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Re: Credit Card might-as-well-equal SSN (fwd)
I was under the impression that using a SSN for identification purposes was
illegal. A while back I went to a company that rented sound equipment to
pick up some equipment for a job, and was asked for my SSN as part of my
credit application. I told them that I believed that it was illegal to
require an SSN and they said, in effect, if you want to rent from us, you
have to give us your SSN.
When I got home, I called the Social Security Administration office in
Austin and after being bounced around among lots of people who knew
absolutely nothing about the subject, I finally reached someone who
informed me that this practice is perfectly legal as long as you're not
>required< to give your SSN. Since I didn't, in theory, have to do
business with these folks, they therefore apparently had every right to
require my SSN as a condition of doing business with them. In point of
fact, when the incident occurred, it was getting late, I had to have the
equipment for my job, and so I gave them what they wanted.
At 09:35 PM 9/10/97 -0500, Jim Choate did speak as follows....
>>Questions: Is this for real? How wide spread is this? What does U-Haul
do
>>with your SSN? How difficult is it for someone (company) to get your SSN
>>when you use your credit card?
>
>Did you ask if it was a U-Haul requirement or a Texas one?
>
>If you've ever given your SSN when applying for a credit card,
>you can be pretty sure they've got your SSN in the credit report.
>Perhaps if you've got a secured debit card of some sort
>you've been able to keep it separate from your other credit history,
>if any, but most people have slipped at least once, or had an account
>at a bank that collected the SSN for tax reasons and then included it
>in credit reports.
Lindsay Haisley (______)
FMP Computer Services (oo) "The bull
[email protected] /------\/ stops here!"
Austin, Texas, USA / | ||
512-259-1190 * ||---|| * * * * * *
~~ ~~ http://www.fmp.com