[asabjorn]

"To open a checking or savings account, the bank or credit union will need to verify your name, date of birth, address, and ID number. An ID number can be a social security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). To get an ITIN, you will need to fill out a form with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) .

If you don’t have a U.S. government-issued SSN or ITIN, some banks and credit unions will accept a passport number and country of issuance, an alien identification card number, or other government-issued ID number." [1]

[1] https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/can-i-get-a-checkin...

[RandomBacon]

Sounds good. So technically an ID is not needed.

Just to make sure we are on the same page, we are equating "ID" to a physical identification card, right? Since I think that's what this conversation stemmed from.

I bet those credit unions were just running my Social Security Number against a database to make sure it matched with the name, DOB, etc I provided.

I wonder if there is a legal definition of "verify" when it comes to banks and customers. Verifying could just be asking the customer, what their name is.

[asabjorn]

Since they need to verify your address as well I presume IDing with social security card also require providing a piece of mail.

Getting someone’s social security card is hard so this plus a piece of mail or government picture IDs seem fair for an election. Basically, the banking bar.