Getting credit card with no residential address

[bjeder]

We have been full time for a little over a year and loving it. I recently realized that my husband is the primary on our credit cards so I applied for a new card in my name. No problem with credit but the company would not give me a card without a verifiable residential address. Our mail forwarding address will not work. They say it is due to the Patriot Act. Anyone else experience this and any suggestions?

[Oldme]

FT are just starting to see some of the Patriot Act ramifications.

Just as renewing your Operators License has become more of a problem you will see more restrictions. Many sections of the Act have yet to be fully implemented
because the Government has given extensions to States and business to make system compliant.

What you have done for 15 years will change.

[C-Bears]

Well kids, I can tell you my take on it. If I was a banker and in the business of making loans, there is no way I would loan someone a substantial amount of money if they had a P.O. box for an address.

I would suspect it would be just too easy for someone to "get lost" after my bank loaned them $150,000 for that new MH. I may try them out with a credit card but the limit would be capped at about $500.00.

[westernrvparkow]

Bill.Satellite wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Yes, the Patriot act does hold lenders to a higher standard for customer verification. Credit cards are very often used to illicitly move money and fund nefarious conduct. As a practical matter, someone living in a post office box is going to be very hard to collect from should they decide to stop paying. Combine the two and getting credit without an address is going to be difficult. And using the street address for the PMB company isn't going to help. All bank software is sophisticated enough to ferret out those addresses as being mail forwarding services. Like it or not, it is a problem full time RVers have to live with.

Are you a full timer or are you just speaking based upon some random information you have about how bankers and full timers interact?
I have been full timing for 17 years and I have never had a banking issue. Just curious how an RV Park owner becomes an expert on full timing issues.

I posted my credentials, but apparently that is not allowed. Suffice to say I spent 20+ years in Bank Management. I am intimately familiar with credit scoring and can assure you that having no physical address is detrimental to a person's ability to obtain credit. All financial institutions have a decision tree as to how they make credit decisions. A person's residential status is a part of that decision tree. That doesn't mean everyone with a PMB will automatically be rejected any more than owning a home means you will be automatically approved. There are many factors that are considered when extending credit and residential status is always one of those factors.

[NYCgrrl]

2gypsies wrote:

NYCgrrl wrote:

Bill.Satellite wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Yes, the Patriot act does hold lenders to a higher standard for customer verification. Credit cards are very often used to illicitly move money and fund nefarious conduct. As a practical matter, someone living in a post office box is going to be very hard to collect from should they decide to stop paying. Combine the two and getting credit without an address is going to be difficult. And using the street address for the PMB company isn't going to help. All bank software is sophisticated enough to ferret out those addresses as being mail forwarding services. Like it or not, it is a problem full time RVers have to live with.

Are you a full timer or are you just speaking based upon some random information you have about how bankers and full timers interact?
I have been full timing for 17 years and I have never had a banking issue. Just curious how an RV Park owner becomes an expert on full timing issues.

There's nothing random about the effect of the Patriot Act on life in these United States. It just seems to have hit some F/T RVers harder than others. Perhaps full timers should fund a lobbying firm to get their concerns across:).

Full-timers don't have to hire someone. The Escapees RV Club lobby important issues for us - very successfully.

That's good to know..perhaps the OP should reach out to them with this problem.

[TechWriter]

bjeder wrote:
We have been full time for a little over a year and loving it. I recently realized that my husband is the primary on our credit cards so I applied for a new card in my name. No problem with credit but the company would not give me a card without a verifiable residential address. Our mail forwarding address will not work. They say it is due to the Patriot Act. Anyone else experience this and any suggestions?

The part of the Patriot Act the financial institution is referring to is the Act's CIP (Customer Identification Program) which is intended to prevent money laundering.

However, there's an "out" for those of us w/o residential addresses. Here's the pertinent section (page 480 of Anti-Money Laundering Programs😞

For an individual who does not have a residential or business street address, an Army Post Office (APO) or Fleet Post Office (FPO) box number, or the residential or business street address of next of kin or of another contact individual

You can use a relative's address.

If the "front line" bank person (guy/girl in a cube) doesn't know what you're talking about or tries to dismiss you, ask to speak to the Compliance Officer. Be nice. This is the person (probably a lawyer) who's responsible for Patriot Act (and other regs) implementation.

This should do it.

If not, you'll have to take your business elsewhere, but you can report them to your state banking commission.

Remember, Homer Simpsons work everywhere.

Good luck.

[2gypsies1]

NYCgrrl wrote:

Bill.Satellite wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Yes, the Patriot act does hold lenders to a higher standard for customer verification. Credit cards are very often used to illicitly move money and fund nefarious conduct. As a practical matter, someone living in a post office box is going to be very hard to collect from should they decide to stop paying. Combine the two and getting credit without an address is going to be difficult. And using the street address for the PMB company isn't going to help. All bank software is sophisticated enough to ferret out those addresses as being mail forwarding services. Like it or not, it is a problem full time RVers have to live with.

Are you a full timer or are you just speaking based upon some random information you have about how bankers and full timers interact?
I have been full timing for 17 years and I have never had a banking issue. Just curious how an RV Park owner becomes an expert on full timing issues.

There's nothing random about the effect of the Patriot Act on life in these United States. It just seems to have hit some F/T RVers harder than others. Perhaps full timers should fund a lobbying firm to get their concerns across:).

Full-timers don't have to hire someone. The Escapees RV Club lobby important issues for us - very successfully.

[BarbaraOK]

NYCgrrl wrote:


There's nothing random about the effect of the Patriot Act on life in these United States. It just seems to have hit some F/T RVers harder than others. Perhaps full timers should fund a lobbying firm to get their concerns across:).

They have one. It is called Escapees and they have been working with financial institutions on behalf of their membership regarding the misinterpretation of the Patriot Act for the past 2 years or so. Which is why a lot of us don't seem to have the problems that others are having.

Barb

[NYCgrrl]

Bill.Satellite wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Yes, the Patriot act does hold lenders to a higher standard for customer verification. Credit cards are very often used to illicitly move money and fund nefarious conduct. As a practical matter, someone living in a post office box is going to be very hard to collect from should they decide to stop paying. Combine the two and getting credit without an address is going to be difficult. And using the street address for the PMB company isn't going to help. All bank software is sophisticated enough to ferret out those addresses as being mail forwarding services. Like it or not, it is a problem full time RVers have to live with.

Are you a full timer or are you just speaking based upon some random information you have about how bankers and full timers interact?
I have been full timing for 17 years and I have never had a banking issue. Just curious how an RV Park owner becomes an expert on full timing issues.

There's nothing random about the effect of the Patriot Act on life in these United States. It just seems to have hit some F/T RVers harder than others. Perhaps full timers should fund a lobbying firm to get their concerns across:).

[Bill_Satellite]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Yes, the Patriot act does hold lenders to a higher standard for customer verification. Credit cards are very often used to illicitly move money and fund nefarious conduct. As a practical matter, someone living in a post office box is going to be very hard to collect from should they decide to stop paying. Combine the two and getting credit without an address is going to be difficult. And using the street address for the PMB company isn't going to help. All bank software is sophisticated enough to ferret out those addresses as being mail forwarding services. Like it or not, it is a problem full time RVers have to live with.

Are you a full timer or are you just speaking based upon some random information you have about how bankers and full timers interact?
I have been full timing for 17 years and I have never had a banking issue. Just curious how an RV Park owner becomes an expert on full timing issues.

[bjeder]

I have learned that Escapees has a residential address if you use their mail forwarding service. When an address is entered in the USPS zip code lookup, more details will let you know if the address is designated as a mail forwarding service or not.
I have applied for a credit card at the bank where we opened a bank account while we still had a home. We changed the address at the bank to our mail service a while ago. Just waiting to see if they approve it.

[gotsmart]

The Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (aka Patriot Act) predates my going fulltime (in 2011) by 10 years.

My insurance(s), credit union, cell phone bill, pension, credit cards, yadda, yadda, yadda - all got changed in 2011 to my PMB.

My drivers license is the exception. When I went to change the address I presented the clerk with my cell phone bill (with the PMB syntax in the address). She tried to use the PMB syntax and the computer system would not recognize it. So I said "What about using the # sign?" She said "Yup, that works."

For me the take away was: if PMB doesn't work, use the # sign. If that doesn't work, use Apt #. Apparently, other than the USPS it matters little to everyone else.

[NYCgrrl]

gotsmart wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Yes, the Patriot act does hold lenders to a higher standard for customer verification. Credit cards are very often used to illicitly move money and fund nefarious conduct. As a practical matter, someone living in a post office box is going to be very hard to collect from should they decide to stop paying. Combine the two and getting credit without an address is going to be difficult. And using the street address for the PMB company isn't going to help. All bank software is sophisticated enough to ferret out those addresses as being mail forwarding services. Like it or not, it is a problem full time RVers have to live with.

hmmm...
I'm been using the PMB syntax on my street address for my BofA and AMEX credit cards since my 1st day of FullTiming. It's been several years now. No red flags.

I must be doing something wrong.

You are probably not doing anything wrong just may not have applied for new credit since you started full timing:).

[gotsmart]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Yes, the Patriot act does hold lenders to a higher standard for customer verification. Credit cards are very often used to illicitly move money and fund nefarious conduct. As a practical matter, someone living in a post office box is going to be very hard to collect from should they decide to stop paying. Combine the two and getting credit without an address is going to be difficult. And using the street address for the PMB company isn't going to help. All bank software is sophisticated enough to ferret out those addresses as being mail forwarding services. Like it or not, it is a problem full time RVers have to live with.

hmmm...
I'm been using the PMB syntax on my street address for my BofA and AMEX credit cards since my 1st day of FullTiming. It's been several years now. No red flags.

I must be doing something wrong.

[dons2346]

Your hubby can have you added as a joint account holder to his account