Gah, why does banking have to be so difficult?

[lnr]

Nationwide tell me I can't pay in cheques addressed to "Mr and Mrs Snape" or "M and E Snape" to an account in the names of Mr M Snape and Ms E Blair, even if I show them a marriage certificate to prove I did in fact marry him.

I could change my name on the account if I wanted, and then I can still have cheques in the name of Ms E Blair for a whole 6 months before they'll stop accepting those. And if I don't change my name I'll just have to get the people who wrote the cheques to write new ones in the right names. There's absolutely no way to keep both names on the account.

I've written to Nationwide to double check if this is *actually* their policy. And if it's just their own pig-headedness or something imposed externally by law or by the cheque clearing process or something. If anyone knows of a bank which *will* let us open a bank account and accept that I use both names then let me know - I'm seriously thinking of moving if it will solve the problem.

My advice if you're ever sending a couple a cheque as a wedding present: address it to just one of them, and if it's a female partner then use their maiden name. It's not romantic, but at least they'll be able to cash it!

Addendum: Right, I've written to HSBC too to ask if they can accept cheques to Mrs Snape even if I'm not changing my name from Ms Blair. We'll see what they see! And if that doesn't work we'll ask Lloyds too, since that's who Mike's current account is with.

Comments

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

Bastards. If storming into the branch and complaining while threatening to move your business elsewhere doesn't fix it, I suggest leaving the old joint account open and opening a new one with another bank for "Mr and Mrs Snape".

[lnr]

I *was* in branch, and noticeably upset. I shall see what they mail me.

And I don't *actually* want an account with that as my primary name, because it's not my name! I don't want to be addressed as that officially, even if I don't mind it from family.

[rmc28]

I think we had some issues with paying in cheques to Mr & Mrs Finch - I had to turn up with the marriage certificate and some id in my maiden name. But that might have been before we had a joint account.

I've just tried paying in a 3-month old Premium Bonds cheque (for £25) made payable to Miss R Coleman. Let's see how that works.

[lnr]

Oh they were quite clear that Mike shouldn't be able to pay them in to an account elsewhere in just his name, because they're not addressed to just him!

Do cheques last as long as 3 months these days anyway? I've had trouble trying to cash one that was past its best-before, but I think that was over a year old (oops).

[rmc28]

I believe that cheques default to 6 months, but this one has a "Within 3 months of" printed below the issue date. I lost it in a pile of paper for some time. Ooops.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

HSBC allowed us to pay in a cheque made out jointly - I waved my marriage certificate, signed the back of the cheque and some form or other, and they paid it into imc's account. This was, however, 8 years ago and they've probably changed all the rules now.

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

Whilst it's not an approach I'd recommend, I've successfully paid in cheques under the wrong name a couple of times, well after I got married (I kept my maiden name as the 'official' one, but use the other in some contexts). In both cases, nobody noticed (it wasn't even mentioned) and the money arrived in my account without hassle. That wasn't with Nationwide, though.

[lnr]

While I suspect this approach may just work it's not really one you can try at the counter of a branch where you've just been arguing with them about it :)

And I'm a bit concerned that if I try it and they get bounced it might cost the sender something.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

An account in the name of M Snape, E Snape and E Blair?

(Actually, my personal tactic would probably to contact the original writer and get them to send a cheque "with the correct names on, because our bank won't accept it otherwise". At least that way you're more likely to get them to notice it.)

Not having a joint account, I've not had this problem yet. Hmm, maybe time to consider one?

Nah, sod it, it's only been 14 years so far.

[lnr]

If you don't have a joint account you'd have had exactly the same problem though - any cheques addressed to both of you would need to be re-written addressed to just one of you.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Which goes to show that no-one has ever written cheques to the pair of us. If asked 'who should I make the cheque out to?', we give one or other personal account.

I wasn't suggesting you do without the joint account, just mentioning it as a reason why my experience might not be totally useful.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

You need a business account, 'E Blair & M Snape trading as "Mrs and Mrs Snape"' :-)

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

On the principle that that way both partners have been forced by the bank to accept an unwanted (and unwarranted) change to part of their identity?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

That was my thinking, yes.

(Although I guess one could also read it as pointing up the legal institution of marriage as founded in property/finance rights, if one wished.)

[ms-cataclysm.livejournal.com]

I have a bank account in my married name and in my maiden name .

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Seems to me that, as the cheque is made out to two named individuals, the beneficial right in it is common property[0], and the name on the account is irrelevant, as long as both owners have agreed to pay it into the account (by, for example, endorsement), and owner of the account is also one of the beneficiaries of the cheque. There would seem to be no need for the names on the cheque & the account to be a perfect, and complete, match. (Requirements of identity under the money laundering regs notwithstanding).

I'm pretty sure my sister-in-law pays cheques make out to Dr J Howey (her maiden & professional name) into an account in the names of Dr J & Prof D Pattie.

0] Also arguable here is the common property in marriage aspect...

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

You could just pay them in at an ATM and see what happens

[lnr]

As I say, it would be unsubtle to do that at the ATMs in the branch in question, and I don't want to risk the people who issued them getting charges for bounced cheques.

[monkeyhands.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose marriage is a relatively recent thing, and women only started keeping their maiden names about 200 years ago, so you can't expect a bank to understand such a novel and complex set-up. ONE PERSON BEING CALLED BY TWO DIFFERENT NAMES? Next you'll be trying to "move" from one house to another and telling the bank that you've "changed address"!

[keirf.livejournal.com]

Quite frankly its purely out of the goodness of their warm and benevolent hearts that the banks actually allow common as muck folks like ourselves to have bank accounts. We should count ourselves extremely fortunate.

[hsenag.livejournal.com]

After being fine about it for nearly 20 years, Lloyds have recently started being difficult about cheques to "Ganesh Sittampalam" being paid into an account in the name of "Arjuna Ganesh Sittampalam" (which is my full name). So don't be too optimistic about them...

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

I'm in the same boat. Barclays have been a bit random about accepting cheques made out to me by my middle (preferred) name for a few years now; sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. However the question comes up pretty rarely these days...

[aendr.livejournal.com]

Barclays objects to single letter misspellings of my surname. Usually they "overlook" it when it's handwritten and one can argue that it was meant to say the correct spelling, but typewritten cheques are a pain. It is especially annoying when the error is from a big conglomerate and getting it re-written is going to be challenging because I'd already failed in getting the surname corrected on said business's records over the previous 4 years. (On a related note, people who don't understand the difference between apostrophe and hyphen should not be employed in a job which involves taking surname information down over the phone... if I say "that's the minus sign" then I could be offending someone.)

[sweh.livejournal.com]

Around 15 years ago I wrote a cheque from my Barclays account out to my mum, who also banks at Barclays at the same branch. Our first initial is the same. She paid it into her account... but somehow it got credited back to my account! My statement showed the outgoing cheque and the incoming cheque :-)

[gareth-rees.livejournal.com]

Don't let the bank stampede you into changing your name. It's not worth it. Get your relative to re-issue the cheque, or better still, transfer the money directly.

There are only supposed to be eight more years of cheques anyway, I expect no-one can be bothered to sort out any problem any more.

[lnr]

I'm talking 4 different sets of relatives here! I'm certainly not going to change my name in order to try save them hassle (especially when it wouldn't save anyone hassle in a year's time when someone writes a cheque to the name I do use). But I *resent* being forced to tell people they can't call me Mrs Snape because my *bank* are being awkward bastards.

[aendr.livejournal.com]

Thinking about this, and I'm sure Ganesh will remember the details... I'm sure I've paid in a cheque to our joint (his surname, my surname) account to Mrs his surname. Ganesh - do you remember, it was from Teddy?

[hsenag.livejournal.com]

Yes, now you mention it I'm fairly sure you've done this a couple of times without hassle. And that's a joint account with Nationwide with (as you say) exactly the same setup as lnr's...

[aendr.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly sure the one I remember was just to me-as-your-wife rather than both of us, too.

[perdita-fysh.livejournal.com]

This is why I was on G's TSB account as Mrs shortly after we got married, to cash the wedding cheques. Never needed it since!

I stayed as my maiden name on all things official until last year. At the time we married I was employed, so working in my maiden name meant I had to be paid into a bank account in that name. Buying things from that account online meant I had to prove who I was at the postoffice in that name. It became clear early on that it would be easiest to leave everything official in my maiden name and just use my married name colloquially (the one joint account notwithstanding).

Proving who I was for a CRB check in my married name was entertaining, but I did actually manage it with just that one account!

Last year I started the switch because with little G now I wanted to be better aligned for things like writing a cheque for Rainbows fees in the same name as the child it is for (as a Rainbow leader I have a good idea how much hard work it is when they don't match!). As I'm self employed I can pay myself into any account I want, but what I have done is switch everything joint to married names, plus my passport (will do driving licence next year when it is due renewing) but left myself my personal (nationwide) account in my maiden name, plus everything on the business.

It all co-exists quite happily once you remember things. I've also found that if I buy something with a card and put the wrong surname on online, it tends to go through without a problem anyway!

[antinomy.livejournal.com]

At the time we married I was employed, so working in my maiden name meant I had to be paid into a bank account in that name.

Nope, I work as Ms Antinomy Maidenname and work pays me as Mrs Antinomy Marriedname, doesn't cause a problem beyond the bookkeeper being confused initially and wondering WTF Mrs Marriedname was when they got some paperwork from the Revenue. I kept my original current account in my maiden name but we had a joint-names account for paying for the wedding which we moved into joint-marriednames shortly afterwards to cope with cheques of this problematic type. I subsequently opened a new current account and credit cards in my married name which I use for all purposes now except for my professional 'brand'. One of these days NatWest is going to ask for it's current accout back, no doubt, not that I've needed to cash anything for Miss Maidenname in a few years now...

Actually, the only things I had difficulty with were getting my car insurer to accept my no claims from the wrong name at around the changeover, and getting PayPal to change the name on my account to match the new banking details (they won't, without a notraized copy of your marriage certificate - so I cancelled my account and opened a new one in the new name. Magic!)

[perdita-fysh.livejournal.com]

It did where I worked (a university). I would assume policy rather than technology limitations. And this was 15 years ago!

[aendr.livejournal.com]

As a Guide Guider, I'm also familiar with the parental cheques problem. My plan is to pay with joint cheques, so that child's surname is on the cheque, and also to write on the back what and who the cheque is for. When subs and trip and holiday money comes in all at the same time, it would make life easier if more parents did that, but usually it's only the Guider/Scouter parents which do. (And few parents are aware that holiday money and subs money really ought to be paid separately as most units have separate accounts for them.)

[twigletzone.livejournal.com]

Lloyds are a bunch of inflexible evil arses. Don't bank with them. They fecked me around for months over an account in my birth name and I was actually told by an employee at one point "I don't need to know what a deed poll looks like, I'm in banking".

[lemur-catta.livejournal.com]

I went through that with our wedding. I didn't change my name and we've never had a joint account. On top of that, people who missed the wedding mailed me US cheques with J's last name which made my Canadian bank even less happy about them. They did ultimately take them, but told me to expect them to take the customary year and a half to clear :/

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

Other than banks being rubbish and money-laundering regulations also being rubbish...

As a short-term fix, could you open a savings account (or something) in your joint married names, pay cheques into that, and then move the money across? Even if you can't do it at Nationwide/HSBC, banks being what they are, Faster Payments make it a lot less bothersome to move money around between banks.

[jvvw.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember HSBC being pretty good about dealing with the fact I had different things in different names when we got married two and a half years ago, but I did decide to change my surname, although I'm pretty sure it took me a while to get round to doing it on my bank account (and only got my driving licence changed a month or two back!)

Having said that, I'm sure your relatives wouldn't mind rewriting the cheques, especially if you explain the problems its causing. I know if somebody asked me, I wouldn't mind one bit.

[olithered.livejournal.com]

Could you change your name on the account and then change it back?

[lnr]

The chap on the phone actually suggested that.

The branch however had already informed me that in order to do so I would need a deed poll or divorce papers as evidence of my new "change of name".