No credit card company needs your Social Security number or SSN for account approval. There are several alternative documents that can be substituted for this number which will not represent the serious risk of identity theft if they are somehow lost or stolen. Anyone who steals your Social Security number can open credit accounts in your name. These accounts can go unnoticed for years and are often very difficult to expunge.
Picture ID
A state-issued driver's license, state-issued photo identification card, military identification or United States passport fits the bill for identity verifications for the purpose of credit approval, according to a 2007 article published in Time Magazine. The driver's license and state issued ID card is required to be current and nonexpired. The same goes for the military ID and the U.S. Passport.
Birth Certificate
A government-issued birth certificate is often combined with a photo ID to verify your identity when setting up credit card accounts or turning on the utilities. It's another way for you to avoid giving a company your Social Security number. According to Time Magazine, the document never has to leave your sight since you can simply fax a photocopy of it over to a credit card company and receive confirmation of its receipt instantly.
Bank Statements and Bills
Your life generates a paper trail of bank statements, pay stubs and bills. You can use any of these documents to verify your identity to a credit card company in lieu of giving them your all important Social Security number. Any submitted documents should be recent and contain your current address and your full name. If a company still requests your Social Security number after you have offered these documents as an appropriate substitute, it's best to consider another utility company or credit card company. In short, they don't want your business, they want your Social Security number.
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