Bank of America and its ridiculous Authorization Form

B of A refused to accept a general authorization form that other lenders accept which simply states that the client consents to the lender giving me, as their Realtor, any financial information as it relates to the sale of their property.



B of A doesn’t want to accept that, fine. I have to jump through their hoop, if I want to play their game: I understand.



Here is the kicker, though. Their authorization form not only asks for the client’s social security number (SSN), but it asks for the Realtor’s SSN. Their reasoning for asking me for my private information? For verification purposes, it says on the form. I don’t know about you, but I will not give my SSN to B of A or anyone else, with whom I have no direct financial relationship.







So I call up the Loss Mitigation Department and asked them why it would be necessary for them to have my SSN for me to represent my client in her silicon valley short sale. The B of A agent says it is for verification purposes. I ask what besides my SSN would verify that I am who I say I am. She puts me on hold for about 5 minutes and comes back and says the only other form of identification method B of A would accept for verification purposes is my Tax ID number.



I tell her why is it necessary for B of A to have my Tax ID number to verify who I am? They have a myriad other means of identifying me using public record, like my California Department of Real Estate ID number; why only those two highly sensitive types numbers. But I made it clear to her I would not give B of A my Tax ID number either.



She puts me on hold for another 5 minutes and comes back and tells me (this is verbatim) “we just changed our policy and, now it is OK for designees to choose any 4 digit pass code and use that to verify” themselves. She wanted me to cross out the SSN and fill in PASS CODE, in its place. Interesting how it went from only SSN or TIN to just make up any number in a matter of 10 minutes……..



Do I buy her story as to why it is necessary for B of A to have those sensitive numbers for designees to do their jobs: No! I can go into my conspiracy mode and speculate as to why B of A would want the designee to provide them with something as personal, as their SSN in this crazy era of identity theft. My guess is they keep asking because people must be giving up their SSN without pushing back, thinking in order for them to get their silicon valley short sale processed, they have to do everything the lenders ask of them. Lenders will often lie to you to get money out of your clients, so don’t think they are beyond lying about other things for other nefarious reasons.



If you are dealing with B of A and their Authorization Form asks for your SSN, it is not necessary to give it to them (we can extrapolate that the same is true for all other lenders who may be asking as well). Here is the moral to this story: push back, don’t assume you have to give lenders everything they want.



Don’t even get me started on the second portion of my story about the “servicing fee” portion on the same Authorization Form…….





Steve Mun, Silicon Valley Realtor
www.stevemungroup.com