Nearly finished getting through Dragnet Nation. Great book and definitely worth the read. One of the recommendations that they have is to have an additional credit card issued in a fake name. Note their is no intent to defraud as the primary cardholder is responsible for all charges and is a real person. From my understanding and the discussion in the book this is completely legal. I find this an intriguing way to create a fake trail for the marketers and Data Brokers and am interested in applying it for this purpose. Does anyone have experience doing this, in particular any Canucks done this before?
Well, small businesses can have credit card accounts, and the business name need not include your name. However, there will be an identity trail. But it won't be accessible to marketers, data brokers, etc.
That was my concern TomAZ. It would be great if I didnt have to get a name on the card as that would solve my problem easily. I might drop my bank a line and see what they say. I looked into additional card requirements at my bank and appears I can get a new card online with a name and DOB. So I can go down my original route if need be.
Most of the big banks like Citi, Bank of America, etc will allow cards with any name on it. You just request it through their web page. I have a card with my real name and another name that shows up under my accounts as AKA:
So they let you register the name AKA, wow I am going to go down this front, think it is a good way to start.
I was told that the name on your credit card has to be on another ID document, e.g. your drivers license, your marriage license or passport. You can use a govt. tax bill like income tax or municipal tax bill. They may accept a utility bill, but it has to be accompanied by something more substantial like a bank account. I doubt that you can get a credit card in Canada in a name such as AKA or nastyratface. If you want to use an avatar ... forget it, It ain't going to happen. Credit card security needs a major overhaul so maybe avatars backed up by certificates of identity will be acceptable in the future. The current system is too open to fraud so something needs to be done. I like the idea of fake names on credit cards. If some US banks have embraced the idea of this, why not every bank? I do not care what the CC companies have to say about it ... so far they have failed us miserably.
Just to be clear my account has a spot for me to add additional users. Those users can be yourself using a professional, pen, pseudonym. It shows up under users as: AKA: Joseph R. Blow (not the real name obviously) - it just means I have a card issued as an AKA (Also Known As) and shows the name. I like it because it protects your legal name from third parties. My second card just has Joseph R. Blow embossed just like my regular card. Edited to add that it's going to vary from bank-to-bank.
That's a corporate card, which allows you to specify employees. But the employee names are just tokens for accounting, and not "legal names" that require verification. Right?
The only anonymous cards I know about are Vanilla Visa prepaid gift cards. They used to be activated with no name or personal information. That might have changed. I haven't checked recently but since they are meant to be given as gifts, you should be able to put any name you want on them. A few years ago they had to stop allowing transactions outside of the US which made them useless for purchasing online services outside of the US from the US. They are for sale in drug stores and can be paid for in cash.
Well signed up for a credit card under my real name with a pseudonym as an additional card. Will let you know if it works out. This is not designed to be anonymous to the bank. All they care about is it is tied to my real name. The government doesnt care because they can trace purchases back to me if they need to (Money laundering). Purely designed to limit Data Broker data collection. My wife thinks I am crazy but I laughed when she had to pay for a google purchase she asked "can I use your card?" Looked at some of the anonymous solutions but they are really not designed for my purposes but expensive for day to day usage. Finally got through Dragnet Nation, enjoyed it. There are some aspects that it is missing, maybe ill put the pseudonym to good use and write a book when I figure the rest out.
Exactly. I tried to make that clear in my post. It's just an AKA on my personal credit card. Perfectly legal (in the USA). You aren't being "anonymous" to the bank, the government, etc. You are keeping your real, legal name out of databases, third-party data brokers of all kinds. I use mine all the time.
