How to deal with my bank re. title?

I have started registering my clients' property with the wife's name first, then the husband. The custom is to do it with the man's name first, for no reason other than custom.

So, I just decided to reverse the trend - one case at a time! No-one has commented/noticed yet!

I've recently changed my title to 'Ms' and was surprised/pleased to hear that Barclays are introducing a 'no title policy' (for security reasons the personal banker said). While it's not all-encompassing - my new chequebook still reads 'Ms Me' - my new debit card is completely title-free.

Interestingly, it isn't the change to 'Ms' that feels the most empowering but the absence of it. Whether Mrs, Miss or Ms, due to our history titles always position me in relation to man. When taken away, it suddenly feels like I don't need to make a point anymore, like I (finally) am a human being in my own right and therefore an equal member of humanity.

As long as titles are still widely used, it's important that we argue for 'Ms' as the only title for women (epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18225) to counteract the blatant sexism of the three female titles, but in the long-term, the abolishment of all titles might be the best way to a truly equal future.

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alittlefeministblogonlanguage.blogspot.com

I went to the GP to change my title from Ms to Dr.

Got my medical card today for

Ms firstname secondname Dr lastname [hconfused]

We went double-barrelled for our surnames, and mine went last. My bank had no problem with it (HSBC), just wanted to see a marriage certificate. I thought that was odd, since it doesn't have your married name on it...

DH's bank (Lloyds) got very confused, and said they had no way to change a man's surname after marriage! He was VERY patient with the person behind the counter and asked if they had forms that LADIES would fill in on a similar occasion. They said yes, he filled it in, and it was all sorted out by head office/the computer systems. But they were still shaking their heads and being all confused when he left the branch.

LOVE living up north!

Ha, see! So it's not "just the system, man's name automatically first, no you can't change that!" like they have been trying to tell us.

I am first on our joint account because I was standing further forwards and did the asking when we went into the bank to do it. I did the talking so they put me first because it made sense to ask me (the talking person) for my name and write that down in the "person 1" box.

arriving at their conclusions via colonic autoextraction methodology :o

Was reminded of this thread earlier. I changed bank today to the Coop. On my joint account, the guy processing it asked me whose name would go first. So we are Ms and Mr Wild. I didn't even mention it, he asked.

I remained a "Miss" when I got married and did not change my name. Back in 1984 people seemed to struggle with "Ms" so it wasn't worth the effort. I've never had any trouble with the bank about it, though once when we applied for a mortgage and went through the application saying we were married the bank clerk got into a terrible muddle with the papers as he had assumed we were each married to someone else.

Brilliant NADE. Very glad it was not a policy thing, did the response mention that they would be advising the branch staff? If not you could be immature helpful and let them know with a well-deserved, smug self-righteousness clear conscience. :)

Natwest changed me from Miss to Ms with no problems and no evidence needed. I am unmarried at the moment but same principle really. I decided that at 32 and 3 kids I wanted a more grown up title!

It sounds like you've given a lot of wrong information by a lot of people sherole
:(

It sounds like you were dealing with a dreadful chauvinistic bank manager, too.
He's the one that's in the wrong.
It could be that your friend had other information that she provided that was wrong, but title would not be one of them.

Mr, Master, Miss, Mrs and Ms are all what we call arbitrary titles - anyone can use any of them at any stage of their life (although you would probably be called up for calling yourself Mr if you're a woman! )
So, I use Ms all the time, as that's my preference, and I have done since I was 18. I used Miss before that. I could use Mrs if I want to (and if I want to, I can use it with my own surname, or with DH's surname - it doesn't have to just be with DH's surname) I can use Miss again if I want to.
I can use any of these titles with my own name or with DH's surname.
That's the beauty of it - I can use any name or title I want - the name part needs a paper trail to prove that you habitually use that name as your name, but the title doesn't matter.
I can use whatever title I want, at any time I choose.
I choose Ms MyName because that's who I am , I wouldn't use Mrs DHName even though I'm married to him, because Mrs DHName is DH's mum, not me.

Then your husband is misinformed, sherole.

well i thort that Ms is for if you are not married but old enough to be married, well thats what my husband told me

Well I did think that it wasnt false infomation becuase how can it matter if im married or not to them, so what i did was go down to my local branch and tell the bank manager that i thort it was not correct to ask me but he said to stop being a "over zelus bra burner" and if i didnt like it to pay back my overdraft and leave the bank at this point i thought that it really was worth argueng and thats when bernadette was taken away and fined by the bank

um...so who exactly can call herself Ms in your opinion, sherole?

It is not false information to call yourself Ms if you're married SheRole4Justice

hello nickelbabe,

unfortunately you are wrong, iv spent i while researching and on the banks website it says that it is a criminal offence to provide false information when you appley for an account, its just the law nickelbabe [hsmile]

No, it isn't.
that's the bullshit the crappy banks want you to believe - believe me, your title is totally interchangeable at any time

your best friend was taken for a ride.
you can use whatever title you want, as long as it's not one that has to be earned.

its illegal to put Ms instead of Mrs if you have registered your marrage to my understanding, one of my best friends bernadette was taken to court and fined £280 for lying to the bank we have no choice sadly :(

I think we need to challenge the use of titles for women in general. It really doesn't do anything for equality that women (still!) have to specify whether they are 'available' or not.

Please sign Jeanne's petition to put an end to this blatant form of sexism: epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18225

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alittlefeministblogonlanguage.blogspot.com/2011/10/you-just-come-here-missy.html

a person's name and title aren't even the same thing.

your name is your name. the ms part (or whatever) is just how you prefer to be addressed in formal situations. you can't have 'proof' of it any more than you can 'prove' that you prefer someone saying hello or hi when they meat you.

personally, i just prefer my name.

i was livid when barclays issued shares on accounts. because shares cannot be jointly owned, they only issued them to the first named person on joint accounts - which meant the men, of course. how many joint accounts did they give out shares to? (back in the 90s), many thousands. for every one of them the men benefitted and the women were left out!

in the US we order out own cheque books online. I got to fill out the form, so I got to choose how our names appear. Me first!