Welcome back to my weekly blog post! This week we’re talking about the most complicated thing brides must do after getting married, changing their name.
If you’re a bride who just got married, congratulations on getting hitched! That’s so exciting! Marrying your person and blending your lives is the moment you’ve been dreaming of. The first move to blending your lives, besides living together, is taking his last name. This is such a wonderful feeling, you’re getting a new identity and becoming one, but why do they have to make it so complicated?
I recently interviewed a bride in Missoula Montana who recently changed her name, she said it took her about a week to complete everything. It took so long because there were things she didn’t know or couldn't find online when she wasmapping out this process. Like making appointments, not doing walk-ins, or knowing the computer system takes with social security and DMV 24 hours to update your info. So I figured this would be a great topic to address to prepare brides on what to do when you change your name so you won't want to rip your hair out.
This bride said, ‘When you change your name in Montana, you have to change your name first with social security, then you have to wait until the next day or 24 hours before you go to the DMV.’ She recommends making an appointment at Social Security and the DMV for a day shortly after you’re wedding day, but do it like a month before you get married. Or you can try what this bride did. She went to the DMV office first thing in the morning, like try to be the first person in line for walk-ins. She was there around 7:45 am waiting for the office to open at 8 am. She was done and out the door by 8:15 am.
If you live in a big city or heavily populated place, try to make your appointments way ahead of time or try going to a DMV in a smaller town nearby. If you do make an appointment online with the DMV, make the appointment for license replacement because you’re 'making changes to your credentials'. Here are the links for the Social Security Office and DMV in Montana: https://mvdmt.gov & https://www.ssa.gov/.
After those two things are done, you’ll want to change your name on your bank accounts, any loans you have, your bills, insurance policies, and anything related to your work/life. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it is. That’s all your subscriptions, mail, anything online, pretty much anywhere you use your name. Granted, some of this depends on what you and your new hubby plan to do with the bills and money, like if you’ll join his policies or not. Definitely a good conversation to have with each other before getting married.
Something you want to practice before getting married is signing your new name. You’ll have to sign a lot of documents with your new name, including your wedding license on your big day, so it’ll really help you out to have that locked down before your wedding.
I guess you’ll want to make appointments everywhere along the way. This bride thought she could simply go to the bank and wait for one of the bankers on the side to help her, but sadly she learned it’s better to make an appointment here too.So when in doubt, make an appointment for everything.
When you go to all these places to change your name, make sure you bring the official copy of your wedding license from the courthouse with you. You’ll need to bring a copy of the paperwork from Social Security, the DMV, to the banks, and possibly with your bills. You’ll need the paperwork from Social Security to get your new ID, then you’ll need your new ID to change your name at the bank. If you want to get a Real ID you need to bring a piece of mail with you to the DMV and some more money. It's free to get a new Social Security card, but it's less than $12 to get your new license if you're paying with a card.
If you want to do something crazy like changing your first name legally from Madelyn to Maddy or Elizabeth to Lizzy, make sure you let the courthouse know when you return your wedding license after it’s been filled out. The bride I interviewed was wanting to change her first name but didn’t know when to bring it up during the process. Somehow Social Security ended up changing her first name like she wanted, and the DMV accepted that she changed her first name, but when she went to the bank she had issues because the change of her first name wasn’t properly documented. Even though both her main forms of identification have her new name on them the bank wouldn’t accept it.
According to the Missoula Courthouse, to open a case on changing your name after it’s been changed you have to fill out a special form from the self-help law office across the street from the courthouse and pay a $120 or $180 fee. She couldn't remember which price it was. Haha. That seems so dumb and pointless that the bank wouldn’t accept it, especially if Social Security and the DMV already accepted it. Changing your first name at the courthouse when you return your marriage license might be easier and, hopefully, cheaper if you do it right away instead of going about it this roundabout way.
One thing this bride might try with the bank is closing her bank accounts and opening new ones with her new name. That way she doesn’t have to go through the headache and financial burden of having to properly document her first name change. She said she’ll let me know how that goes. She’s waiting until she gets the official IDs in the mail before she does this though.
So long story short, if you’re getting married in Montana, make sure you make appointments to change your name at Social Security, the DMV, and banks in advance. After that, you’ll want to change your name on all your accounts, bills, memberships/subscriptions, social media, and anywhere else you have your name. Thankfully, after changing your name at these big places, everything else is tedious yes, but easy to do from the comfort of your phone.
I’m sure changing your name is a slightly different process depending on what state you live in, but this is what it takes to change your name in the beautiful state of Montana. I hope you found this helpful!
