Address

I've ran into something new this year and it really gets annoying after a while. I just had to deal with the latest yesterday. Did you know that by the Patriot Act, when you "apply" to open a new bank account they have to verify your identity and your physical address to actually open the account? Now when you "apply" to open the account you stick money in the bank, but until they verify you aren't a terrorist you can't access the money. So, how does this affect me? The supposed lack of a physical address.<br />n<br />nDon't get me wrong, I've lived here most of my life and my family has lived hear for over 80 years. I have a home and know where it is at. I have no physical address. The helpful among people always pipe up and say, "what about your 911 address?" When the county assigned 911 addresses I went in and found out what mine was, thinking it would help me. I was told what my 911 address was and I asked the silly question, "What city is this address associated with." To my surprise I was told, "If you cannot receive mail at your house, your 911 address has no city associated with it." Well, since I can't receive mail at home so my 911 address has no city associated with it, therefore it doesn't do me any good.<br />n<br />nKnowing all this when I recently opened a bank account I sent a copy of my drivers license along with it. Even though my drivers license does not have my physical address on it, Just my PO Box, most banks accept it as proof I am who I say I am and will open the account for me. Alas this failed with my latest attempt. The bank said I needed a utility bill or some other form that stated my physical address. I informed them that I had nothing with my physical address on them. I got a hold of a utility bill and showed them that the location on it was some internally generated location, and not my physical address.<br />n<br />nThe person I was dealing with couldn't fathom me not having a physical address so had to find out what to do. Finally he came back and said a voter registration card would do. I told him it would be a waste of both of our times for me to get that since my voter registration did not have my physical address on it, just my PO box. He was really flummoxed by this and I truly was begging to think that I was going to be totally out of luck on this account. What really made me mad though was they wouldn't give me my money back if I couldn't verify my address.<br />n<br />nWe finally figured out a way to fix this issue though. He figured he could call a local official and verify my address where I lived. I called the local guy ahead of time and informed him the call was coming and what to say to the person to make them happy. He did it for me and made the bank twerp happy that I lived where I said and wasn't a terrorist.<br />n<br />nThis whole Patriot Act requirement is a bunch of Bullshit. It has made doing business a royal nightmare. Hopefully I will continue to find ways around this bullshit requirement and continue to be able to do business. What a pain.