Changing your name with O2

How do I change my name with O2?#

In My O2. O2's help page says it has made a change of name easier: you now upload your documents in My O2, where it verifies them.

1. Sign in to My O2 and choose Manage details. O2 sends a one-time access code to your device, so that you can view and edit your details.
2. Choose Edit your name and enter your new name.
3. Upload one document from O2's list, below, directly into your My O2 account.
4. Submit the change. O2 checks your documentation and, if everything is correct, updates your name.

If you have a problem with the request, O2 asks you to get in touch. Its pages mention no fee, and they do not say how long the check takes.

What O2 accepts#

One of these four:

• a deed poll;
• a marriage certificate;
• a certificate of civil partnership;
• a reissued birth certificate showing your old and new name, in Scotland only.

The last is the certificate issued once National Records of Scotland has recorded a change of name against a Scottish birth entry, which is why it shows both names; can I change the name on my birth certificate? explains the record. A deed poll does the same job wherever you were born.

O2's list has no divorce document. EE, Vodafone and Three each accept a decree absolute for a change after divorce, but O2's page does not mention one. If you are going back to a former name after a divorce, ask O2 what it will take, or use a deed poll, which is on its list; going back to your maiden name after divorce sets out the choices.

Because the document is uploaded, your original never leaves home. That matters, because HM Passport Office and DVLA both want to see it, as will organisations accept a photocopy or a PDF? explains.

Is there an O2 change of name form?#

Not one to print or post. O2's help pages publish no change of name form or PDF, and no email address for the change: the Edit your name screen in My O2 does the job of the form, and the upload replaces the envelope.

Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go#

You need a My O2 account to make the change. O2 says Pay Monthly customers are registered automatically, while Pay As You Go customers register themselves with their O2 mobile number, an email address and a password. O2's page on changing your name does not say whether the process differs between the two, so if Edit your name is not there for you, contact O2.

Virgin Media and O2 households#

O2 and Virgin Media belong to the same joint venture, Virgin Media O2, but each account is changed on its own. Virgin Media's help page says that if your household is with both, the name on the O2 account is changed through O2's process, and the Virgin Media account through Virgin Media's own Change of Details Form. Changing your name with Virgin Media covers that form.

Handing a number to someone else#

A new name for you is not a new owner. Passing your number to someone else is a transfer of ownership, which you start by getting in touch. O2 sets conditions: the new owner must already have an O2 contract in their name and be 18 or over; a device plan must be paid off first, and if you are in contract without one, termination fees go on your final bill; and you both need to be there when you contact O2. If the new owner cannot be, they have seven days to accept the number onto their own account, in My O2 or by contacting O2, and O2 says the transfer can then take up to 24 hours. Until it goes through, the costs stay yours.

Your address, and a bill in your new name#

A UK address is changed in My O2 too, under Manage my details, after the same one-time code. O2's page lists documents to send only for an international, PO Box or British Forces Post Office address, which you arrange by getting in touch.

Once your name is changed, the bill is useful evidence elsewhere. When your evidence for a new driving licence is a deed poll, GOV.UK asks for one document in the new name issued in the last 12 months, and it names a mobile phone bill among them (changing your name with DVLA). O2's pages do not say whether anything else on your account, such as your plan or your Direct Debit, changes with the name.

For other phone, broadband and energy companies, energy, water, phone and broadband compares what each one asks for.