Weddingbee Blog

I kind of wish I could have stopped you. Social Security requires a field office visit and that cannot be avoided. So procuring that form wasn’t an issue. There is no need to do anything at all with the IRS, they get their information from Social Security. (Please trust me. I’ve worked there for many years.) There is also nothing to file with the Post Office and Driver’s License forms vary from state to state but I’m pretty sure they all require you to show up in person. And most of those notification letters. If you can’t, then you have to show up and do something in person. There are not a host of forms to gather and handle. And I hate that people are paying for this without realizing that.

Being an Encore I’ve changed my name more than once. I know of what I speak.

That should say “And most of those notification letters are pointless. Most places only require a phone call, possibly a form specific to that company, and possibly a fax of your new driver’s license.” Then it should carry on as it does.

I didn’t use a site and it worked out just fine. I didn’t do anything until the copy of the recorded marriage license was mailed to us by the county registrar. If yours isn’t mailed to you, you’ll probably have to go down to the county office to buy a copy.

With my marriage certificate in hand, I filled out the form at Social Security and didn’t print anything out first. You absolutely have to go there first (less crowded on days other than Monday) because other institutions (like the DMV) check the SSN database. The new SS card arrived in about a week.

Wielding my new SS card and the marriage license, I went to the DMV and filled out the forms they handed me, which included voter registration. I’m sure I could’ve printed that one out too but it wouldn’t have really been any faster. I actually got out of the DMV in about 90 minutes which must be a record in Southern California when you don’t have an appointment.

Once I had a new driver’s license (about 10 days), the new SS card, and the marriage license, I was able to start attacking banks and other establishments. Bank of America needed to see the real thing, not just copies, and they are relatively incompetent so it took two trips to the bank and a few phone calls to get everything fixed. Chase, on the other hand, were much faster at the bank and everything arrived quickly. (I’ve been with B of A since college but our joint account is at Chase because hubby was at WaMu and they got bought out.)

Citibank has my student loans and they had a separate form for me to fill out. I then had to fax them a copy of the marriage certificate and their fancy form. But they decided they couldn’t read the fax well enough and sent me three letters in two days to let me know that they needed me to mail a copy instead.

I also have ING online accounts and a T. Rowe Price Roth IRA. Each of these banks/brokerages had their own personal forms as well.

All of the utilities I’ve managed to change my name over the phone.

I still haven’t changed my last name with Discover card or Lowe’s because I’m lazy and never use those cards. I suppose I’ll get to it before we start trying to get a mortgage.

The IRS will figure it out from social security and I’m not sure why I would need to tell the post office unless I moved. My doctors will figure it out the next time I go see them.

My health, vision, and dental insurances all had separate forms as well. My company uses a separate company to take care of that for us and luckily one of their representatives was able to guide me through the process because the forms were quite complicated. I don’t think a generic form letter would have sufficed.

My professional licenses also required separate forms. Luckily, both were up for renewal the same month as the wedding and I just threw the forms and a copy of the marriage certificate in with my renewal payments.

It was a ginormous pain, but it’s totally worth having nearly all of it done just three months after the wedding. Now if only I could remember to introduce myself correctly on the phone. Or if our new secretary could figure out how to change the office directory on the voicemail so people calling me weren’t totally confused.