Password? LOL, just had visions of a teller leaning over the counter whispering, "What's the secret password?" "please?" "I'm sorry, passwords are case sensitive, so that is incorrect."

Definitely prosecute. Give them one chance to return the money first, though. Is it me or are there two or three of these "my parents took all my money" FMLs every week?

Yeah there are. Probably because with so many people out of work they're getting desperate. But seriously, they should ask.

Really? Why is that? I remember opening my first current account in the UK when I was 11. My parents were with me to authorise that it was ok for me to have one but they didn't sign anything, it was my account. I wasn't allowed any debit cards or cheques until I was 16, and no credit cards or overdrafts until I was 18 under the banks own policies, but I was able to pay in and withdraw my own funds as I saw fit from the age of 11 by going into the bank and dealing with counter services. I think children from high school (e.g. 11+) are competent to deal with these increasing levels of responsibility.

First off, UK is not US. Get this right. Second, 11? Really? You must be insanely mature. But you're a rare breed. Most 18 year olds can't handle that sort of responsibility. Third. Overdrafts aren't a good thing. They are actually something you want to avoid. Thats when you spend more than is in your account.

I, of course, didn't have a bank account when I was 11 because I'm in the US, but I handled my money well. That's when I started saving. When I was 13 I had saved up over $500. Which doesn't seem like a lot to save in two years, but legal working age was 14. So that was just things like mowing my neighbors lawns or washing their windows, or whatever other things they came up with. And that doesn't include birthday and christmas presents I bought for people, or anything I bought for myself. My parents took care of most of the finances, food, bills and all, cause I was still a kid, but I did alright. Up until a friend of mine started taking #20 from me every few days because I didn't realize. I didn't go check on my money every day. It was in a box in my room, which I figured to be safe enough. THAT was my mistake. I was good at not spending my money on stupid things, but I wasn't good at finding a secure hiding place. She took all but $60 from me.

@ piles_of_fail – I understand that the UK is not the US, so I don’t see which part of that I need to get right. The fact that I live in the UK and not the US was in fact my motivation for querying the reasoning behind the US’ banking system – because I wouldn’t want to make baseless assumptions. I’d rather ask. Also, for the record, I wasn’t suggesting that the UK had a better system of banking. Your concerns that 11 year olds are too young for that responsibility may well be reasonable, as the levels of maturity in that age group can vastly differ. I was merely explaining my experience and contrasting it with someone else’s that seemed excessive to the other extreme. In my personal situation, at 11 I was never managing huge amounts of money, so it was well within my capability and a calculated risk on my parent’s part I’m sure. I was given pocket money of about £10 a week which I could spend or save as I saw fit. If I blew it all, well that would be unfortunate but the world wasn't going to end because of it. I couldn’t create any personal debt and actually built up a fantastic credit record with my bank which I have now been with for 15 years. I can’t thank my parents enough for this as my fiancé (who is a US citizen and the same age as me) can’t do anything with a co-signer these days as a result of debt accrued in order to gain a degree. I don’t consider it to be a very risky privilege to afford a young person. I agree, typically I’d never encourage people to rely on an overdraft. In the UK (which, again, I understand is NOT the US) the banks give all students an interest free overdraft for their time as a student to provide a buffer for us during a difficult time. They slowly reduce which portion of it is interest free upon graduation, and typically most students would work in their summer breaks to put their accounts back into healthy credit so that they wouldn't need to rely much on their overdraft. But to each his own. Merely offering a view of another country’s system whilst asking for clarification of your own. My bad. I certainly won’t be doing that again.

dude thats way too long for a comment on FML. FYL! find something more useful to do with your time