Under 18s 'selling' credit cards

sophsmum

my 17 year old daughter works for a leading high street retailer and is becoming increasingly pressurised into 'selling' their credit card. She has been warned that failure to secure new cards from customers will result in dismissal under capability grounds. Can anyone advise if this is within the law as at 17 she cannot take out her card herself - are there laws protecting young people in this situation? any advice would be appreciated.

kilasuit

sophsmum wrote: »

my 17 year old daughter works for a leading high street retailer and is becoming increasingly pressurised into 'selling' their credit card. She has been warned that failure to secure new cards from customers will result in dismissal under capability grounds. Can anyone advise if this is within the law as at 17 she cannot take out her card herself - are there laws protecting young people in this situation? any advice would be appreciated.

Unfortunately it will be part of the job. I was in a similar situation at her age and found that no matter what is said to the management teams the whole ethos of sell sell sell and sell some more means that most of the time they have unrealistic targets set to them by their managers which is then passed down to the sales people.

About the only thing that you can advise is to let your daughter be aware that shes actually not meant to be actively selling any forms of credit because of her age though the likely hood is that her manager wont care about this "minor informality" and be almost forcing it upon her.

The only thing i can think of is to make her aware about how she cant process any form of credit agreement until she is 18 and that is from a legal point of view.

This is unless thing have changed in the last 2-3years

chunkymonkey2144

Unfortunately it is part of the job. I started working in mackays when i was 16 and i was forced into selling these store cards and like your daughter, i thought, why should i be doing this when i can't even take out one myself, and they always try get u to sell the positives of credit and i partly put that down to why i was so careless with credit when i was younger, i'm now 21 and i am forced to sell them, i do not entirely agree with this, my father told me though, if they dismissed me due to lack of sales of these cards then they would have a very large law suit on their hands. The way i see it is, at the end of the day, i still have morals, there are certain people i will not offer credit to, and i am penilised for this which i think is entirely unfair. Under the age of 18 she can opt out of being forced to enforce people into credit agreements, as this is unlawful because she does not have the oppertunity to herself posses this credit.

advent1122

So people who work in WHSmith at the age of 16 and not allowed to sell 18 certificate DVD's as "this is unlawful because she does not have the oppertunity to herself posses this DVD."

chunkymonkey2144

advent1122 wrote: »

So people who work in WHSmith at the age of 16 and not allowed to sell 18 certificate DVD's as "this is unlawful because she does not have the oppertunity to herself posses this DVD."

you shouldnt be selling anything you legally can't buy or have yourself.

chunkymonkey2144

same goes for under 18's cant sell alcohol at a supermarket checkout or tobacco either, and there are mystery shop procedures put in place to make sure these things are not happening.

Parki_2

advent1122 wrote: »

So people who work in WHSmith at the age of 16 and not allowed to sell 18 certificate DVD's as "this is unlawful because she does not have the oppertunity to herself posses this DVD."

Well somebody who is not 18 is not allowed to sell alcohol.

chunkymonkey2144

Parki wrote: »

Well somebody who is not 18 is not allowed to sell alcohol.

Exactly, thank you

advent1122

Parki wrote: »

Well somebody who is not 18 is not allowed to sell alcohol.

.... but (using your logic) someone who is not 18 is allowed to sell 18 cert DVD's.
I still don't know what your point is.

Parki_2

advent1122 wrote: »

.... but (using your logic) someone who is not 18 is allowed to sell 18 cert DVD's.
I still don't know what your point is.

Well in my younger days while studying whenever I worked in places that sold dvds I had to had someone supervise me if it had an 18 certificate.

never-in-doubt

Parki wrote: »

Well in my younger days while studying whenever I worked in places that sold dvds I had to had someone supervise me if it had an 18 certificate.

That's right, you used to be able to do that and I suppose it still does happen.

Say for instance you're 17 and work on a Sunday in Tesco and I come up with a whole shop in a trolley, then at the end you picked up my 24 pack of stella, you'd ring a bell or do a tannoy shout 'supervisor please' and this is where they would come and complete the supervision of responsible alcohol sales.

Obviously i'd not complete one sale then go queue again for my beer and have to pay again.

It does still happen and the same would happen in DVD stores and book stores that sell rated books. Remember even working for HMV would give problems as they sell games that are also rated.

I know what your point is, people under 18 can and do sell licenced products so long as they have a supervisor or responsible person (i.e. an adult) present at the time of verification/sale.