What flips at midnight
The law stops treating your parents as your decision-makers. Your signature now binds you, so a lease, a car loan or a gym membership can be enforced against you and sent to collections in your name. You can sue, be sued, make a will, consent to your own medical care and be called for jury duty. If you are charged with a crime, you go to adult court, and the record does not get the sealing that juvenile records often receive.
Privacy moves with the power. Under federal health and education privacy law, a hospital or a college can no longer tell your parents anything without your written permission, even if they are paying the bill. Most families find this out in an emergency room. The age of majority is 18 in most states, but it is 19 in Alabama and Nebraska and 21 in Mississippi.
What still waits
Alcohol, tobacco and vaping products all require you to be 21 nationwide, and so does buying a handgun from a licensed dealer. Until 21, a credit card issuer must see proof of your own income or a cosigner. Many hotels, most car rental companies and most casinos also set their floor at 20 or 21.
The first month's paperwork
- Register to vote through your state's election office, since many states close registration two to four weeks before an election.
- Register with Selective Service if you are male, because federal law requires it within 30 days of the birthday, and then confirm the registration on the agency's website.
- Sign a health care proxy and a privacy release naming a parent or another adult you trust, so that someone can talk to the hospital if you cannot.
- Open a checking account that is yours alone, or have the adult removed from your joint teen account.
What people get wrong
The common mistake is signing for someone else because you suddenly can. A friend's phone plan or a partner's car loan in your name is your debt if they stop paying, and the damage sits on your credit report for seven years. The second mistake is assuming support continues. Child support commonly ends at 18 or at high school graduation, depending on the state, and money held for you in a custodial account becomes yours at 18 or 21 under state law.
Note Health insurance is the exception. Federal law lets you stay on a parent's plan until 26, whether or not you live at home, study or marry.
