How to open a Mega Money Market account without an ssn?
According to the IRS:  Aliens who are not eligible to apply for a U.S. social security   number, or who do not meet the Social Security Administration's   evidence requirements for an SSN, may apply for an Individual Taxpayer   Identification Numbers (ITIN) from the Internal Revenue Service if   they have a valid tax reason for needing an ITIN, as explained in the   Form W-7 instructions. Seeing as you don't have a valid tax reason for an ITIN, your request will probably be denied by the IRS.
There's no requirement of US citizenship to open a bank account in the US. Any person, citizen or not, can do that. I don't know where this assumption of yours come from, but it is false. So the easiest solution is to open a bank account for your nephew next time he visits the US and get him an ATM card from that account. You can then deposit money to that account as much as you want (beware of the gift tax consequences). If he doesn't want to travel to the US and cannot open a US bank account remotely from Russia (which is probably the case), then follow the @BrenBarn's suggestion: have him open a bank account in Russia and just wire money there. Having a foreigner tapping freely into your own personal bank account may cause legal issues both with regards to gift tax and money laundering provisions that require you to certify that the money on the account is yours only. Also, check if there's an issue for a Russian resident to have control over foreign accounts (there's definitely such an issue for a US resident, Russians are generally not far behind when it comes to government oppression). No, in your situation it is not possible. Mostly, only three types of accounts are available to individuals: So, a complete foreigner can open account in India, only if he is working in India, a type of Savings account, and that account too will be linked to his resident status. If he leaves work, he needs to close this account. Edit: There are business accounts, and current accounts, but those are available only to businesses. Further read at SBI gives a good snapshot I had to open a bank account in the US without having the right paperwork initially (SSN really).  All the bank asked me to do was fill in a W8 form in lieu (instead) of the social security number. But the free market opted to use ssn because it was easier and available and only required 1 field versus I'd and state. Those state IDs also have variable lenghts, some have letters and others don't. If you've ever written software to handle state driver's license you know what I mean, I have and it's a mess. Theres all kinds of gotchas that you just don't have with a nationwide standard like SSN. "Do you guys know any options that are accessible to any global citizen? Prepaid and stored value cards are anonymous. For an arbitrary reason, the really anonymous ones only allow you to load $500 but there is no regulation that dictates this amount. In the USA, these cards are exempt from being declared at border crossings. Not because they look like credit cards, but because they are exempt by the US Treasury and Customs. The cons is that there are generally fees to use them. US DOJ has done research showing that some groups take advantage of the exemption moving upwards of $50,000 a day between borders, but Congress is fine with this exemption and the burden is always on the government to determine ""illicit origin"". Stigmatizing how money is moved is only a 30 year old phenomenon, but many free nations do not really have capital controls, they only care that you pay taxes and that the integrity of their stock markets are upheld. Aside from that there are no qualms about anonymity, except from your neighbors but they dont matter for a global citizen. In theory, the UK should have more flexibility in anonymity options, such as stored value cards with higher limits." It looks like your best option is to go with an online broker. There are many available. Some of them won't let you open an account online as a foreign national but will allow you to open one through the mail. See more about that http://finance.zacks.com/can-nonus-citizen-trade-us-stocks-9654.html Also keep in mind that you will need to pay taxes on any capital gains made through selling http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf Yes, you will need to create an actual account. However, when all is done and you are about to log in, there will be an option on whether you want to log in as a live trader or a paper trader. Select the paper trading option and log in and get rich off fake money. You can open an account in US without having SSN. You need to be physically present to open the account. "No you don't have to be super-rich.  But... the companies do not have to sell you shares, and as others mention the government actively restricts and regulates the advertising and sales of shares, so how do you invest?  The easiest way to obtain a stake is to work at a pre-IPO company, preferably at a high level (e.g. Director/VP of under water basket weaving, or whatever).    You might be offered shares or options as part of a compensation package.  There are exemptions to the accredited investor rule for employees and a general exemption for a small number of unsolicited investors.  Also, the accredited investor rule is enforced against companies, not investors, and the trend is for investors to self-certify. The ""crime"" being defined is not investing in things the government thinks are too risky for you.  Instead, the ""crime"" being defined is offering shares to the public in a small business that is probably going to fail and might even be a scam from the beginning.   To invest your money in pre-IPO shares is on average a losing adventure, and it is easy to become irrationally optimistic.  The problem with these shares is that you can't sell them, and may not be able to sell them immediately when the company does have an IPO on NASDAQ or another market.  Even the executive options can have lock up clauses and it may be that only the founders and a few early investors make money." I know of websites that do this, but I don't know of banks that do. Is there any reason you want to do this at a bank rather than use a service?  My main concern with using a bank for this would be the risk of overdraft fees "I think you will find it hard to do. There are money laundering regulations which require you to provide proof of address when opening an account. I don't know for certain if they require an UK address, but even if they don't, it's very likely that individual banks etc will require that. I doubt that they will view you as a profitable customer for them, since you would not be using the account as your ""main"" account. Although having a job isn't a legal requirement, in practice I think it's the only way you can get an account without having been resident in the country for a while. My company employs a significant number of people from abroad and they typically need support from the company to open an account when they first move. One thing you could investigate is opening an account with some international bank with branches both in Hungary and the UK, and asking them to arrange the UK account for you. One example of such a bank is HSBC. However such banks will typically charge you a significant amount for the privilege - for example with HSBC you need a ""premier account"" to get this kind of service." "SAR filers can check a box to indicate that SSN is ""Unknown"". It's unlikely that you could get over $10K in chips without first disclosing your SSN, as casinos track your cash out totals based on physical description (hair color, clothing, etc). As you approach $10K they will require ID and SSN, which they verify for accuracy against a federal database via name and DOB matching. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer" "Open a personal account to link SQUARE with,  open a savings account with same bank.  Register as ""PERSONAL USE"",  make as many transactions you want for whatever you want $5.00 to $1,000.00 or more, you get paid, square collects a fee. Money is in your ""personal account"" in 24 hrs, transfer it to your savings acct.  2 years now no issue.   I've done the EIN, vendors license, registering business crap, if you work for yourself for private citizens it's none of anyone else's concern." The answer to this question can be found in the related question  Is there any online personal finance software without online banking? You don't have much choice other than to open an account in your business name, then do a money transfer, as @DJClayworth says.  You will not  without providing your name and street address and possibly other information that you may consider to be of a private nature. This is due to laws about fraud, money laundering and consumer protection. I'm not saying that's what you have in mind! But without accountability of the sort provided by names and street addresses, banks would be facilitating crimes of many sorts, which is why regulatory agencies enforce disclosure requirements.