Anyone annoyed by the name changing process? Where did you start?

Since ordinary do it yourself involves Soc. Security, license, and your means of payment gives a credit or debit card number, plus info you must give SS so they know it is you, you will be giving people in this company your name, birth date and location, parents names inc mother maiden, your social security number and your driver's license number. Plus a credit or debit acct number, code on back, and expiration date. Everything they need to make fake id, put your name on credit cards they charge to the max before anyone knows they are fake, and they can get duplicates of your current Soc. Sec. or license in many states, online, with this info. You set yourself up for identity theft or fraud. Someone in law enforcement agencies can come after you with any fraud where your name is used, and you can have bank accounts frozen, and spend lawyers fees getting it straight. Do NOT do this.

I say save the trouble of worrying about some company doing it. Maybe frauds out there. Best to do it yourself. You have to go to Sic Sec first with your marriage license. Then take the form that you ordered a new ss card to the DMV and they will make you a new lisence. Then call all of your bill companies and reguest for a name change. It sounds more if a Hassel but there is no feed abd less issues if someone stealing your idenity.

View Quoted Comment Agreed with this. This is a LOT of highly sensitive information that they are literally creating a new identity for you with. Who or what is to stop them from stealing that new identity?

I don't think they really do it for you anyway. From what I understand all they do is fill out the paperwork (the easy part) and you still have to handle submitting it all. I could be wrong, but I'd save your money.

View Quoted Comment This. You still have to do the leg work for it, they just get all the forms together for you, which honestly took no time at all at each of the places I had to change my name.

My friend did hitxhswitch....not worth it. They just provide you with the paperwork, but you still have to go to all the necessary offices...SS, lovely DMV, post office for passport. The other stuff I did as it came up, employment, cc’s, life insurance and beneficiaries, etc. it’s annoying for sure!

It's really not that hard to do it yourself. For me the hardest to change was at work everything else was easy. Some time consuming like the SS office and the DMV everything else was basically a phone call. I suggest just making a detailed list and crossing them off as you go. I moved just a few months later and that same list came in handy again with changing my address.

I was the victim of tax fraud (found out on my honeymoon when I talked to my brother who told me about a letter from IRS) and there is NO way I would have used one of those services. I don't had that info over to anyone anymore. It is not as bad as you think. Start at SS, then the DMV and go from there.

Dont change your name. No annoyance!

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Amen! Half the reason I didn't change my name is because I don't like hassle. But really, I think those "services" have just found another way to get people getting married to spend money they don't need to.

It’s not much harder than changing your address. I really don’t see a need to pay a service and would also be concerned about data breaches.

I started at Social Security, took their confirmation letter and the marriage certificate to the DMV to change my license, then took all that to my bank(s). From there it was calling all the companies I have bills with to switch over. Some mailed me a form to fill out, others just changed the information over the phone. As I come across other items (email addresses, name on Amazon account) I've switched it over.

I've heard these sites basically download the documents available online in your area needed to change your name with the DMV & social security office. But you still have to submit them and pay the fee to the offices. And it doesn't take into account things like insurance, credit cards, bank accounts, etc. because they don't have access to them.

I downloaded the SS form. Did it at home. Went down. Was in the office 10 minutes.

Next was DMV. We have one of the worst DMV's in the county, so that was a 3 hours wait for less than 10 minutes at the window.

Next was bank info. Credit cards. Changed my passport last week. Now onto little day to day things.

None of this was hard. Just a pain in the butt.

I checked with WI and i will be going to get my marriage license instead o the officiant taking it. I can then get a copy right then of my license. Then I will go to the Social Security office and change my name there. In 24 to 48 hours i can then go to the DMV and change my name there and get my license. In between there I can update my banking account and employer.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for your advice here. It makes sense and ultimately everyone is right about not taking the chance.

I'd stay far away from any site I'd literally have to give ALL my information to, I just don't trust it.

With that said I'd make a list of everything you need to change. Call HR, banks, etc about what they require from you to change your name with them. I added a checklist that helped me from pinterest. Once your new social security card comes in it's really smooth sailing from there. The process isn't a bad one it's just long! Hopefully you got extra certified copies of your marriage certificate, some places just need to see it others need a copy to hold on to.

We've been married for almost 2 months and I have just about everything changed except for my passport and the little subscriptions.
Good luck!

https://pin.it/qmflfqeb25kvch

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This is awesome.

I changed my SS card, changing my license and all that next week (since I found out the SOS near me is open until 7! I can actually make it after work!)

It's a tedious process, but all these services are doing is collecting your info. You still have to do a majority of it yourself since you need to go there in person and prove it IS in fact yourself who is trying to change...your entire identity.

I took of work for one day and did most of the big stuff easily. We turned in our marriage lisence by hand and got our certificate right away. Then we went to his military base so I could get a military ID. this part took the longest at about 2 hrs. Then we did lunch and I went to social security. This was about 20 minutes of waiting and 10 minutes at the window, no biggie. Then I went to the DMV and was in and out in 20 minutes.
Up until now, I was living at my parents home, so I don’t really have any bills. All I need to do is get new credit/debit cards. Other than that, everything else is small stuff I can do as I see it! Definitely didn’t need to pay anyone money for that. 😁

View Quoted Comment Very true! And that's awesome! I don't think our SS was open that late, I went as soon they opened the lobby was FULL, there was a line outside, and they were only letting people in one by one. Lol