Changing your name with Santander

How do I change my name with Santander?#

In a branch. Santander's help page gives one route for a change of name: a visit to a branch with personal ID, proof that the account is yours, and a document proving the change. Its app and Online Banking change your mobile number, email and address, but not your name. Santander's branch locator finds the nearest branch, and its contact page lists the other ways to reach it.

For the ID, Santander's identification page lists what it accepts as proof of name, such as a passport or a UK photocard driving licence, and its page on keeping your details up to date says a change of name needs photo ID. Santander does not say here what counts as proof that the account is yours; when you change other details in a branch, it asks you to bring your debit or credit card.

Santander's pages give no timescale for a change of name, mention no fee, and do not say whether new cards follow.

What does Santander ask to see?#

One of these documents, according to its help page:

• a marriage or civil partnership certificate;
• a decree absolute;
• an enrolled deed poll or, in Santander's words, "Scottish Registry" (see the Scottish record of a change of name);
• an unenrolled deed poll plus one ID document in your new name, such as a passport or driving licence;
• a statutory declaration;
• a final court order;
• an adoption certificate.

The list does not distinguish a new surname from a new first name. Santander's pages do not describe changing a child's name, so ask Santander what it needs before you go in with a child's documents.

Do I need a new passport or driving licence first?#

With an unenrolled deed poll, yes. That is the ordinary kind, signed in front of witnesses and kept rather than enrolled with the High Court, whether you made it yourself or bought it; ours are unenrolled too. Santander accepts one only with an ID document already in your new name, so the passport or licence comes first.

Each of those needs something from someone else. HM Passport Office asks for your original deed poll and one document showing you already use the new name, such as a payslip or a letter from your council, and its guidance to staff also lists a bank statement from the last 12 months. DVLA, when your evidence is a deed poll, asks for one document in the new name issued in the last 12 months, or your new UK passport number. So the order runs like this:

1. Start with your employer, HMRC or your council, or a bank that accepts a deed poll on its own, such as NatWest or Starling. A letter from your employer, HMRC or council, or a UK bank statement, in the new name is on both HM Passport Office's list and DVLA's.
2. Apply for a passport or a driving licence with the original deed poll and that letter or statement. Santander needs only one of the two. HM Passport Office and DVLA have their own guides here.
3. Go to a Santander branch with the deed poll, the new passport or licence, and proof the account is yours.

Santander's list has three ways round the rule. After a marriage or civil partnership, the certificate is enough on its own. A statutory declaration is on the list without the condition. And so is an enrolled deed poll, but GOV.UK says enrolling one through the High Court costs £53.05, needs you to be 18 or over, and can take several months: how to enrol a deed poll.

Changing the name on a Santander mortgage#

A mortgage is changed separately, by letter. Santander's page for existing mortgage customers asks you to write to Santander Mortgage and Loan Operations, Sunderland, SR43 4FH, with a copy of your new and old signatures and one of these: a marriage certificate, a decree absolute, a birth certificate, a change of name deed or a civil partnership certificate. It says it may ask for more in certain situations. Unlike the branch list, this one sets no condition about ID in the new name, and it does not say whether it wants originals or copies.

Adding or removing a borrower is a different application, which Santander calls changing borrower: a £95 fee, a solicitor, and a check that you can still afford the payments. The name on the property register is separate again: changing your name with HM Land Registry.

The change of details form and your other accounts#

Santander's change of details form is the one with a section for a new name. It asks for your current details, one of your Santander accounts (a bank account, savings, mortgage or credit card), your new name, and your signature in both your old and new names, and its declaration says the details will update your Santander accounts. You return it with valid proof of the change and evidence of your identity. The only postal address Santander's help page gives for the form is for overseas addresses and for requests Santander has sent you, and there it asks for copies, never originals; for a change of name, the page sends you to a branch.

The form is for one person, and says other family or household members changing their contact details need a form of their own. Santander's pages say nothing specific about a change of name on a joint account. Business customers are pointed to Mobile and Online Banking instead. For other banks, changing your name with your bank compares how they work.