I did hear her say, “you have my signature on file”, and this a major name bank, I happen to know as of 7 years ago they had the signatures all scanned in and it was possible to bring them up on computer.
I have no way of knowing how old the card was, but I was close enough to see that it wasn’t the old green version that I had the last time I replaced mine, but the new one that has all the info in it. I do vaguely remember signing that one though. The point I am making here is that it had to have been replaced in the last 20 years and she was in her mid 50s. Grownups don’t really change that much. They don’t take a new picture every time you get a driver’s licence either.
Banks typically require photo ID with signature because banks look at both signatures and pictures. Signatures are more reliable though. If the signatures match, but the photos obviously do not, I’m sure the bank will question it.
A Green Card is insufficient because it does not bear a signature.
Its not sufficient ID because the bank says it isn’t. Banks cash checks as a courtesy to thier customers and some banks don’t even do that. I work at a bank now that doesn’t accept driver’s liscences issued less than 90 days as valid.
Believe it or not, I used to work for a bank that didn’t accept WISCONSIN IDENTIFICATION CARDS as a valid form of ID. (This was in Wisconsin by the way) That was by far the dumbest poilcy I’ve ever enforced.
To pay with a credit card. It’s happened every time. Resistance to accepting the Green Card has only happened once or twice. They always called the office, and the office told them to accept it.
I’ve found that Americans are weird about ID anyway.
A few years ago, I lost my wallet with my driver’s license in it. I had my US passport at home, so I took it to the driver’s license office to get a replacement license. It was newer than the driver’s license I had lost, and has my picture and signature in it.
They refused to accept it as proof of my identity. They told me to come back with my Social Security card (which I’ve had since I was nine years old, and which has no picture or signature on it), and something that had been mailed to me in my name, like a utility bill, to prove my current address.
My daughter is 13 and was going on a field trip out of state, by plane, with traveller’s cheques. We wanted to get a state-issued ID for her, just in case there were any problems cashing the cheques. The driver’s license office needed only a copy of her Social Security card and her birth certificate to issue the ID. I couldn’t find her Social Security card, so I had to go to the SS office to get another one for her. I brought her birth certificate, but all they wanted was her school ID card with her picture and name on it. (Note, she wasn’t even with me when I did this.) Granted, this was all for someone who wasn’t old enough to do much on her own, but this is the ID that she will probably use to get a full-fledged driver’s licence and passport sometime in the next few years.
Until recently, all we needed was a birth certificate to cross into the US from Canada. I’ve heard that they are going to start requiring passports, though.
It really amazes me how few hoops we have to go through to get the most official ID cards this country recognizes…
Two years ago, I had to have a driver’s license and birth certificate or a passport to cross. Ten years ago, I had to have a driver’s license and birth certificate or a passport to cross.
Bearflag, Can you give a link or two for this? I could swear that DogDad’s Green Card had his signature on it. I can’t get hold of him right now to confirm, but I really thought it required a signature. Right over his fingerprint, in fact.
uglybeech, the conversion to the 10-year Permanent Resident Alien Card (I believe the numbers were from an I-51 to an I-551, or something very similar) started somewhere around 10 to 13 years ago. They’d just started the requirement for everyone to get the new one and upgrade from the “never need a new one even if you came over when you were two and you’re now 165” I-51 about the time DogDad was either getting his originally or getting the conditional status taken off his (2 years after he came here). I think it was instituted about 12-13 years ago when he originally got his, with a deadline to get them all updated by a year later or so.
No, sorry, no cite other than Really Fuzzy Memory, because I remember having the discussion with DogDad over “which one did we apply for for you? Because I’m NOT paying another $400 or so to get you ANOTHER fricking card because of THEIR screw-up if they gave you the wrong one,” followed by him checking the card for the number.
Update: I just talked with DogDad, and he confirms that yes, there is a signature appearing on a Permanent Resident Alien Card (aka “Green Card”, even though the thing is actually pink. However, the old I-51 was actually Green.)
The order of appearance, from left to right, is Photo with signature above it, holder’s stats, fingerprint.
And yep, it was the I-51 converting to the I-551 about the same time he first acquired his PRAC.
Speaking as a former bank teller, I can honestly and definitively tell you…
I don’t know.
It depends on the bank’s policy. Where I worked, we had a list that said we could take “One of these” (with a list) “OR two of these” (with a different list). I’m pretty sure that a green card plus a credit card was not good enough.
The only primary IDs we accepted were, to the best of my memory:
Current MA driver’s license (no duplicates)
Current MA ID card (no duplicates)
Military ID
US passport
And of course, internal IDs, such as signature cards.
The bank was pretty strict about this list. Accepting anything else was grounds for dismissal.
If they do in fact bear a signature, then I don’t know why the bank set that policy. All I know is that, as an employee, I was expected to enforce it without question.
Just don’t laminate your SS card. In Illinios that automatically makes it invalid. But as you noted, it is fairly easy to get a new one - I couldn’t get an Illinois driver’s license with a laminated SS card, but I could get a SS card with a passport and out of state driver’s license (which I then used to get an IL driver’s license).
Huh. You’re right - there’s no signatures on those. Obviously Homeland Security changed them since they were called the INS.
My apologies.
And, that’s weird.
I can completely sympathize with the poor teller, though - depending on who she works for, if she accepts a form of ID that’s not “on the list”, even though it seems stupid to her not to, it could cost her her job. And while she may know the person, and like the person, and think it’s really really stupid not to accept a PRA card as valid ID, common sense and knowing / liking someone ain’t worth her job.
Not even a year ago, I went across the border into the US with only my Canadian drivers license. They give you a lot more hassle, but when you forget your passport you forget your passport.
My boss also flew into Vancouver International from Texas with only his Texas DL and they let him through. As I understand, passports are recommended but not required.