I've explained before how I came to have my current Discover card, i.e., after my mom died I called Discover to inform them and to close her account. The CSR asked me if I'd like to transfer it to my name--with its 1991 open date and perfect history intact--and I said YES! 
Now I'm wondering about passing it down to my daughter.
Is it possible to transfer a card to someone who was younger than 18 when it was opened? Does that vary by bank or is there some federal regulation or what?
If I did pass it down to her, could she keep it going? Pass it down to one or both of my grandsons? They weren't even a twinkle in their parents' eyes when the account was opened!! 
@GatorGuy wrote:@SoCalGardener I've never heard of this being possible.
If anyone else has more information on this I would love to hear it.
My guess would be in the rare cases where it is possible, it is probably only when the original cardholder has passed away.
Right, the original cardholder had passed away when I got it, and I mean passing it down to my daughter when I die. Until that day when I called Discover to close Mom's account, I had never even HEARD of passing down/transferring a deceased cardholder's account to their [adult] child! I'm so grateful the CSR I spoke to brought it up--I absolutely *love* having a 1991 account on my credit--an account with a perfect history, no less!--and every time I use it or log in or whatever, I think about my mom. I don't know if other banks do this, or if it's unique to Discover, but I think it's a great idea!
@SoCalGardener I'm sorry for the loss of your mother, but I think that's a wonderful practice of Discover to keep her credit legacy alive through you. If you can pass it down to your daughter, it would become a generational heirloom. Not sure about what the process would be because of the opening date versus the age of the account user. Maybe you could contact Discover via chat and see what they say. I am intrigued by this.
I'm not looking forward to the day I have to close my father's accounts, but he did apply for his Discover card a few months after I turned 18, so it would be nice to take over his perfect 20 year old Discover account.
I wonder if it would be any different as graduating from being an AU on the card to taking it over. Keep us posted on this!
I never even thought about this. Looking forward to reading more replies on this and hopefully learning what is possible for passing accounts to my kids when I die.
Congrats on your Discover card inheritance
Unfortunately, anyone here wishing to run an experiment to see if this works, would not be in a position to report back on the success of the strategy
I haven't read of other lenders' policies, but Amex does allow transfer to the estate for personal cards or another officer of a business when a cardholder is deceased. As it is a transfer of the existing account rather than an addition of a cardholder, even post-2015 the account dating remains the same to the bureaus (and also changes the Member Since date shown in one's Amex account and on subsequent new/renewed cards).
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/help/deceased-cardmembers.html
Amex is the only one I am aware of with an actual public portion of their website dedicated to that. Curious to follow this to see if there are others that may do this.
@SoCalGardener wrote:I've explained before how I came to have my current Discover card, i.e., after my mom died I called Discover to inform them and to close her account. The CSR asked me if I'd like to transfer it to my name--with its 1991 open date and perfect history intact--and I said YES!
Is it possible to transfer a card to someone who was younger than 18 when it was opened? Does that vary by bank or is there some federal regulation or what?
If I did pass it down to her, could she keep it going? Pass it down to one or both of my grandsons? They weren't even a twinkle in their parents' eyes when the account was opened!!
You could call Disco and ask your question but that would be a little awkward since you're still alive. And even if they said yes today, that may not be the same practice when you pass at 101. I hate to be the dark cloud but if I had to bet my farm (do I even have a farm?), I'd wager that this card inheritance was a rare occurrence and unlikely to happen again. Just my guess. I hope I am wrong.
I guess you can say I "inherited" my Dad's US Bank and Bank of America cards when he passed away in January. Two cards, each with balances. Thanks Dad.