Credit reports and different surname spellings

jmmo20

Hi,
I have a question about CRA reports and how important it is to always spell your name the same. This question came to mind after reading another post in which people use their middle name rather than their full name and that lead to problems when getting credit.

Basically I´m from Spain so I have two surnames, like everyone over there

Let's say they are Lopez Gomez for illustrative purposes.
In your passport they are listed as two separate words.

Years ago when I opened my first (and still main) bank account, they guys at Barclays spelled them as they appear in my passport "Lopez Gomez". All my Barclays accounts and Barclaycard are like this. Also my Experian (credit expert) account uses this spelling.

However things get more difficult as most companies in the UK would not allow you to put two words in the surname field when opening an account. Therefore what most spanish people do is hyphenate the two surnames together making it a single word: Lopez-Gomez.

A few of my other accounts are like this (Capital One, mobile phones, BT, utilities, etc).

To make this more complicated, sometime ago I started using only my second surname as it's far easier to spell and pronounce for english people. Obviously i´m not saying what that surname is but it sounds exactly the same as its english counterpart so it's far easier when giving details on the phone as I don't have to spell anything.

So I now have accounts using my two surnames as separate words, the two surnames as one hyphenated surname and some other accounts in which I only use the second surname (Santander, various store cards, driving license, etc).

Oh, and my name in the electoral roll is the hyphenated version.

My guess is that this would make things complicated when I come to apply for a mortgage in a year or two?
Currently my Experian credit report show all these accounts with different spellings in my own file, and they are all linked. But I haven't actually been able to check other CRA reports as they fail to prove my ID (I guess because of this surname mess)

Would you recommend I change all accounts to reflect the same spelling? Which one would you use? My problem is that I would like to keep using the hyphenated surname but obviously my passport doesn't use this spelling.

thanks!

stclair

Or you could simply just add an alias with the CRAs.

zerog

My Spanish (and Latin American) friends have never had problems with a "space" in their surname. If you find it is a problem, then I guess the best thing to do would be to use the hyphenated version for everything.

Your passport data doesn't appear on electronic databases that can be accessed by banks and CRAs. What I mean is that banks will not electronically verify your passport (yet), a human will look at it and they will not care about the hyphen.

If you have trouble with spelling out your surname, learn the English phonetic alphabet! And I wonder how you got Santander and the DVLA to only accept half of your surname...

jmmo20

so can I tell them that

"Joe Lopez Gomez", "Joe Lopez-Gomez" and "Joe Gomez" are the same person?

I didn't know I could do that... what sort of proof do you need to provide?
besides Experian which other CRAs I should notify?

jmmo20

zerog wrote: »

My Spanish (and Latin American) friends have never had problems with a "space" in their surname. If you find it is a problem, then I guess the best thing to do would be to use the hyphenated version for everything.

Your passport data doesn't appear on electronic databases that can be accessed by banks and CRAs. What I mean is that banks will not electronically verify your passport (yet), a human will look at it and they will not care about the hyphen.

If you have trouble with spelling out your surname, learn the English phonetic alphabet! And I wonder how you got Santander and the DVLA to only accept half of your surname...

In many online forms they will just not accept the space in the surname form. Sometimes they do but then you end up with both surnames fused together without spaces or hyphens.

For example, the very first time I tried to get a credit report the ID verification failed because they would not accept a double surname with a space. i tried the hyphen but then my credit card had the two surnames with a space and the ID failed.

The DVLA.. I just sent them the form and my passport and they actually ignored the surname field in the form and decided to use only my second surname. That's what actually gave me the idea to only use my second surname.

I know the phonetic alphabet but really, my first surname is veeeery long and always need to repeat it 3 to 4 times despite using hte phonetic alpha-bravo- thing.

stclair

Personally my surname is double barrelled and I've never experienced any issues.

Some of my accounts are in the same of John Smith and some are in the name of John Smith-Jones.

Ravenshade

jmmo20 wrote: »

so can I tell them that

"Joe Lopez Gomez", "Joe Lopez-Gomez" and "Joe Gomez" are the same person?

I didn't know I could do that... what sort of proof do you need to provide?
besides Experian which other CRAs I should notify?

It might be wise to fill in a standard Deed-Poll. (The Deed Poll Service should help here). Then formally change your name to the hyphenated version. Make sure to send notifications of corrections to the companies through experian and so on.

Also you can put one of the names in the "Middle Name" section, which should cover you. >.>

analyst_2

stclair wrote: »

Or you could simply just add an alias with the CRAs.

Ha! If only it were that simple.
(I think it was my thread about middle name/first name problems you referred to)

I had no problem getting Experian to add an alias, they sent me a form and I just returned it, job done.

But Equifax simply will not do it. (and the same for Call Credit-Noddle but no-one cares about them anyway) I have batted this back and forward with Equifax and they point blank refuse to add an alias unless a 'lender' refers them to another recognised name. Clearly, they believe a lender's info is more reliable than my own. In any case, I have no lenders and no debt, so how is that ever going to happen?
This was the relevant part of my last post to them, I await their response

I think your conduct is highly irresponsible in that despite being advised of your inaccurate and misleading information you are not willing to take the appropriate action to rectify it.

I therefore demand that you now honour your legal obligations to mark the data being disputed as ‘unreliable’ whilst you carry out an investigation.
Should I not be able to resolve this situation I shall have no alternative but to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

So, jmmo20, what I would really recommend is that you match your electoral roll name to whatever you use most in 'credit names' because the electoral roll is the first port of call for any credit check.

If this does not match you are going nowhere. The good thing is that your electoral registration office will readily make that change, without the kind of aggravation you might get from CRA's.