Bank refuses to add my wife to my account

[lovinglive 24]

Thanks everyone, your answers were very helpful.  We'll keep working on it.

[shaolincrane 69]

Chase was absolutely horrible for us. She had her SSN, residency documents etc. The bank manager swore he had to use her passport name woth her married SSN. After arguing for over an hour and being denied to even have an office visit at other locations, I let him file it that way since it was "internal only".

 

Well that was wrong, it immediately tripped a credit alert, and notified Chase's fraud department which resulted in the account being frozen for 4 months. Corporate had to get involved after I filed an FTC complaint cause they accused me, luckily my wife was recording the visit with the bank manager so we were able to prove it wasn't us because Chase was trying to close the account over it. Had my tax refunds fail, covid money, direct deposits, all of it.

 

So if you get any slack over it, go to different locations until you get someone who isn't a complete moron. 

[Gawain 23]

 

You say that you have the SS# so that means also a USA passport.  It should really be no problem at this point, as long as there is proof of residence.  

I have found the banks to be cooperative, but they may want to see the relative in person.  As others have said, proof of residence in the form of a utility bill (one would be good, two would be better) will help.

I would call the utility company first.  Then I would send a letter to the main office.  This is just a rough idea/suggestion:

 

To the zzzzzz Gas company

address of zzzzzz

To Whom it May Concern,
I would like to have my wife listed on my zzzzzz gas bill. She understands that she will be responsible for the payment if I ever am unable to pay.

My zzzzzz gas bill is enclosed. I was told on the phone that we could do this by mail if I include her ID and social security
card.  She doesn't speak English fluently and that is why I'm doing this by mail.  Thank you.
Best regards,

 

Sometimes a utility company will wait until the next billing cycle to add someone to the bill.  So it probably will not be immediate.

 

The other idea I had is that when the social security card arrived (if it arrived at your residence), it would have her name and the residence printed on the form (this is the form that the card arrives on, and then you separate the card from the form).  It could be helpful.  I'm not sure if you had it sent to you or not.

Good luck.

 

 

 

 

[M+K IL 102]

Just now, Gawain said:

You say that you have the SS# so that means also a USA passport

Not necessarily, you can get a SSN on certain visas (definitely H-1B and L1 work visas, but also student visas if you work at the university) and you can get unrestricted SS cards once you get your unrestricted green card

[Gawain 23]

1 minute ago, M+K IL said:

Not necessarily, you can get a SSN on certain visas (definitely H-1B and L1 work visas, but also student visas if you work at the university) and you can get unrestricted SS cards once you get your unrestricted green card

 

Ah, great point.  I didn't even realize...

[Albatross 16]

Had the same problem initially with USAA.  This situation makes a lot of work for them if someone on the account is not a US citizen or at least a Green Card holder.  They have to have the non US person fill out a form called a W8BEN.  And then they usually have to talk with the non US person, AND refresh the data every so often, maybe every couple of years.  Rinky dink banks don't want the trouble...

[Roy an Panitta 29]

On 6/14/2023 at 6:38 PM, lovinglive said:

Hello all, 

 

I'm wondering if you may have some insight into this problem and how to get around it.  My wife needs to be able to prove her residence in order to do things like get a driver's license or ID.  My bank initially was willing to take her on as my spouse but then for some unknown reason they denied her and said "they won't do business with her".  I'm not sure if this is because she has a new SSN, no credit history, etc.

 

Basically we want her to have a bank account but even more urgently to prove her address.

 

Will other banks also cause the same problem?  Should we just try another bank?

 

Not sure who you bank with but if she has a SSN their shouldnt be any problem.. if their is id open a  joint account with another bank. plenty of them around an they wont your business.. as far as your old bank that changed their mind id just fire them or just keep it open for whatever usage  

[shaolincrane 69]

10 hours ago, Roy an Panitta said:

Not sure who you bank with but if she has a SSN their shouldnt be any problem.. if their is id open a  joint account with another bank. plenty of them around an they wont your business.. as far as your old bank that changed their mind id just fire them or just keep it open for whatever usage  

And yet if you see many people here had a foreign spouse with a SSN and had all kinds of issues. Our interviewer said about 70% of people have banking issues since she asked why she wasn't on the account at the time of the interview, we explained what happened since the account was still frozen, and said she was really sorry something like that happened and that's when she told us how common it is.

[TBoneTX 43,422]

3 minutes ago, shaolincrane said:

she told us how common it is

This observation tells people that they shouldn't take the situation too personally.  Thanks for mentioning this.

[shaolincrane 69]

44 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

This observation tells people that they shouldn't take the situation too personally.  Thanks for mentioning this.

I can agree and also disagree at the same time, we had some clearly discriminative attitudes from 3 Bank managers. After the account was frozen by securities he blamed us and said he told us this would happen, made some off hand comment about foreigners, etc. The interviewer said many people had it way worse.

 

My wife is always practicing her English so she records interactions with people so she can listen to it later and learn specific phrases and vocabulary. In this instance it was a lifesaver as Securities was extremely hostile when they contacted us, threatened to freeze my savings account as well (even though she wasn't added or had anything to do with it) until I explained to them what happened and that I had proof. They still ignored us for weeks until I filed an FTC complaint and the Westcoast director reached out to see if there was "any merit to the complaints" when he finally listened to the recording, he was deeply apologetic (probably because he didn't want a lawsuit) assigned a specialist to fix it, which took another 6 weeks. They waived all fees associated with the account, had to manually authorize payments to my insurance, utilities, etc. The manager was eventually fired.

 

It's something that should never have happened in the first place IMO but much of it is probably automated after someone commits the initial error.

Edited June 19, 2023 by shaolincrane

[TBoneTX 43,422]

1 minute ago, shaolincrane said:

made some off hand comment about foreigners

Zero excuse for this, and good that it was recorded.

2 minutes ago, shaolincrane said:

It's something that should never have happened in the first place [...]

Heads should have rolled.  Regardless, you're right that much of it is probably automated later.

[shaolincrane 69]

Just now, TBoneTX said:

Zero excuse for this, and good that it was recorded.

Heads should have rolled.  Regardless, you're right that much of it is probably automated later.

Yeah, he accused her of being here illegally too, after the account was frozen, now that I remember it. With a SSN, documents from USCIS, etc. Then said he misspoke. I'm not sure if he was born here but he had a very thick accent himself, which made the whole situation much more odd. 

 

I wanted to sue but after going through nearly identical things with our health insurance, her college, the DMV, etc I had too many fires to put out and just wanted to get along.

[M+K IL 102]

42 minutes ago, shaolincrane said:

Yeah, he accused her of being here illegally too, after the account was frozen, now that I remember it. With a SSN, documents from USCIS, etc. Then said he misspoke. I'm not sure if he was born here but he had a very thick accent himself, which made the whole situation much more odd. 

 

I wanted to sue but after going through nearly identical things with our health insurance, her college, the DMV, etc I had too many fires to put out and just wanted to get along.

Ugh, sorry your wife has to go through all that. My wife and I have been luckier but we also have been living in places where new immigrants are more common, so maybe banks etc are more used to this.

[shaolincrane 69]

Just now, M+K IL said:

Ugh, sorry your wife has to go through all that. My wife and I have been luckier but we also have been living in places where new immigrants are more common, so maybe banks etc are more used to this.

I live in Socal, just 20 miles east of LA so there's really no excuse for it. Plenty of new immigrants here all the time. I have plenty of other stories but not really relevant now.

 

For anyone reading,

 

In cases where stuff like this happens, filing a complaint with the FTC is the fastest way to illicit a response that will yield results. 

 

For schools get the State Board of Education involved. 

 

For health insurance, contact the State Attorney General and DMHC type agencies. Each state will have a different agency name to file Grievances against health insurance/medical providers.

 

Unless it's Dental, then it's the DCA.