durberville

I'm a Canadian citizen. I have a Canadian Social Insurance Number (SIN). I also have a US ITIN number. I have been applying for US cards for over a year now, and have a healthy stack of cards (Amex, BoA, TD, Chase... *Ritz* <3).

Every time I apply for a Chase card, even though I have three of them now, they ask for a fax of my ITIN letter. So I checked my Transunion (where they were pulling), and it looks like that in the SSN identification spot, they have my Canadian SIN, and not my ITIN. How the hell they got it, I don't know. Fortunately, per an SSN calculator, my Canadian SIN doesn't algorithmically meet any issued or currently possible SSN.

I've faxed, mailed, and called Transunion (including speaking to a supervisor) asking to replace the Canadian SIN with my US ITIN #. Every single person I've spoken to says it's not possible, and insists my Canadian SIN is an SSN

I know a number of people who have an ITIN as their identification number attached to their Transunion bureau.

So, my question is, anybody with a similar experience? Any ideas? Is it worth my time to pursue, or should I just leave it as is? Do I apply to Chase cards under my Canadian SIN?

garykung

Leave everything as-is.

Remember - the U.S. is not Canada. You should have no expectation that your SIN should even work in the U.S.

mia

durberville knows that. The problem is that TransUnion (USA) is treating a Canadian SIN as if it were an USA SSN. I see that TransUnion also does business in Canada. Perhaps there is no overlap between valid SIN's and SSN's, or TransUnion has some other method of distinguishing them, and they can use them as an unambiguous record key?

garykung

Per OP's word and my interpretation, it is not the case as TU claimed it is a SSN instead of SIN, TU did not act on OP's request:

So despite the confusion over SIN vs. SSN and potentially TU's stupidity, nothing has been done.

I believe OP's ultimate goal is to replace the ITIN with SIN or in the alternative, using his SIN. My previous post said it is impossible.

mia

I understand the OP's goal is to have Transunion remove the SIN from his USA credit file and replace it with the ITIN, so that Chase card applications will be approved without the need to submit documentation of the ITIN.