AUGUSTA – People under 21 would have to obtain permission from a parent or guardian to get a credit card under a proposal being considered by lawmakers.

Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds, said his bill is aimed primarily at college students who sign up for credit cards without their parents’ knowledge and, unschooled in financial matters, accumulate sizable debt.

A public hearing was held this week on the bill, “An Act to Protect Young Consumers.” The Insurance and Financial Services Committee will hold a work session Thursday.

Committee members expressed support and skepticism for the measure.

Rep. Wesley Richardson, R-Warren, asked how the bill would affect people younger than 21 who have no parents or guardians or are financially and otherwise independent.

“In my district, there are 18-year-old lobstermen who are doing well financially,” Richardson said. “I just have a hard time with the way this whole thing goes.”

Nutting said he’d be willing to modify the bill for young adults who are financially independent, since he wants the measure to deal with college students.

Another committee member, Rep. Michael Vaughan, R-Durham, said he likes the bill’s concept.

“Credit card companies, you know what their product is? Debt,” Vaughan said. “Young people haven’t had a chance to go the school of hard knocks. It’s not a good initiation.”

The Maine Bankers Association and the Maine Association of Community Banks are opposing the bill.

Mark Walker, a lawyer for the bankers group who also spoke for the community bank association, told the committee the associations don’t aggressively market credit cards to students.

Walker said 18-year-olds in Maine have a legal right to enter into business agreements such as obtaining credit cards.

Lenders who deny credit to otherwise eligible young adults would run afoul of the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Walker told the committee.

Steven and Rachel Goulet of Greene said their son had $8,000 in credit card debt when he graduated from the University of Maine.

The Goulets, who support Nutting’s bill, found out about the debt only after collection agencies started calling their home. They helped their son devise a payment plan to pay off the debt within four years.

“We weren’t even aware he had a credit card,” Steven Goulet said.