SSN Policy Manual

Financial Issues

Challenging Their Policy A financial institution, or any business for that matter, cannot implement or enforce policy that is contrary to law. They also cannot enforce policy based on the pretense of law, when there is no such law. For example, attempting to enforce a policy that requires customers to disclose a social security number because of the mistaken belief that everybody has (or is required to have) a social security number is contrary to the law. Such policy is based on the pretense of law - because there is no law requiring a customer to have a social security number in the first place. Therefore, we need to challenge the financial institution's policy against having unenumerated customers. Use the "Second Response - Privacy Act Notice" letter on page 238 as a model and attach a copy of the following "Constructive Notice" and a copy of the "Citizen's Assertion of Legal Right to withhold disclosure of SSN." This serves to notify the financial institution that their policy violates the law and it violates your rights. These will normally be passed along to their legal department very quickly and will usually result in a letter to you. Since their other option was to ignore you, such a letter, no matter how arrogant, is a positive indication that the legal department wants to negotiate. If you take the simple approach of "I understand and appreciate your concern, but I need to establish an account and I would really like to do that with your bank . . . what must we do to accomplish this?" you will usually find them ready to make an offer. It probably won't be the account you envisioned, but it will be an opening in the door that, in time, will allow you to open the account that you actually want. Be reasonable, persistent and patient and you will succeed.