You know it's such a hassle to change your name there are websites (which you pay for) to guide you through each step? I wasn't exactly willing to pay the money, so I'm sure I paid it in time.
Yes, I decided to change my name. I definitely put some thought in to keeping mine. I was planning to tackle the paperwork in a year or so but one of my friends changed her name over the summer after being married about 5 years and she said she wished she would have just done it to begin with. I guess the longer you wait the more complicated it is. Then we went on a family trip with Mike's family earlier this year and his parents generously bought our flights. They asked if I would be Albin by then and I suddenly had a deadline.
We got married 6 months ago and I finally see the end. One more credit card and my passport. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now.
Social Security Office
The first step was to update my social security card. They have the option to mail all of your documents in, but I just wasn't comfortable mailing in my passport and application with not only my social security number but both of my parents. So I opted to wait at the social security office. I honestly went to one that looked insane so I left and went to another location and waited for about a half hour. I guess I picked a good day, according to the security guard.
I hear from my friends in Chicago that this step is much much worse if you decide to go in to the office there. It might be worth a trip to the suburbs...
Next, the DMV.
DMV, this is where things started to unravel. Conveniently this was just as I was in paperwork hell with buying a house and I was starting to lose it. I had to go the the DMV three times. One time extra because I needed one proof of address. (I was changing my name and address.) The other time they didn't actually change my name.
I left the second and third time and cried.
The Bank
This is one I was going to give myself a month, maybe more, to tackle. Except when you're getting a house loan and your name is different depending on where you look. Turns out the bank doesn't like that and neither does the federal government. So I used a comp day the week after the adventure at the DMV and went in hoping things would go smoothly for this step. And they did! This was possibly my easiest step. It helps to have a small bank!
Airlines
I travel for work and I'm always supposed to fly on the least expensive airline (#nonprofit). This means I have a lot of airline rewards accounts. This step was actually way more annoying than I expected. The fact that I had to contact them all was maybe the problem. In the automatic email response I received it said I could expect a response in 30 days. 30 days. Why?!? I wasn't sure what to do in those 30 days since I was flying in that time. Just a little note I had flights booked with my old last name before I received my new ID. So...I flew with my passport since the names matched. What a mess. Surprisingly, to me, this was one of the more annoying steps.
Southwest was the fastest. No surprise there. Southwest is my favorite, I wish I could fly Southwest every single time.
Don't forget your hotel points too. This one was much faster than the airlines for me.
Employer
More paperwork. New W2. More scanning and emailing. It's starting to become normal... yet still annoying.
One tip that has helped me keep track of this process immensely is I have an envelope with anything they could request from me: old SS card, new SS card, passport, marriage certificate (original), and all the letters of receipt I picked up along the way. If anyone requests any documentation through this process I go straight to my trusty "changing name" envelope.
Here's where I took a long break because nothing was urgent and I was tired of the process. Yes, things were very confusing with my name different everywhere.
Credit Cards
This is where it becomes real. I finally took the plunge in February because I was tired of entering a different credit card contact from the shipping address for the same person (me). Be ready for this step, friends. This is where you have to start signing your name all the time and it's very real.
One of the funny parts during this was when Mike would go close our tab at a bar, he was never sure what my last name was. I kept laughing about it and would say, "It's like we just met." We probably confused the people who watch on. Haha.
Yes, I decided to change my name. I definitely put some thought in to keeping mine. I was planning to tackle the paperwork in a year or so but one of my friends changed her name over the summer after being married about 5 years and she said she wished she would have just done it to begin with. I guess the longer you wait the more complicated it is. Then we went on a family trip with Mike's family earlier this year and his parents generously bought our flights. They asked if I would be Albin by then and I suddenly had a deadline.
We got married 6 months ago and I finally see the end. One more credit card and my passport. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now.
Social Security Office
The first step was to update my social security card. They have the option to mail all of your documents in, but I just wasn't comfortable mailing in my passport and application with not only my social security number but both of my parents. So I opted to wait at the social security office. I honestly went to one that looked insane so I left and went to another location and waited for about a half hour. I guess I picked a good day, according to the security guard.
I hear from my friends in Chicago that this step is much much worse if you decide to go in to the office there. It might be worth a trip to the suburbs...
Next, the DMV.
DMV, this is where things started to unravel. Conveniently this was just as I was in paperwork hell with buying a house and I was starting to lose it. I had to go the the DMV three times. One time extra because I needed one proof of address. (I was changing my name and address.) The other time they didn't actually change my name.
I left the second and third time and cried.
The Bank
This is one I was going to give myself a month, maybe more, to tackle. Except when you're getting a house loan and your name is different depending on where you look. Turns out the bank doesn't like that and neither does the federal government. So I used a comp day the week after the adventure at the DMV and went in hoping things would go smoothly for this step. And they did! This was possibly my easiest step. It helps to have a small bank!
Airlines
I travel for work and I'm always supposed to fly on the least expensive airline (#nonprofit). This means I have a lot of airline rewards accounts. This step was actually way more annoying than I expected. The fact that I had to contact them all was maybe the problem. In the automatic email response I received it said I could expect a response in 30 days. 30 days. Why?!? I wasn't sure what to do in those 30 days since I was flying in that time. Just a little note I had flights booked with my old last name before I received my new ID. So...I flew with my passport since the names matched. What a mess. Surprisingly, to me, this was one of the more annoying steps.
Southwest was the fastest. No surprise there. Southwest is my favorite, I wish I could fly Southwest every single time.
Don't forget your hotel points too. This one was much faster than the airlines for me.
Employer
More paperwork. New W2. More scanning and emailing. It's starting to become normal... yet still annoying.
One tip that has helped me keep track of this process immensely is I have an envelope with anything they could request from me: old SS card, new SS card, passport, marriage certificate (original), and all the letters of receipt I picked up along the way. If anyone requests any documentation through this process I go straight to my trusty "changing name" envelope.
Here's where I took a long break because nothing was urgent and I was tired of the process. Yes, things were very confusing with my name different everywhere.
Credit Cards
This is where it becomes real. I finally took the plunge in February because I was tired of entering a different credit card contact from the shipping address for the same person (me). Be ready for this step, friends. This is where you have to start signing your name all the time and it's very real.
One of the funny parts during this was when Mike would go close our tab at a bar, he was never sure what my last name was. I kept laughing about it and would say, "It's like we just met." We probably confused the people who watch on. Haha.
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