The choice for people to have their true identity name on their bank card, rather than legal name, is incredibly important to many transgender and non binary people - saw this article that MasterCard are going to offer this and definitely feels like something Monzo should be doing too.
You can already have anything on your card I believe, I don’t have my legal name.
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I suppose this has implications for companies that accept debit cards as a form of ID if you don’t have your actual name on the card and just something you choose to be known by. I can understand something like Robert being Bob but not sure about something completely different such as Steve using John or Betty using Frank etc.
Thats their issue thought - bank cards aren’t identity cards, but if companies want to accept them they need to consider that. I’m always surprised Royal Mail do, but i guess they have to accept something the majority of people have - if they only took passports or drivers licenses, there’d be uproar from the people who didn’t have either (which is fair enough, no one is required).
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Yes I agree nobody should be accepting bank cards as ID. It is good when they do and they say anything with your name on.
Currently Monzo allows legal or preferred name on card. There’s no fixed rules on how close the preferred name is to your actual legal name. It just has to be sensible.
I’m trying to find the thread but Rika answered Q’s about the new Confirmation of Payee that comes in next year and that will show the person paying you your preferred name when they enter your account and sort.
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Hi I personally think this is a great idea (I will say I work for mastercard now to be upfront)
I work in the Pride group alongside my normal day job and I know this will help lots of people in the T community who have issues when they have to present their card, especially in the US.
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Hi there Ellie!
We already do this. We have two concepts - “legal name” which is actually a bit of a misnomer and simply means the name that’s on your government-issued ID, and “preferred name” which is what people can request to have on their card. We have many transgender customers who are happy about this! Also we have no concept in our system of titles, which is also helpful for trans and non-binary customers 
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This also isn’t just for Trans or Binary clients.
I’m in a relationship where my partner is a successful professional in a quite specific specialisation. If we got married she is genuinely torn about taking on my name because her own name is essentially her professional identity. One that she has spent over a decade building - changing her name adds a huge set of complications.
Not that I’m saying she should take on my last name mind.
I’ve also worked with clients in the past who are authors, journalists, politicians, actors, speakers, academics who’s names essentially are their identity.
There are also many families now who choose not to take on names, or kids as they grow up choose one name over the other.
This is a huge block with some financial institutions because electronic AML checks might not go through because there are incomplete records on one name or the other. A lot of our record keeping facilities are just not set up to handle someone with two names. Being able to use a name of their choice while maintaining that link to their ‘legal’ identity in a way that is meaningful.
Anything that helps this has much father reaching possibilities.
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I can sort of see why this is, but it really shouldn’t be.
I don’t know if it’s currently true, but back in the day, it was commonplace for female doctors to retain their maiden name professionally, but take on their husband’s name otherwise.
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Monzo has done this since the very beginning and that’s one of the best things about Monzo, how trans-friendly, inclusive and welcoming they are.
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Agreed