# Carrying SS cards **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2004, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carrying-ss-cards/275100 "2004-11-16T19:19:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carrying-ss-cards/275100/21 "2004-11-17T14:58:23Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Great advice, but have you taken a close look at the ID card for whichever health insurance plan you’re enrolled in? Chances are it’s your (or your spouses, depending upon who the plan is issued to) SSN, without the dashes. > > It’s helped me a few times when I needed to know the wife’s number. Many insurance companies are now starting to use a different ID# than the SSN for this very reason. I expect within 2-3 years virtually all insurance cards will be SSN free. ---
**Author:** ![pasunejen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58956e/32.png) [@pasunejen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pasunejen)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carrying-ss-cards/275100/22 "2004-11-17T15:03:26Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Great advice, but have you taken a close look at the ID card for whichever health insurance plan you’re enrolled in? Chances are it’s your (or your spouses, depending upon who the plan is issued to) SSN, without the dashes. > > It’s helped me a few times when I needed to know the wife’s number. I’ve often wondered about this. Everybody in my family carries around an insurance card with my dad’s SSN printed on it. Granted, it’s not labeled as such, but it’s not hard to figure out. So…that’s five different wallets whose loss could result in the theft of his identity. And he has absent-minded children. I should think it’d be a better idea for insurance companies not to do that…but then again, it’s probably the most convenient thing, and people don’t seem to be that protective of their numbers anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carrying-ss-cards/275100/23 "2004-11-18T18:26:46Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Great advice, but have you taken a close look at the ID card for whichever health insurance plan you’re enrolled in? Chances are it’s your (or your spouses, depending upon who the plan is issued to) SSN, without the dashes. > > It’s helped me a few times when I needed to know the wife’s number. I have Blue Cross Blue Shield. They just recently gave out new cards that no longer have the SS# as your member number on them. They were wrong for doing this in the first place. Many people I work with took not of this and didn’t like it one bit. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carrying-ss-cards/275100/24 "2004-11-18T18:41:31Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Great advice, but have you taken a close look at the ID card for whichever health insurance plan you’re enrolled in? Chances are it’s your (or your spouses, depending upon who the plan is issued to) SSN, without the dashes. > > It’s helped me a few times when I needed to know the wife’s number. The new ID card that I just got for my health insurance has the following line: ID: Use Employee SSN 01 In other words, we have to give our SSN to any health care providers, then they add the digits 01 at the end to create the ID. That’s certainly safer than having the SSN itself on the card. Ed ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carrying-ss-cards/275100/25 "2004-11-18T18:48:40Z")
This thread can not be complete without mentioning the case of the lady who worked for a billfold company in the earliest days of social security. I don’t see anyone has mentioned it yet. Sorry I don’t have a link or exact details, but the company put a sample card in their billfolds, showing the lady’s actual number. It was just for sample purposes – over the years thousands claimed the number as their own. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carrying-ss-cards/275100.md?page=1)