bank accounts using married and maiden name

[lucyA1308]

I was just wondering if anyone has as much difficulty with their bank as I do if using a married name and a maiden name.

my professional name is my maiden name, but because my mortgage and joint savings accounts are in my married name, I wasn't allowed to have my current account (at the same bank) in my maiden name. They did however say that they would put a note on the computer to say it was ok for me to have cheques made payable to my maiden name.

This seems to have been wiped off the computer, and as I have just returned to work after 9 months on maternity leave, it hasn't been an issue for a while.

I am getting quite frustrated with the bank, and surely in this day, people can understand that women might have 2 different surnames. On Friday, I was quite happy to stand my ground, because I had been in on Tuesday and successfully cashed some cheques under my maiden name, but the cashiers were also standing their ground too, and the queue which was forming was becoming rather impatient and aggressive, so I had to leave with my cheques un-cahsed.

Does anyone else find it difficult, or do they have a more understanding bank?

[etta166]

I bank at the Co-operative bank and they have no trouble with paying in cheques in my maiden name into an account (now) in my married name. However, although I use my maiden name professionally, the HR and payroll department at work use my married name (so pay cheques, life assurance, health insurance etc are in my married name).

You can also carry a copy of your marriage certificate or your driving licence, which has space for you to add an alternative name used for professional reasons on the paper couterpart. Then you have ID for both names.

[Jo'sEnglish]

Ugh, yes! The same as you, I think it is ridiculous that it seems to be such a problem when you think it would be fairly common these days. I work freelance so even though I use my maiden name professionally I have to put in big letters the name (my married name) to make cheques payable to on invoices (and even then sometimes the payee gets it wrong, or just get confused about me using more than 1 name)

I tried and failed to get the bank to accept both names for cheques, I gave up as too much hassle.

That's interesting about the marriage certificate and driving licence though etta166. I'll look into that...