A lot of finance places will not use your name, working for car finance lending and your account must match your Driving License. Unless you have paperwork to prove its changed.
Never heard of just assuming a name.
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It’s possible in common law jurisdictions (the UK, Ireland, the US, a few others), things like deed polls are just evidence to support the name change. Without one, you have to fight a lot and it can be difficult or impossible.
In the US, I’ve heard of a few people pushing it because a court order can be expensive and deed polls aren’t legally recognised in the US (not to say you CAN’T use one, I have, just that it isn’t as likely to be accepted by everyone).
In the UK, a deed poll takes ten minutes to write up, will be accepted by virtually everyone and there’s really no reason anyone changing their name wouldn’t just sit down and write a deed poll.
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Ah, thanks 
I just hadn’t heard of it, and knowing we require paperwork for name changes at work. Knew someone would know 
If you really, really wanted to change your name without a deed poll, statutory declaration, marriage certificate, gender recognition certificate or act of Parliament here, it would be possible. But challenging.
The biggest challenge will be getting your passport changed, from there everything else is pretty easy. HM Passport Office does allow ‘minor’ changes without as much documentation: Change your name or personal details on your passport: Titles and small changes to forenames - GOV.UK
There’s some other options, for example a statutory declaration is really just a declaration of fact (telling the world what your name is, not actually changing your name). HM Passport Office will accept that. But if you want no formal documentation you’ll find it hard.
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One bank once messed up my given name (Peter instead of Patrick) when singing me up by mistake to a service (fraud detection on credit card) which I hadn’t signed up for and got a refund anyway. Long story short, that name now appears on my Experian credit report, under an “also known as” section; so I could probably pass credit/ID check using that name.
In Ireland a lot of people use their Irish name commonly, even if birth certified in English. You can easily change in your passport, authorities just print a note on first page stating your birth certificate name to avoid issues. I think you can register for services using either.
I think name is pretty fluid, there’s no one official version of it.
Everything on my credit report is listed as ‘Tony’, medical records, employment records and more all use ‘Tony’, even though my birth certificate and driving licence show ‘Anthony’. The difference is Monzo don’t ask for your name, they extract it from your ID; everybody else asks and then uses common sense to accept that the name I wrote down is simply a shortened form of what’s on the driving licence.
Monzo will happily call me Tony in app and on my card, but the major point I was making is that if I try to send money to somebody else, they’ve no idea it comes from me when I use Monzo. That is pretty major and in some cases could be a deal breaker.
When challenged, I was told by support it’s because Monzo has different regulations to work to because they’re an ‘app only’ bank. That’s the sign of a support agent not knowing the regulations and going with a best guess explanation that turned out to be wrong. It’s what I’d expect from other organisations, not one that gets “more right than anyone”. Incidentally, the other app only banks I’ve used have all accepted my name as Tony!
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Exactly the same problem here!
‘Anthony’ actually only comes from a mistake during registration (my mother was asked what the babys name was, she said ‘Tony’, the registrar made up the rest).
I don’t care what Monzo store internally, but in interactions with the outside world including payments shouldn’t be using the longer name - because absolutely nobody ever calls me that, it isn’t my name.
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Fill out a deed poll document. It’ll take five minutes, and problem solved once and for all.
So… everyone with a known name different to their birth ceritificate gets deed poll, then pays for a new passport, driving license, then maybe a month or two later when all that paperwork is gone through Monzo change their records.
Or alternatively Monzo behave like every other bank, and solve the problem for everyone at once.
It’s literally never been an issue except for government documents for 45 years.
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Even Home Office accept a passport with old name and a deed poll with new name for ILR applicants. Sight of the deed poll is enough, you don’t need a updated passport
Not the case at all. Only thing you have to change immediately is your driving licence, which has no charge.
Passport remains valid to expiry, etc. Monzo does far better than most banks. There aren’t many who will use nicknames at all!
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I’ve literally never heard of a bank that wouldn’t let you use your name on your account, and I’ve had dozens.
And it’s not a nickname. Don’t be so insulting.
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By nickname, I mean anything other than what’s on driving licence, passport and credit reports. My apologies that seemed like an insult, it certainly isn’t. I’ve never heard anyone consider the term nickname an insult, and I sure didn’t mean it as one!
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As has been mentioned, you just need to change your name and use it to be called by that name legally.
Also, a deed poll does not have to be enrolled with a court. Anyone can create a deed poll and get any 2 witnesses to sign it to make it valid. Most people use a solicitor for this though to give it weight. If it still isn’t accepted then it should be enrolled with a court.
Monzo should accept any name you give them as long as they can create a paper trail for ID purposes. E.g. Use your birth certificate/passport/driving licence with your birth name to open the account and then a self declaration of your chosen name to appear on it. Internally, for money laundering purposes, they should be able to make a simple link between the 2 documents? Even a simple birth name field and a chosen name field on the system.
I couldn’t agree more. A deed poll is just a formality. But one that makes your life a lot easier!
I did use a solicitor as a witness on my deed poll, but only because I have US citizenship and the US Embassy requires it. For most British Citizens, there should be no need to have a solicitor as a witness. If you do use one, it only costs a few pounds as a witness fee (I think I paid £5 or £10, I can’t remember).
I’m not trying to say it should be needed, but the whole thing takes five minutes and solves the problem.
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But Tony isn’t your real name is it. So how is calling it a knickname insulting ?
How far would.you expect monzo to bend their rules?
If I asked for ‘fart muffin’ to be put on my card would that be ok ? “Oh yeah its not my real name but everyone calls me that”
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Technically, anything you are called is your ‘real’ name, but I’d still call it a nickname. Nicknames are real. I sure didn’t mean to cause offence, I’ve never heard anyone consider nickname an insult before, but I respect if someone doesn’t like a term, I don’t need to agree… I won’t use the term with them. End of story.
Monzo will put the name you actually go by on your card, which is awesome. They will only use your legal name (i.e. the name on your ID, technically, any name you use is legal in some sense, so ID name may be a better term but would confuse people) on things like outgoing Faster Payments. Easy fix - five minute deed poll, get a new driving licence and let Monzo know. It isn’t actually a difficult or complicated process (in the UK, other countries make the process an absolute nightmare, expensive or even impossible).
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But its’s not necessary with any other bank… It’s adding paperwork for no reason. Why should I have to go through all that to satisfy some wierd quirk of a bank?
And Tony is my real name. You don’t want to call me by it, fine, but it doesn’t make it any less my name.
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I’m not replying to you any more, you’re being deliberately rude and insulting now. Get a life.
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I outright said it was your real name, if you’d read what I wrote above. Anything a person goes by is real, because they really go by it!
Anyway, onto the issue… are you telling me that every other bank you do business with is willing to have your name not match your ID? If so, I find this… really surprising, to say the least.
Also, it’s about five minutes of paperwork, and will give you the documentation you need to avoid any situations in the future, and an ID that matches your real name. To me, that seems very worthwhile. It’s up to you, though. I’d be (and am) thankful I am a citizen of a country where five minutes of paperwork and no cost allows me to have ID that matches who I am.
That’s an incredible freedom of self-identity we take for granted few other countries have. Even Canada doesn’t, and I often think of Canada as a nearly-perfect, magical land taking the best parts of the UK and the US, combining them with really friendly people and clean cities and putting them in one amazing place.
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