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Comment by tedunangst | Hacker News Reader

You don't need the government to give you a new name to start using a new name. You pick one and start using it.

Register an LLC (using your real name). Get a domain for the LLC and register a pseudonymous email address. Get a debit card and have the issuing bank give you a John Doe card. You sign as your LLC from now on, no government intervention needed.

Pretty much my point is that this should take me 17.5 seconds, starting right now.

1) go to my online banking and sign in

2) pick a name and request a card for it.

They should be legally forced to send me one.

The point is I can use that for amazon dildo purchases, and no creep at amazon would get to see that I'm (whoever.)

I get that this is possible: it needs to be simple.

But it is that simple. In my case, I got a card for a family member. But there is no verification done so you can literally get a card with any name on it. It is still tied to your identity through the bank.

But they may not like it when you have 73 active cards/names - so making this a mandatory thing would affect banks' processes. Also even if you're being literal and can do it in 17 seconds (i.e. after opening a new tab, 30 seconds from now you can have a card in the name of Mary Smith on its way to you) I and I think most people using online banking don't have it so smooth.

I timed it and it took about 25 seconds to go from the Chase login prompt to the "Add authorized user" page where you can get another credit card added to an existing account. So, I admit its not quite as fast as you would like. There is a caveat if you pay an annual fee: you pay the fee for each card. My accounts have no annual fee.

I also checked US Bank and American Express and you are correct, the process is not smooth at all. US Bank wants me to print, sign, and mail it! American Express wants to verify identity of the additional user using an SSN. That makes no sense of course, because they might not even have an SSN and the main account holder is still contractually obliged to pay the account balance.

I was very impressed with your report of Chase's behavior (and while 25 seconds might be an inconvenience of course it's acceptable.) It sounds like a gold standard. Of course, it's not practical to do that 72 times (for example every time you want to order a dildo from Amazon), due to the wait to get the card (it's not instant), but practically today people could use Chase fine to make companies not follow them. Do you think you can choose a name such as Donttrackme McSpammer? I realize this is pretty much the opposite of the term "John Smith" as for example the Uber driver would see that you went out of your way to call yourseld Donttrackme (there is zero chance it's an actual first name) but the adcantage is that it would not appear fraudulent.

Since you don't have an annual fee, can you order a card in the name of Donttrackme McSpammer (or any other similar name that couldn't be mistaken for a real name) and see if you get it?

Thanks for having taken the time to check the other two sites as well. I appreciate it!

Sure - and to be clear the status quo is everyone has a right to do that, if they don't do it fraudulently. That's fine.

But I don't think credit card companies will go ahead and send me a new card in a new made-up name just for Uber. (And one for my awazon dildo purchases.. And one for...)

So it's not quite as simple. What I argue is that companies should legally be forced to do just that.

EDIT: to dublinben below

Good to know but I likely wouldn't risk doing that today. It would look too much like fraud. (especially if the name doesn't match.) suppose I needed to be in touch with their cust service or billing in the future for example...

If it were known that companies were forced to accept aliases it would be different.

Your name isn't verified when adding a credit card to an app like this. As long as the numbers (card, expiration, CVV, ZIP) match, you could enter any name you want into Uber's system.

No you can't. Try getting a credit card with a fake name on it. Or a bank account.

If you already have a card with a real name, getting another one as an authorized user with a fake name is really easy.

If I'm not mistaken that's fraud and could get you into serious trouble.

Why is it fraud? The primary account holder still has full responsibility for paying the bills.

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