CafeChatNoir

Yesterday on CNBC I watched a slew of folks getting their knickers in a twist over some news coming out from Bank of America. The news? They’re offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers, which in more than a few cases are undocumented aliens in the United States.

The responses to this ranged from “well, it gets them in the system in one way or another” to “they’re effectively going to finance the next terrorist attack!”

To begin with, what BoA is doing is not new, nor is it illegal. Personally, I don’t have a problem with providing tools of commerce to people, regardless of whether or not they are citizens of this country. Additionally, if the financial institutions doing this are willing to take on the associated risks of these programs, that is their perogative. I don’t honestly think that terrorists are going to be busting down the doors at BoA to get credit cards anytime soon.

I do question the whole thing for a couple different reasons. If I were an undocumented/illegal alien in the country, I don’t think I’d want to be doing anything that would be creating a paper trail if at all possible, and a credit card does exactly that. I will be very interested to see how this program works for BoA - I know they’re looking for some growth out of it, but I would expect that at least some of their anticipated customer base may be somewhat reluctant to come forward.

Second, from a financial institution perspective - at what point is the government going to come knocking on the door and saying, “OK, all those credit card customers you have with no SSN’s? We want names, addresses, phone numbers, everything.” Maybe it would never happen, but in the current political environment, I think it’s at least somewhat within the realm of possibility.

Yes, there are lots of legitimate and legal reasons to be in the country and not have a Social Security number, and I’m sure for those folks having access to a credit card off a US based bank could be a nice thing to have. (Though I had no problems with my US MasterCard while in London…)

For the folks out there that are flailing about over this, the answer is really not that complicated. First, don’t take your banking business to BoA. Second, lobby your representatives to change the law. Making ridiculous statements about terrorism helps nothing.