Cheque in fake name!

JamesUniversal

I had an account with Scottish Power for my old house for one year. Before this I was with another company. In the area I live in door-to-door sales men working for charities come round and I answered the door and after much sweet talking I felt under pressure and signed up but under a fake name 'James Smith' intending to cancel a week later once I wasn't under pressure. Anyway, I stayed with Scottish Power because I couldn't be bothered cancelling. However, I now moved and ended my Scottish Power (pay-as-you-go) contract because I am moving to a new property with my friend who has a another gas company. When cancelling they said I was in credit £86.50 and will send a cheque to my new address but it was be in the name James Smith not James **********. How will I go about putting this in my account?

[Deleted User]

You don't.     

You could ask if they will make a payment into your account, but they may not agree. If they do, they may probably want you to produce evidence of you being James Smith before they make any changes. 

Daliah

You could change your name by deed poll? Or register a stage name?

Or simply be glad it only cost you £86.50 to get caught for using a false name on a contract.

emmajones1976

Find someone in the local area called James Smith and ask them to bank it for you. Good luck.

General_Grant

JanesUniversal said:

I had an account with Scottish Power for my old house for one year. Before this I was with another company. In the area I live in door-to-door sales men working for charities come round and I answered the door and after much sweet talking I felt under pressure and signed up but under a fake name 'James Smith' intending to cancel a week later once I wasn't under pressure. Anyway, I stayed with Scottish Power because I couldn't be bothered cancelling. However, I now moved and ended my Scottish Power (pay-as-you-go) contract because I am moving to a new property with my friend who has a another gas company. When cancelling they said I was in credit £86.50 and will send a cheque to my new address but it was be in the name James Smith not James **********. How will I go about putting this in my account?

How, feeling under pressure from someone working for a charity, did you manage to sign up with Scottish Power.

Are you able to demonstrate that the name on the account from which they are paid is not James Smith?

cx6

tbh not sure how carefully banks check cheque names these days. you could always pay it in on your banking app (take photo) if yours supports that and see what happens

[Deleted User]

I, regularly, pay in cheques, from others to me,  and the very slightest anomaly is flagged and it gets returned back to me unpaid.
I would expect the OP to have something similar happen.
A conversation with their bank is the way forward.

Zanderman

JanesUniversal said:

I had an account with Scottish Power for my old house for one year. Before this I was with another company. In the area I live in door-to-door sales men working for charities come round and I answered the door and after much sweet talking I felt under pressure and signed up but under a fake name 'James Smith' intending to cancel a week later once I wasn't under pressure. Anyway, I stayed with Scottish Power because I couldn't be bothered cancelling. However, I now moved and ended my Scottish Power (pay-as-you-go) contract because I am moving to a new property with my friend who has a another gas company. When cancelling they said I was in credit £86.50 and will send a cheque to my new address but it was be in the name James Smith not James **********. How will I go about putting this in my account?

As General_Grant has already said it's not at all clear why, if your problem was that you were plagued by charity callers, you decided, when Scottish Power (not a charity) called, to use a false name.  What was the point? 

And I'm not even clear how this resulted in a supplier switch as your old supplier would have had your real name.  This sounds a little like a wind-up.  Mr Smith switching Mr Jones' account shouldn't happen.

But assuming it's all true then basically you just messed up.  You have a cheque payable to someone else. You can't cash it.  So you've lost £86 because you gave false details and couldn't be bothered to cancel. 

Next time give a real name and/or, if you really only meant to sign-up to get rid of the caller and cancel a week later, do cancel a week later.  

(edited later to add the 'not' omitted by accident in the second para!)

Section62

cx6 said:

tbh not sure how carefully banks check cheque names these days. you could always pay it in on your banking app (take photo) if yours supports that and see what happens

There's a significant risk that doing ^that^ may turn a potentially minor problem the OP might have with their ex-energy supplier into a very much larger problem with their bank(s).

If the bank did pick up the name discrepancy, how could the OP explain the situation without confirming to the bank that he's not adverse to using a "fake name" when entering into contractual relationships?

Ergates

General_Grant said:

JanesUniversal said:

I had an account with Scottish Power for my old house for one year. Before this I was with another company. In the area I live in door-to-door sales men working for charities come round and I answered the door and after much sweet talking I felt under pressure and signed up but under a fake name 'James Smith' intending to cancel a week later once I wasn't under pressure. Anyway, I stayed with Scottish Power because I couldn't be bothered cancelling. However, I now moved and ended my Scottish Power (pay-as-you-go) contract because I am moving to a new property with my friend who has a another gas company. When cancelling they said I was in credit £86.50 and will send a cheque to my new address but it was be in the name James Smith not James **********. How will I go about putting this in my account?

How, feeling under pressure from someone working for a charity, did you manage to sign up with Scottish Power.

Are you able to demonstrate that the name on the account from which they are paid is not James Smith?

The bit about charities is a red herring, ignore it.  It was someone touting for Scottish Power who came to the door.

JamesUniversal

Wow judgemental people!