After posting this I realized one of the reasons this issue bothers me so much is the lenders encourage borrowers to spend money they don’t have. Many US citizens are barely able to make a minimum payment each month; what will happen when they hit retirement age and have these enormous debts? Should this “opportunity” be offered to illegal immigrants also?

If BofA does this, wont other banks follow??? Geeze & the BS Id go through for a loan etc vs the Illegals. NO. Then using the BA argument, we can ask for FREE: Credit cards Or we can adjust card rates Low Interest loans for we Paying Consumers to Bank right?? NO??? Wake Up. Is the bank then raise rates to cover losses with Illegals that we then Pay for???

Solutions: Sell BA stock Change Banks Lobby BA for changes??? Lobby Govt for Bank change regulations. Or we all lose.

“Critics say that without a Social Security number, the bank can’t be sure the card’s customers won’t use the credit for criminal activity, such as terrorism or drug trafficking”

So is the issue the credit cards, drug trafficking or terrorism. If your local crack dealer or dirty bomb merchant is willing to take a credit card, do you think they’re handing out statements to Visa identifying themselves as having conducted an illegal sale. The thought is ridiculous. It’s seems like another “OMFG think of the TERRORISTS!” scare tactic to me.

Hell, what’s stopping people from using “legitimate” credit cards to conduct terrorist activities? I mean, get a cash advance, put it on your card and boom (no pun intended) there’s no way to effectively track it, anyway. I’m almost positive the hijackers from 9/11 weren’t planning on cashing in their reward airline miles, anyway.

And what goldmine are the tapping in to? If the user goes defunct, and Bank of American has no reliable way to track down the user, their out however much money the user spent. Do you think BoA is actually targeting illegals for a credit card? That would be, by far, one of the worst business decisions of all time.

Yes, a lot of people are struggling with debt these days. Your average American is close to carrying a debt they may never pay off…which is bad for both the person and the issuer of the credit card. Eventually, the system will collapse. Perhaps this is just a necessary step in the process. Once banks and card companies start to realize that maybe it IS a bad idea to give everyone and anyone a credit card, society as a whole will become more responsible with their credit.

If anything, I lose confidence in BoA. If they take on an inordinately high amount of risk, that’s a danger to all their customers. That’s where the real impact is.

This isn’t a terrorist or illegal immigrant issue. This is about taking responsibility for your actions and finances issue, whether your a BoA customer, or BoA itself.

From the referenced article:

Customers don’t typically need a Social Security number to open a standard banking account. Instead, they can identify themselves by using an ID card provided by the Mexican Consulate to its citizens, known as a matricula consular, or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) issued by the Internal Revenue Service.

and

At Bank of America, the pilot program in Los Angeles allows customers to use such forms of identification to also sign up for a credit card. The card is similar to secured cards offered to those with poor credit: it requires customers to have an account with the bank that’s been in good standing for at least three months and comes with a reimbursable upfront fee of $99.

I don’t really see the point here. If the bank takes care that the applicant has a good credit record, isn’t the SSN a secondary thing (as long as there is some way to identify the customer, like there seems to be).

I don’t know but I think this could even decrease the amount of debt people get into if they wouldn’t have to go to the standard loansharks they use now.