For Americans, turning 18 usually marks the start of a whole new world of opportunities and responsibilities, but going straight into debt is not a responsibility anyone would want. Unfortunately for one teen who had just reached adulthood, the Texas bank his father had been saving money for his son suddenly threw a massive curveball at him. He was $80K in debt without any warning or prior notice. This huge debt came from a bank account his senior-aged dad had set up for him years ago for the future, but it’s now come back to bite him.
Initially, this bank account was supposed to have been taking out a small bit of money from the dad’s monthly check to store it as future funds for the son. However, the 18-year-old claims that the people at this Texas bank messed things up, which put him into serious debt. Instead of taking money from the dad’s income and putting it into the son’s account, the system had been putting in thousands of dollars of “free money” without notifying anyone or even noticing the error. “Mind you we did NOT know this,” the son clarifies in his post on r/povertyfinance.
Once he turned 18, the Texas bank took notice and promptly sent him a letter in the mail, saying that he was $80K in debt. “Considering I was recieving that cash as a minor and it was their mistake to begin with, I dont think I should owe them anything,” the son says defiantly. He claims his family spent a bunch of money to move out of Texas to a new home elsewhere as well. “I have no way of paying of it off. I cant even get a job at the moment, let alone pull 80k out unless I sell a kidney,” he sighs.
Fortunately, the good people of Reddit came to the rescue in the comment section, going over exactly what the ideal options are. One person claimed to have gone through a similar experience when the government tried to throw a debt on them from overpaid death benefits of their mother. “You know how I got it fixed? I called my local congressman/woman’s office. I reported everything to them and they fixed it,” they recalled. Another commenter agreed, saying how “there are staffers whose job is literally to do this” casework.
Plenty of others shared their similar experience of going into sudden debt after becoming an adult. And while the 18-year-old son has every right to ignore the debt and run, it’s not going to go down well for him legally. As one Redditor suggests, he needs to “file a dispute as fast as possible. Submit evidence with your claim, whether they ask you to or not.”
