Report: Credit Card Pitch To Illegal Immigrants - AfroChat - African American

MrAtlanta · February 13th, 2007, 08:19 PM

Report: Credit card pitch to illegal immigrants

Bank of America aims to provide credit history, card for people who lack a Social Security number, according to a published report.

February 13 2007: 6:15 AM EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Bank of America Corp. has begun offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers, typically illegal immigrants, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

In recent years, banks across the country have been offering checking accounts and even mortgages to the nation's fast-growing ranks of undocumented immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic, the paper said, adding these immigrants generally have not been able to get major credit cards.

The new Bank of America (Charts) card is open to people who lack both a Social Security number and a credit history, as long as they have held a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft, the Journal said.

Bank of America tested the program last year at five branches in Los Angeles, and last week expanded it to 51 branches in Los Angeles County, home to the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the U.S., the Journal said.

The bank hopes to roll out the program nationally later this year, the paper said.

A Bank of America spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/13/news...ofa.card.reut/

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I never thought I'd see the day when a person with no social security number or credit history could receive a brand new credit card. They're opening themselves up for all kinds of fraudulent activitiy by doing this. Unreal.

Read this article on the subject.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...fa_latino.html

Here's an excerpt I found interesting:

Quote:

To review applicants, Bank of America is using a procedure called "judgmental lending," pioneered by MBNA Corp., the credit card giant acquired by the Charlotte-based Bank of America last year. Instead of using credit reports, bank employees make subjective judgments based on their personal observation of the customer.

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Subjective judgments?

LOL....