Sequence Inc. Fraud Files Blog

A story in the Wall Street Journal details the new credit card quietly being offered by Bank of America. This new credit card is being offered to customers without Social Security numbers, and common sense tells us that this means illegal immigrants.

Banks already have been offering checking accounts and mortgages to “undocumented immigrants” (illegals). However, this is the first time a credit card is available to that same market.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The new Bank of America program 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. Most adults in the U.S. who don’t have a Social Security number are undocumented immigrants.

The program was tested by Bank of AMerica last year at 5 bank branches in Los Angeles, and is now expanded to 51 branches in the area. It is no coincidence that Los Angeles County has the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the United States.

The credit card in this new program has a high interest rate and an up-front fee. A $500 credit limit would require $99 up front, which would be refunded after 3 to 6 months if the user of the card has stayed within teh limit and made payments on time.

Bank of America has responded to criticism of the program by saying that they are meeting the needs of an untapped group of potential customers. According to the Wall Street Journal:

“These people are coming here for quality of life, and they deserve somebody to give them a chance to achieve that quality of life,” says Brian Tuite, the bank’s director of Latin America card operations and one of the architects of the program.

But the truth is that Bank of America is selling to a group of people who are violating U.S. law, plain and simple.