Since I'm new and just posted a question, I wanted to also give back with some information I hope will help someone else. I legally changed my name last year and learned some interesting things about all the bureaucratic details one has to attend to even after getting the court order. I'm sure others have probably covered the need to change your driver's license and social security information. What I'm going to share has to do with the financial side, i.e., your credit reports and banking information.
Let's start with the bank. In this case, still mostly a matter of bringing in your court order, but there are some 'gotchas' to be aware of. The first is that your bank may have a system where branch databases are not totally in sync with your bank's main database. This means the branch may update your name with them but you may still run into a problem if the global file doesn't get updated. Usually this happens at midnight each night but sometimes it doesn't. If you run into a problem like this, ask them if 'CIP' has been updated.
Another thing to know about banks is that they really prefer, from what I experienced, that your Social Security and credit information are updated first if you are asking them to do anything that requires them to run you through the ID system. I tried to get a reloadable card at my credit union and could not do it because something is not reporting my name change. The branch manager suspected either Social Security or Chex Systems/Credit Bureaus. I had already updated my name with Social Security months ago. I told her this and she said it can still take them up to 2 years to finalize their records even after they've issued you a new card. I'm still investigating this and will post more when I know. But what I hadn't updated was Chex Systems and the credit bureaus.
So, that brings us to that step. How to update Chex Systems and credit bureaus...
Chex Systems: I sent them a letter explaining what I was doing , a copy of my court order, a copy of my drivers license, a copy of my social security card, and list of the past 5 years of address history.
For Equifax: Same as above but only 2 years' address history required.
For Experian: Save the postage and do it online. I sent the above but it did not work, they just sent back a copy of my credit report. I called them and was told to go to
http://www.experian.com/upload/. From there, you can upload a copy your court order and two forms of ID. The rep said that should be sufficient.
For Transunion: Because the post office couldn't verify mailing address, I called them. The rep took me through some security questions and added my new name as an "Also Known As". He said in order to make the new name primary, the other two credit agencies have to report it to them as such. He said all you have to do is call the other agencies and request this.
I hope this information is useful to some of you!
-Josh
