Do my parents have the right to control my bank account?
Well, if the bank account is in your name then no they do not have the right to control your account. You can always call your bank for the information or stop by should your parents refuse. In extreme cases you could easily take them to Small Claims (Basically a court house for small issues). If it is in their name, there is just about nothing you can do. Or if they are co-holders (your name and their name) on the account, you can still request the info. In short, if your name is on it they can't do it by right of law, as you are past the age to be responsible over your own things. Easy task would just be to try and talk with them again, or talk with the bank for information. As mentioned above, you could always try and scare them with court, but that wouldn't be very nice =(
When can the bank or government take your money from your own personal account?
Good answers here on when banks (or government) can take money under normal circumstances. Your money can also be "taken" under not so normal circumstances if the bank has to be bailed out and depositors are forced to take part in the bail out. This is not very common and usually the equity investors take the hit but recently in the eurozone Bank of Cyprus depositors lost up to 47% of their deposit - Bank of Cyprus depositors lose 47.5% of savings . More on the Cyprus story here - 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis Soon after, Greek depositors too faced similar situation - http://www.zerohedge.com/news/20... but thankfully it didn't come to passLastly, some countries in Europe now are facing negative interest rate and charging banks for hoarding their cash (http://www.bloombergview.com/qui... )Retail investors are not yet losing money in their deposits since this will probably trigger a panic flight to cash if done now. But policy makers are giving this a thought - if a a full scale conversion to electronic money becomes reality then it will be trivial to impose a negative interest rate (and take money from retail deposits) to effect central bank policy. This idea was recently broached by Bank of England's (UK's central bank) chief economist Andy Haldane - Bank of England: UK could ditch cash and slash rates below zero .
Turned 18. Now how do I get control of my bank account?
if the bank account is under your name.. then it's yours. you don't have a photo ID? but you have your SSN.. go apply for a State ID. I assume you are American, in America. State ID does not take long at ALL to do, although the waiting in line sucks and depending on states you might have to wait 2-3 weeks to recieve it. Get that. that's proof of ID. if not, go to your bank and if the account is under YOUR name and YOUR social security, you have all rights to it, you should be able to do something. Tell them you want to make a DEBIT card not credit card. That will allow you to use it whenever, wherever especially online like amazon. and you won't even need ID if you have a debit card. bring your social security and your birth certificate, just in case. but really you will want a state ID that will help a lot. If you have a permit, in some states it also is an ID card (that looks similar to the finished Driver's license card, but says permit). some states like california, the permit is only a piece of paper though.. if you can get the permit, get that instead of the state ID. keep your social security number and birth certificate with you at all times (as in, know where it is and don't have your parents look after it.). applying for college and jobs, you will memorize your SSN real easy but keep it as well. Also dude, if really this does not work out. or if you want the money NOW, go open a bank account yourself. bring your SSN and birth certificate, and they'll take a picture of you if u make a card. make a debit card, checking and savings account. you can have multiple bank accounts, i have bank of america and they don't charge me a penny for having the account. you could do that, because i dunno what other banks charge you or not. if you do this, you'll have your own account, under your name, on the website your passwords, your own code for the debit card. do whatever you want with it.
Apartment application - asking for bank account balances?
The only purposes are to see that you have a "positive" cash flow. THEY CANNOT just 'take money' either from your CC's or your bank account. If you want, fill it out with just x's, except for the last 4 digits. Normally on an apartment they dont verify any of the accounts. A loan, though, they use the application for totals but they ask for bank statements to show your positive balance-- like a small cushion that always stays in your account, that could cover rent in case of emergency. Its totally normal and they're not trying to rip you off. pS--- this is not a scam, its simply to verify that you can afford the rent without extending yourself too much. Its a little much- most apartments use a simple formula of your income must be three times your rent, but this apartment is going a little further-- and some do. Again, just use the last 4 of your acounts number if you're nervous. If they refuse it based on that, go somewhere else-- you're being reasonable.