It's not always smarter to pay off the card instead of keeping the cash in a savings account. All depends on the situation and what kind of card you are carrying.

I currently have a balance of 7k on a card, but it's a 0% card for a year so that's why I have a balance on it. I'll pay off the balance before the year is up for sure.

I did the rate hop over to a Chase account because of a 0%APR for 1 year. I absolutely despise the frickin phone calls I get trying to sell me crap from Chase I get when I'm trying to sleep during the day not to mention the ton of advertising I get from them in the mail. The year is up soon and I'm going to hop to the next card carrier.

As far as a regular credit card I have one through Navy Fed Credit Union. Absolutely fantastic. No minimum payments unless you exceed your max balance, great rates. No stupid ads or calls.

Pretty sure the reason they do this is to prevent scumbags from signing up bogus accounts and stealing people's identities. What if someone created a fake account (with no SS#) under YOUR NAME - and you didn't even know about it. Then what happens when said person takes out a loan, again, under your name. And who is going to get screwed over, the illegal immigrant who never provided a SS#, or you, the person whose name the account is under.

I think you're reinforcing the point here:

We don't need enablers like BofA supplying an entry into legal business for Illegals. Everyone should be required to supply thier TAX number. Without it, how does the IRS know the interest earned and the tax owed on it?

With a Bank account all other Financially legal options open up, CC, Mortgage, Car Loans, etc.

These benefits to Legal Citizens should remain that way.