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Original poster

I can only open a bank account in my married name : Can this REALLY be right?

62 replies

Katisha · 09/05/2008 13:12

I have ranted before about how Barclays will not let me use both my maiden and married names for cheques, and have made me standardise both joint and single account to one name. (Married). They will no longer accept cheques in the name I have had all my life. I don't want to have to change over all my savings accounts and everything else to the married name, so...

...have just tried to open an account in my maiden name(for which I have all the right ID) at Alliance and Leicester, only to be told that any account I open HAS to be in my married name? Can this really be true? So much for women's rights if so. I am gobsmacked.

OP posts:

fluffyanimal · 09/05/2008 13:28

i think that both of them are legal names. However, I may find out otherwise when I try to renew my passport, which has expired since I got married and which i want to keep in my maiden name.

Original poster

Katisha · 09/05/2008 13:30

Anyone know a bank that could help?

OP posts:

PortAndLemon · 09/05/2008 13:32

fluffy -- You shouldn't have a problem renewing the passport in your maiden name. After all, if you don't change your name when you get married that's exactly what you do.

tissy · 09/05/2008 13:36

See below- Royal Bank of Scotland did it for me.

wannaBe · 09/05/2008 13:37

why do you need two names?

"Isn't it only wrong to use different names if there is intent to deceive?" but the banks don't know there isn't intent to deceive. To all intents and purposes, the op could be opening accounts in her maiden name in order to sift cash out of the joint assets so she would have more money if she intended to divorce her h. If they then got divorced, there would be money squirrelled away in op's maiden name which she might not declare and which her dh should legally be entitled to but which he wouldnt get.

I think the banks are right tbh. Having two names is like having two identities. Op could apply for loans in her maiden name and it wouldn't affect the credit rating of her married name and vice versa.

You should have one name you use for everything. Having more than one just makes me think that you have dodgy intentions.

PrimulaVeris · 09/05/2008 13:41

Hmm. I'm married but never changed my name - no probs and joint a/c with dh in Hisname & Myname.

But you probably do need one identity. A bank and employer would want you to use the same name - for paying in salary. They need evidence of who you are ... usually it's driving licence or most usually, passport?

What name is your passport in? I think that's the definer, really. I think it's really difficult operating 2 legal names tbh.

funnypeculiar · 09/05/2008 13:41

Hadn't noticed your earlier post tissy - I'll try RBS

Original poster

Katisha · 09/05/2008 13:42

Yes well with the benefit of hindsight I wouldn't have changed anything over to married name. But I stupidly thought it would make it easier to have the same names as the kids for some things.
You can assume I have dodgy intenetions all you like wannabe - what's annoying me is that Barcalys were perfectly happy with me operating under two names for a decade, until last year when suddenly I am obviously intending to defraud.
ALl I wanted was for Barclays to put a note on my account to say that some cheques will come in under the other name, but nobody can apply this piece of common sense apparently.

OP posts:

Original poster

Katisha · 09/05/2008 13:43

Oh apparently its fine for the bank to accept my salary every month in my maiden name because that's a BACS payment which is different.
Fume.

OP posts:

Original poster

Katisha · 09/05/2008 13:46

How long ago was that Tissy? I just ask as things seem to have changed recently.

OP posts:

fridayschild · 09/05/2008 13:47

Katisha it is the money laundering regs which are the problem. I don't think you would want an account at a bank which ignored them, even if you could find one.

2 suggestions

change your name by deed poll or statutory declaration, all other changes Barclays require toget them to change the name on your account (passport, perhaps)change your name on all Barclays accounts to your maiden name, open the new account in your maiden name but not update any other bank accounts, change your name back by the same route to your married name.

move the accounts yourself - ie just open a current account in your maiden name for which you have all the id, and cancel/re-set up the standing orders and direct debits by writing to the relevant companies. This is what used to happen in the old days. Barclays should give you a list of the standing orders and direct debits.

tissy · 09/05/2008 13:48

my salary is paid into my bank in my married name. No problem at all. But, for infrequent non-salaried work, when both clients and their lawyers know my maiden name, and therefore write a cheque to that person, it would cause unecessary confusion, especially, as my married name is an Irish variant, and I live in Scotland, so it would rarely be spelled correctly, even if they did manage to get the right name!

Before I had my maiden name account, I used to go into the bank with a few cheques, and tell the cashier, " I am Mrs X, I have these cheques to pay into my joint account in my married name. I have photo id for both. Your manager has agreed that I can do this" and I would then wait upwards of 15 mins while someone went off to check, then couldn't find the note on my account, even though it was there, then couldn't find the manager. The queue behind me would get more and more disgruntled, as would I.

tissy · 09/05/2008 13:48

last year. IIRC, it was the money laundering regs that required the extra form to be filled in, but it wasn't a problem.

tissy · 09/05/2008 13:53

of course, the RBS may have been accommodating as they know me quite well; I did have accounts there in my maiden name prior to getting married. When we got our current account mortgage with them, they insisted that I close my maiden name account, so that ll the money went into one pot, to reduce my capital owing. That was when the problems started. I now pay cheques into my maiden name account, then transfer most of it into the joint account over the phone or online.

Call it money laundering if you like , but I don't think customs and excise or whoever would be bothered by a few hundred quid here and there, we're not even talking a thousand a year.

Poledra · 09/05/2008 13:54

I'm another one who kept her maiden name at work and my married name for home. I have bank accounts in both names but I have to say, I hvae not tried to open a new bank account in my maiden name since I got married. To those people who say why do I need 2 names - well, I had built up a good reputation in my industry under my own name, and did not want to lose that. However, like OP, thought it would be easier to have same surname as dh and children for home things. It is not illegal unless you are doing it with intention to commit fraud

Original poster

Katisha · 09/05/2008 13:54

The problem is Fridayschild, with regard to suggestion 2, is that it now appears I cannot (except possibly at RBS) open ANY new bank account in my maiden name as banks want you to use your married name if you are married. That is what A&L have just told me. Despite me having the right ID still in maiden name.
Basically I am scuppered and can never use maiden name for any bank account without hassle of deed poll etc.
Might give RBS a call though, although there are no branches anywhere near.

OP posts:

PortAndLemon · 09/05/2008 14:57

Yes, but if you hadn't changed your name at all then you wouldn't have a married name. They can't require you to use your husband's surname if you've never used it. If you just tell any new bank that you didn't change your name on marriage at all then it wouldn't be a problem. Tell them that you did but you don't fancy using it and you'll have a problem, ad you've discovered.

SueW · 09/05/2008 15:01

I htink all women shouldn't change their name on marriage.

Once your kids start school you tend to be Mrs Their-surname anyway.

So you are known by two names (albeit without your consent!). Not quite sure how money laundering regs, crb checks (the form asks if you have ever been known by any other name), etc would deal with that.

In the UK you simply have to start using a name for it to be your legal name anyway.

www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/family_parent/family/change_of_name.htm

SueW · 09/05/2008 15:02

sorry - in England

Cappuccino · 09/05/2008 15:04

I think it largely depends on teh bank

I have an account with the halifax because lloyds refused to give me a cheque book with Ms on it - had to be Mrs

H'fax were fine about it

Lazycow · 09/05/2008 15:38

I also would refuse to bank with someone who insisted I refer to myself as Mrs on principle.

Original poster

Katisha · 09/05/2008 17:28

Well I might be getting some sense out of the Halifax. I went in and explained myself and am booked in to see someone next week with all my ID. If they think it looks OK then they will let me open an account in my maiden name - that's the most sense I've had out of a bank so far. They at least are prepared to consider the evidence and not just blindy apply the money laundering malarkey.

OP posts:

PortAndLemon · 09/05/2008 17:30

Mind you, I did have to declare to the Halifax where I was going to get the £1 to open DS's savings account from, because of money-laundering regulations (although the nice man did say that "down the back of the sofa" was an entirely acceptable response...)

eemie · 09/05/2008 19:03

I married but didn't change my name for three years.

Then I changed it on our joint account to his name, but opened a new HSBC account in my own name for work.

No problem there.

Must depend on the manager.

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 09/05/2008 19:36

I use 2 surnames - I have some bank accounts, 1 credit card and a driving licence in my married name.

Other bank accounts, other credit card and passport in another name.

I suspect its possibly frowned upon. But then my accounts are with differnt banks and I've never told one of the banks that I got married so they just don't know.

Some of my utility bills are in married name and some in maiden name. So I have plenty of ID in both names and could open other bank accounts in whichever name I choose I supose.

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