Pulaski

No, like Sibsie said accounts opened without a SSN suffer a witholding tax. It's really all about identification - the banks will get taken to the cleaners if they get implicated i Money laundering, and requesting/ requiring a SSN largely fulfills their obligation to know who their customer is. Utimately their is no requirement to obtain a SSN, it is just a very handy way for banks to easily "prove" that they are identifying their customers. :roilleyes:

However obtianing and recording a SSN for each account doesn't cover the bank's obligation to know what there customer is doing and earlier anti-drug/ anti money laundering legislation, and more recently the USA Patriot act, has added a lot of requirements for banks to obtain and maintain information on their clients, and to monitor and report on account activity e.g. cash transactions in excess of $10,000, any series of transactions that appear to have been generated to avoid breaking the $10,000 non-reporting ceiling, and anything else that the bank deems "suspicious".

alistinker

Just also to confirm that Wells Fargo will let you open a bank account too!!

Hope that helps!!

sharonxxxx

fatbrit

Definitely not true -- the illegals can and do open bank accounts, many of the banks actually directly target them and their paychecks! Can’t really blame the banks for this though – the politicians seem quite happy to engage in double standards and hypocrisy. Presumably the liberals see it as a good source of potential votes or it makes them feel good, while the fascists see it as a good source of cheap labour to placate their masters in the corporations. State-sponsored apartheid is alive, well and flourishing!

Also, most illegals do in fact pay more than their fair share of taxes. The reason for this is that the estimated tax will be taken off their paycheck at source. As they seem to excel at multiplying and mostly work in low paid jobs, they would probably be due a hefty tax refund at the end of the year. However, because they are working on an illegal SS#, they are rather unlikely to actually file the tax return and claim it back. Hence they overpay.

Still, I suppose most of them can save this by not buying car insurance...

newbie

Not sure where you are.....

I opened a cheque account at Bank One in Chicago with my british passport - they said that they would have to put my foreign address as the residential address, but that I could have my postal address in the US.

Big Vern

We went to BofA this morning with our passports, a letter from my employer and a letter fro the HSBC in the UK, and they opened checking, saving and online banking in about ten minutes.

And they gave us some coffee and made a fuss of the kids...and even have a drive-thru window!! In the UK I couldn't even get to a regular window at lunchtime sometimes..

TRPardoe

A friend from Bournemouth opened a Bank Account (savings) with Bank of America when he was over here on vacation. He has no property here, although his father does.

I went with him to vouch for him and used a BofA assistant manager who I played Pool with.

Clearly you do not need an SSN to open an account.

supernav

The lack of a SSN is a huge benefit for those not wanting to pay taxes (eg: illegals).

For instance. this "shady" guy i know runs a "business" and has his real account in the islands.

He sets up acount with fake name, and po box as address. He drops in checks to atm $10k, $20k whatever.

next day he writes checks on that account and deposits to account in the island. check clears. account balance back to zero.

repeat.

He uses a ghetto bank that doesn't have huge infrastructure and computers to tie in with IRS (stay away from Bank of Americas, etc.).

Even if IRS wanted to investigate him -- they know nothing about him. He never walks into a bank and does everyhting online, etc. Pays ZERO taxes!

The illegal who receives cash and deposits in his account is doing the same thing. Except on a much smaller scale.

-= nav =-

TRPardoe

This is assuming that the US bank did not ask for or verify ID before opening an account. This is what they cannot do.

My own local Credit Union wanted to see my Green Card before they would open an account due to "Homeland Security", even though I was working for a company whose employees can be members of the CU.

However my friend from Bournemouth, who opened his savings account post 9/11, only had to produce his passport and UK driving licence. As someone else pointed out - different banks may ask for diferent things. You just have to shop around.

I believe that there isn't a bank in the Caribbean which the IRS cannot get in to. They can even get cooperation from Switzerland these days. There are no banks left in the western world which have neither computers nor internet connectivity.

AlisonPA

Well I did stand my ground at Wachovia and the woman telephoned her boss and told me the same thing. I told her that I was added to my husband's other accounts at Bank of America and another bank but they would not buy it. I could be the beneficiary but nothing else without my SSN. Well I have it now and we have a lot of money in Wachovia which we are now going to transfer to another bank. Not that they will care but it will give us some satisfaction

DDL

I'm American and have been banking with a small bank in a small Southern town - the kind where everybody knows everybody - for over 15 years.

Last year when I brought my British fiance home for a holiday, we went to my bank to find out what he would need in order to be put on my account and/or open up his own account. Now, we *never* see foreigners in my hometown (I'm somewhat of a celebrity now) and my girlfriend, who is the Branch Manager of the bank, told us that it would be *impossible* for him to open up an account without already having a SSN. She said they have to be "skeptical" because of 9/11.

I later rang up the Customer Service Manager at the bank's home office and was told, "Sure, no problem! All he needs is some picture ID, like his passport." :-)

So, don't accept the first answer that someone gives you. And stand your ground. A foreigner without a SSN *is* entitled to open up a bank account.

Good luck!

mike1946

Hi - My wife and I are snow birds from the UK spending only 6 months in the USA - we went to our local bank in the The Villages in Florida (Citizens First Bank) and with our USA address, passports and local community ID and got a checking account and ATM card/credit card with no problems at all...so ????

Mike

Susanna

I got sick of all the leg work so I am now going to make some phone calls as the USBANK never called back typical and I have tried 6 different banks lol my mission for the day

Cheers all.

DDL

You might want to try a savings and loan.

supernav

>I believe that there isn't a bank in the Caribbean which the IRS >cannot get in to. They can even get cooperation from >Switzerland these days. There are no banks left in the western >world which have neither computers nor internet connectivity.

That's false.

Refer to the sex.com saga. The IRS can't touch the fugitive's money or even find out how much he has. Where do you think OJ has all his cash and still lives life to the fullest yet he has a $40 mill settlement against him?

After 9/11 -- the US was able to sign treaties with 20% of the world to obtain funds and bank info IF it can prove it was tied to terrorism.

If not -- those countries have no more initiative to share any info with the US than your local bank telling some government rep from the island of tongo just how much money you have in your account, your name, address and transaction info.

Working and not paying taxes and getting away with it is easy in the US. 12 million people do it every single day.

-= nav =-

Susanna

Thanks all I got an account today yee ha
I called first and then went in just had to put $100 in the account and got hubbys name on there too.
No S/S needed can add as and when I want to.
Thankyou all for your replys