as well-versed in semantics as yourself. Thanks for the correction.

wongulous said:

Okay, you're just mincing words here. Age of majority and age of license are essentially the same thing except used differently when considering whether the rights are legally enforceable from within the individual or if the rights are transferred to another entity such as a parent that is of the age of majority (and license). I used the wrong word--but my comment still applies. That does not mean that I "have no idea what I am talking about," but that I am not as well-versed in semantics as yourself. Thanks for the correction.

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Yea see I am not mincing words at all because not only are the words important since they are very clearly different legal concepts, but the ages you listed in your comments are only associated with the age of majority and not implicated in contractual issues. So it's not just semantic differences, these are distinct legal concepts.

Aniej said:

Yea see I am not mincing words at all because not only are the words important since they are very clearly different legal concepts, but the ages you listed in your comments are only associated with the age of majority and not implicated in contractual issues. So it's not just semantic differences, these are distinct legal concepts.

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http://profj.us/wlac/capacity.htm
http://www.safarix.com/0131985019/ch12
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...t+law&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=16&gl=us&client=safari
(notice the verbiage "in virtually all states...")

etc.

Hmm ok I guess I will just go take my J.D. and throw it out the window since some paralegal training website from Los Angeles Mission College, whatever that is, has some similar language to what you said. The simple fact is these are still different legal concepts.

Anyway, I'm done with the debate, the answer I gave was meant to help the OP.

Aniej said:

hmm... the law are probably different between two completely different nations, good assumption.

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hmm..thats helpful

Canada and USA have some similar laws, and some very different ones. Also I wouldn't call Canada and USA completely different

zap2 said:

hmm..thats helpful

Canada and USA have some similar laws, and some very different ones. Also I wouldn't call Canada and USA completely different

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What's this country all aboot eh?

feelthefire said:

Your parents are NUTS if they're going to let you give a $750 deposit and $500 for a phone. If my kid ever came up with a harebrained scheme like that, you can bet I wouldn't be buying said kid food or clothes anymore, since he's obviously flush enough to buy them for himself.

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I couldn't agree more.

In Canada

In canada the first contract someone can start is at 12 years old. This is direct from the Canadian Government Website.

Children who are 12 years of age or older may apply for their own SIN. However, parents can also apply on behalf of a child under the age of majority in their province. Here's what you'll need if you are applying on behalf of your child.

That is for applying for a SIN card. (Social) .. once that is done they are contractually obligated to follow the statutes and laws.

However there is no written age listed anywhere else about this. Credit card companies have been known to allow kids 15 years old to get into contract with them and get credit card companies.

So inference from these references and experience, I would think at the age of 12 anyone can enter in contracts lawfully.

You have to be 18.

But what do you guys mean by credit? I'm 19 and got mine on AT&T and obviously I have bad credit and got the phone easily with no huge down payment just the regular subsidized price. And oddly I didn't get an activation fee on my bill.

Just bring your parents just in case like I did.

Wow! Is this a record? A 5 year old dead thread is revived!

Whyyyyyyy would you guys revive this???? How did you even find this?

jialuolu said:

I'm in Canada so the laws are probably different, but I signed my contract with Rogers by myself when I was 15

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This must've been a long while ago because I tried signing a contract in Canada when I was 17 and wasn't allowed to.

Gryphyn3 said:

So inference from these references and experience, I would think at the age of 12 anyone can enter in contracts lawfully.

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This is definitely not true, contracts with people under the age of 18 can't be enforced - it's a capacity issue. Thus, most companies will require that you're at least 18 years old.

This is a non issue now. The original poster is now at least 22 years old