Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I just had the strangest phone conversation. I opened up a savings account online and had to call to verify some information. They asked me to verify my social security number. After I verified it, the guy asked me if it was MY SSN. I said yes (side note: I changed my name/sex marker over a year ago -- on my license, with SS, etc.). He then said they were having trouble verifying it and that two names were coming up. I said I had a name change and he asked me to verify the previous name. I did and then everything was fine.

I couldn't care less about being "outed" in this situation -- what I'm thinking about are future situations where possible employers would also need to verify my SSN. Is my previous name supposed to come up along with my name? Has anyone else experienced this? I guess I never gave it much thought -- my current employer knew I was trans from the start so it never would have been something they needed to ask about.

Maybe it depends on how long ago you changed your name.

I've never had this issue that I know of, and I don't know exactly how banks do their background checks or what info they have access to. Good question.

Unfortunately this has happened several times to me now.  Checking on my 401k, an old (and very brief) employer had opened some type of account with my name in 2006 I think and there was a conflict with my new name versus old name.  Just had to tell the person I had changed my name and hadn't work for that company in years.

Went to the health department for a TB test and apparently my old name was in their system attached to my SS #.  No idea why because I had never been to the HD before.  It was extremely awkward and the girl seemed reluctant to change my gender marker in the system although I had it changed on everything else.

I have no doubt this will happen again, sadly.  There really isn't a good way to prevent it that I know of.

Thanks for the responses. I hadn't considered this situation until it happened earlier today. I'm going to look into this more and see what I can find out as far as who has access to what info and if my previous name will always be linked to my SSN. I'll let you all know what I find.

This just doesn't seem right to me. If this were happening to me, I would go down to my local SSA office in person and find out what's what. At the very least, you will find out how much longer this bull will continue, and at the best, you'll actually fix the problem so that your old name does not come up in casual background checks anymore.

It's possible that this sort of thing is a fringe benefit of 9/11, but I don't think you'll know until you ask.

Quote from: Arch on August 23, 2012, 04:40:51 PM
This just doesn't seem right to me. If this were happening to me, I would go down to my local SSA office in person and find out what's what. At the very least, you will find out how much longer this bull will continue, and at the best, you'll actually fix the problem so that your old name does not come up in casual background checks anymore.

It's possible that this sort of thing is a fringe benefit of 9/11, but I don't think you'll know until you ask.

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. I'm calling the hotline right now (the local office is closed at this point) and I'm going to take a trip down to the office tomorrow if need be.

I finally got through to someone from the SSA. I explained the situation -- she said my old name shouldn't be linked to my SSN (at all) and that only my current name comes up in their system. Obviously, something is going on if my bank obtained that info via my SSN (and I just joined the bank -- so my SS info was updated way beforehand). Very strange. I almost wish they told me it was linked that way I didn't have to feel weird not knowing what's going on now.

I don't remember where from, but I heard that your previous name will always be linked to your SS in one way or another. Not sure if that's true or not.

It might not be so much attached to your SS # as it is to your identity (not in the psychological sense).  Meaning, if your bank ran a credit check on you using you SS # and you had credit in your old name, that's probably how they found it. 

Quote from: Adio on August 23, 2012, 07:34:29 PM
It might not be so much attached to your SS # as it is to your identity (not in the psychological sense).  Meaning, if your bank ran a credit check on you using you SS # and you had credit in your old name, that's probably how they found it.

This is just what I'm thinking. The guy you talked to might have been confused about exactly how your old name came up. But any other history you have can come up on a credit check or a background check.

I have not had any household bills in my name since before (4+ years ago now).  I recently had to open an account with a utility, gave them name, address, etc, then they wanted my SS#.  They asked if I was married, because there was another name associated with that account.  I said yes, divorced, and the ex wife used to use my SS# and it would not be happening again.  I decided NOT to out myself in that situation. 

Quote from: sneakersjay on August 23, 2012, 08:09:20 PM
I have not had any household bills in my name since before (4+ years ago now).  I recently had to open an account with a utility, gave them name, address, etc, then they wanted my SS#.  They asked if I was married, because there was another name associated with that account.  I said yes, divorced, and the ex wife used to use my SS# and it would not be happening again.  I decided NOT to out myself in that situation.

I always knew you were smart.