My credit union’s shared branches stated hassling me because my name on my social security card and various other forms of ID (Driver’s Licence) do not match. Everything is either Firstname Middlename Lastname or Middlename Lastname; there is no legal reason they should have to be exact matches. They straight up told me that if it were Firstname Lastname vs. Firstname Middlename Lastname it would be no problem.
When I went it to straighten this out, they wouldn’t accept two valid passports from two countries as two picture IDs. Given the identity-proof you need to provide to get any passport, I would think it would be better than a secondary ID deriving from passport #1, but what do I know? (I wouldn’t have tried this in the first place, but I had only brought my US wallet in and it no longer has anything with picture IDs.)
Wells Fargo’s mistake with me was spelling my mother’s maiden name wrong. 20 years with no problem, and one time I really needed them over the phone from Europe, they asked me to spell it. “That’s not right,” they said. Excuse me? They never would tell me how they spell it, but think a name like Christie. Relatively common surname, but easy for someone to screw up.
Finally, re: SSNs, I was astounded when I decided to come to Canada. The process of getting an SIN number, their equivalent of the SSN, was so easy. I walked in, a nearly-40-year-old guy with still resident in the US now wanting a number. 15 minutes after walking through the door I had one, and they mailed my card to LA 3 weeks later.