A minor applicant is someone under 18 years of age and over the minimum age set by your institution. This article describes the age settings in Narmi Grow and how your institution can handle minor applicants.
Minimum Applicant Age
You can set the minimum age for solo and joint applicants via Narmi Command, under Configurations > Institution Settings > Minimum Applicant Age. The default is 13. When applying, if the applicant's birth date is ineligible, an error appears, and they cannot continue.
Options for Handling Minor Applicants
Your institution has 3 options for handling minor applicants:
Restrict all minors from applying ā Set the Minimum Applicant Age institution setting to 18.
Require all minor applicants to have a parent or guardian as a joint applicant ā To do this, in Narmi Command, go to Configurations > Institution Settings and set Require Joint Applications for Minor Applicants to
true. Once set up, if a primary applicant is a minor based on the entered date of birth, and the application does not have a non-minor joint applicant, the following message appears: āIn order to proceed, please add a parent/guardian to this application.ā If the application has a non-minor joint applicant, the application can proceed. In addition, we recommend that your institution set up custom Alloy workflows to handle joint minor applicants, for example, using a "Minor" tag to automatically send applications to manual review.
Allow all minors to apply independently ā If your institution does not want to require minor applicants to have a parent or guardian as a joint applicant, we recommend your institution set up custom Alloy workflows to have all applications for minors go through manual review, then have a staff member decision each application. In Alloy, you can create a "Minor" tag for all minor applicants, or restrict minors to applying only to certain account types. For example, a workflow could be set up to approve applications with the "Minor" tag as long as it includes certain account types; otherwise, deny the application (or move to manual review).
If your institution requires custom workflows for minor applicants, Narmi and Alloy work with your institution to set them up during implementation. For more information, go to Alloy - Manual Reviews & Evaluations or contact your Narmi Relationship Manager.
Other Age Settings
There are other age-related settings that your institution may want to configure via Narmi Command > Configurations > Institution settings:
Minimum Age for Sole Applicant ā The minimum age to apply without a joint applicant in the Consumer Account Opening online and Consumer Staff-Led flows. Applicants below this age may still apply with a qualifying joint applicant. The default is 18. For example, if the Minimum Applicant Age setting is 14 and the Minimum Age for Sole Applicant setting is 17, 17+ can apply solo, 14-16 can apply with a joint applicant, and under 14 cannot apply.
Minimum Applicant Birth Year ā Prevents users from entering invalid birth years in Narmi Grow. The default is 1900. If the entered year falls below this value (e.g., 1850), an error appears, and they cannot continue.
Minors without Email Addresses
Each applicant on Narmi Grow must have a unique email addressāthis includes minor applicants. If the minor does not currently have their own email, there are two options available:
Create a new email address for the minor.
Use a different email address owned by a parent or guardian.
A parent or guardian may use an alternative email address they already own (such as a work or secondary personal account), or use an email address belonging to a spouse or partner.
This email must be different from the one the parent/guardian is using for their portion of the application.
The same email address cannot be used for both the parent/guardian and the minor applicant.
Minors Must Be the Primary Applicant
For minor applications, the minor must be the primary applicant, and the parent/guardian must be the joint applicant. If the minor applicantās information is found in the Co-applicant details section of the application, an error message appears, prompting the user to designate someone under 18 as the primary applicant.