If the banks agree to lend money to an adult student, it becomes very complicated when the latter is not 18 years old. However, solutions exist to finance students before they reach majority.
While many graduates will begin higher education at the start of the school year, the question of funding could well pose a problem for young people who have not yet reached the age of 18 and who would like to take out a student loan.
The law is clear: a minor cannot conclude a contract. Article 1146 of the Civil Code specifies that non-mancipated minors are incapable of contracting, to the extent defined by law.
Clearly, you can not borrow before 18 years, confirms Sbastien Kotecki, head of credit marketing development at LCL. Legally, the student cannot therefore be the borrower if he is a minor.
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Turn to a classic consumer credit
However, there are exceptions: the Ministry of the Economy thus recalls that for minors over 16 years of age, it is possible to benefit from the loan, condition of having obtained emancipation from the parents. It is then necessary to go before the guardianship judge who will render his decision. If the latter is positive, the child is then legally assimilated to an adult and can carry out alone the acts requiring legal majority, such as taking out a loan from the bank.
This scenario is relatively marginal, assures the Société Générale, which offers another way of financing the studies of a minor child: Parents can take out a classic consumer credit, but it will not be a student loan. The LCL confirms that if the student’s profile does not fall within the framework of the classic student offer, parents have the option of taking out consumer credit to finance their education. The child and the parents are then free to find a reimbursement process between themselves.
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Other banks are finding alternative solutions: Parents who are BNP Paribas customers and whose child under 18 needs financing can take out the loan themselves, then transfer it under the same conditions majority child, says Delphine Guentch-Cahouch, marketing manager for the youth market at BNP Paribas, in an article in the World.
Finally, with Crédit Agricole, parents can also take out a loan for their child, but at a more than competitive price. A loan is made directly to the parents and the latter benefit from the student rate. They obviously do not need guarantees or a deposit. the majority, on the other hand, the loan remains attached to the person who took it out, which does not change much, since it is often the parents who repay the student loan, notes Olivier Tassain, deputy head of press relations at Crdit Agricultural.
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