Can you pay a cheque into a bank account in your maiden name?

Hi all,

My wife has just received a cheque made out ot her maiden name as we've recently married. Only trouble with that is that she no longer has any accounts in her maiden name. Will she be able to pay it into our joint account if she takes in the marrage certificate? The cheque has our address on too (it's from a government office) so would this help?

Cheers,
Andy

[Littlepeahead]

Abbey let me do this a few times after I was married as the account was previously in my maiden name. I just took in a copy of my certificate, photo ID and proof of address.

[mattSV]

Was the account previously in her maiden name - i.e. does the bank you are looking to pay it in to have a record of her maiden name?

Worse case scenario, is you might have to get a replacement cheque however if you are able to take a copy of the marriage certificate with you to the bank then they SHOULD accept it - the cheque will be crossed 'account payee only' which means that it should only be paid into an account in the name of the payee - banks that ignore that crossing do so at 'their' (i.e. 'your') risk however as you can prove that she IS the payee then there should not be any problem.

How much is the cheque for - if it is for a large amount then they may be less happy to take it, and insist that a replacement cheque is obtained...

Good luck - and congratulations!

Originally Posted by mattSV

Was the account previously in her maiden name - i.e. does the bank you are looking to pay it in to have a record of her maiden name?

Worse case scenario, is you might have to get a replacement cheque however if you are able to take a copy of the marriage certificate with you to the bank then they SHOULD accept it - the cheque will be crossed 'account payee only' which means that it should only be paid into an account in the name of the payee - banks that ignore that crossing do so at 'their' (i.e. 'your') risk however as you can prove that she IS the payee then there should not be any problem.

How much is the cheque for - if it is for a large amount then they may be less happy to take it, and insist that a replacement cheque is obtained...

Good luck - and congratulations!

It's only for £100 so not much. Unfortunately it wasn't in her name previously and she used to bank with someone else too. She's going to give it a go tomorrow complete with marriage certificate & driving license to show the addresses match etc.

Will let you know what happens.

What'll happen is you'll get a clerk who has no idea, then they will take forever to refer it to their manager, who will come out from a dark hole to smirk at you, saying that they can't accept it 'because of data protection'.

OK, I'm an idiot!!! Just looked at the cheque and it clearly says that if you don't have a bank account you can sign the back and pay it into another account, so paying it into an account in her new name will be fine

[darylB]

Beverley used to have this problem as she uses her maiden name for work, she has explained this to the bank and once she had proved (with her marriage certificate) who she was and that it would happen again they kept the details on record so that she didn't have the problem again.

Daryl