Names on Cheque/Bank account

aileth

Hi all, sorry if this is in the wrong section!

I have recently received a cheque for overpayment of life insurance from Zurich for the princely sum of £10.
Zurich in their infinite wisdom has sent me the cheque in my maiden name despite changing it. All of my bank accounts are of course in my married name.

Before I trot off and waste time at the bank, will I be able to auto cash the cheque with one of the machines despite the surname being different, or will I have to go to a cashier with a marriage certificate, or do I have to get Zurich to issue a new cheque?

Thanks very much

InsideInsurance

Phone your bank and ask them, if you paid it in with a bunch of other stuff it probably would slip through the net but a single chq on its own it probably would be spotted and you then have the pain to deal with

thenudeone

For £10 they may not bother to reject it even if it gets identified.
I'd sign it on the back in both names, though.

missile

First off, why not sign it in my maiden name and try to credit to joint account. Worst that could happen is they return the cheque.

We had similar issue with a rather large cheque for a maturing endowment policy. We had to open an account specially to clear the funds.

pmduk

Was your account originally in the maiden name? I suspect this would increase your chances of it being accepted.

aileth

Yes, my account was in my maiden name. I'm gonna give it a go and if they reject it I'll have to contact Zurich and hope they don't do exactly the same thing.

Anthorn

Depends on the crossing of the cheque. If it's "Account Payee" or "Account Payee Only" or "A/C Payee" then it can only be paid into an account bearing the name of the payee. If the crossing is blank or it is not crossed, simply write on the reverse "Pay to the order of (your married name)" and sign with your maiden name and then pay it into your account but have your marriage certificate handy when you do that.

You may find that at the end of the Payee line there are the words "or order" although that was mostly dispensed with a long time ago with most cheques being already crossed "A/C Payee" when originally printed.

aileth

Well, that was a lot less painful than I was expecting. Cashier did it for me without even wanting to see any ID or marriage cert. She said if it was £10,000 thought she might've been a bit more cautious