Here's how I changed my name. As others have said, your name is changed once the marriage certificate is filed. You need to get a certified copy of your marriage certificate. The certified copy has a raised stamp on it, so you can't just make your own copy. I went down to the town hall of the municipality where we got married and paid $5 for the certified copy. Then I took that baby down to the DMV (division of motor vehicles) and got a new driver's license and registration card. Then I mailed the certified copy to the Social Security Administration. Several weeks later I received a new social security card and the returned marriage certificate (which is the only copy of the marriage certificate that I have.) They didn't require me to hand in the old SS card (I still have it.) I never notified the IRS. DH and I just filed "married filing jointly" for the year that we got married, and my SS# didn't change, and that's how the IRS identifies you anyway (you're a number, not a name to them.) The rest of the creditors were easy: I just told them I got married, and to add my new name onto the end of my old name. Maybe it was easy for me because I kept my old surname and made it my middle name. (I felt like I wanted to keep some of my old identity, which includes family ties.) But, the thing with the creditors (like SallieMae, which services my student loans) is that they have your social security number, so once again, your tied to that more than your name anyway. From what I recall, I literally just called all these people up and told them to use the new name on all future correspondences. Hope it's as easy for you. BTW, how did the disputing work out?

Hi breenthumb, Rumour has it that there are other insurance companies. Granted, there are fewer than there used to be, as they, like most corporations, hate competition on their own level and will go to great lengths to get rid of competitors. Some time ago I had a personal tax-deferred retirement account with a stockbrokerage, which had incurred no administration cost for years, as it had been grandfathered that way when that company took over another company. When I came to the age where I had to reverse it from an account into which I paid in, into one into which I could no longer pay in, but must withdraw a certain percentage annually, which increases from about 7% at age 71 to 20% at age 90 and beyond, a problem arose. They said that there would be an annual administration fee, and my claim that it was a continuation/reversal of a fee-free account that I'd had with them for years fell on quite deaf ears. So ... I did some checking with some other agencies, and came back to report that, since such and such a company and so and so company would agree to carry my account without an administration fee, I was considereing transferring my account ... they seemed to have a change of heart, for it appeared that they, too, could carry that account without an admin. fee. Which they've done for about 10 years, now: nice to have a little skill and effort save one well over $1,000., on occasion, right? I didn't feel it necessary to include in my report the fact that I would be somewhat less inclined to use the other companies than the one that I had been with for years ... as Grandma used to say, "One should tell the truth ... but there's no reason that one should blab and tell all that one knows". So ... ... if you don't, or haven't owed money for several recent years in several locations/circumstances ... ... they figure that your trustworthiness is suspect, do they? As I've lived in over 20 locations in my 79 years (as I discovered when they asked over on KT in how many places one had lived), I've never owned a home ... ... so never had a mortgage. As I live fairly frugally, I've had few loans. Which situation is aided by the fact that I tend to buy old cars and drive them into the ground, which usually takes 5 - 7 years ... which enables me to buy them for cash (having added a bit to emergency funds from time to time, and drawing on it to make those smallish purchases). When I have substantial debt and must pay quite a lot of interest every month, it seems to me that, since much of our debt is usually non-deductible, if I have to pay $100. monthly in interest, and make $10.00 per hour, after-tax income ... that means that I work 10 hours/month for someone else, the holder of my loan(s). I'd rather wait until I can afford to pay cash ... and pay myself, instead. Learning how money works is an interesting hobby ... that pays well ... and I hope that you're developing increasing shrewdness at managiong your income and assets effectively: to benefit you rather than the other guys (with the exception of worthy charities). Hope you're part way into a happy weekend. One nice thing about retirement is ... that every day is weekend. A nice benefit of learning skillful management of money may well be/quite likely will be ... early retirement (at your choice, not because your company downsizes when you're about 50 ... leaving you out in the cold). ole joyful P.S. I could qualify, as I've had a Line of Credit, usually unused, for about 10 years, and have had a credit (actually "debt") card for several years, which I use infrequently. I recently took on another, which offered 1.9% on transferred balances for most of this year, figuring that I'd buy some stock using the original card, then transfer the balance, as the bank, which had usually charged me bank prime on my loans (fully secured), they recently said that prime was 3.5% ... but they needed a 1.5% surcharge, to total 5%. Now, however, they say that the interest on my Line of Credit will be 2.25% ... so I'll take that, instead of jockeying on credit cards - not a good idea to shift from one horse to another while crossing a stream, I figure. Most cards charge full rate (often 18% on mainline cards: 28% or so on store-issued cards) from the date of the advance until it is paid in full, and I'd not be sure how long it would take to transfer to the second card. o j

Karla, Thanks for asking about my friend. I accompanied her to her first visit for moral support, although I told her it would be easy. She was quite happy to find out I was right. The counselor was great. All the credit cards are now cut up. She is a little intimidated by the idea of sticking to a budget, but I told her that it would get easier as time went on. I am going to be her "coach" so if she gets discoraged she is is going to call me so I can remind her that I was successful and she will be too. She is very glad she didn't go with one of those other supposed credit repair companies. Your information was very helpful, and pushed her in the right direction. I seem to have become an unofficial advocate for CCS, lol. my nephew and his wife had some credit difficulties (her previous husband left her with all the bills and took off.) I encouraged them to go to CCS a few years ago, and she just told me they had "graduated" I know what a good feeling that is :) Abbey

Although Bry911 states scores over 800 you should just relax with a drop the 5 point drop I received did effect the cost of my car and house insurance. Car insurance uses a different score and credit pulls typically don't change the score. Home insurance can change because of credit pulls but it is a fairly minor change. In either situation an 800 FICO without a lot of credit card debt as the OP stated will return insurance scores close to 950, anything above an 800 is going to keep you in the lowest rate. In fact, it is hard to have a bad insurance pull with credit above a 720. Bry mentioned a 25 pt drop but I did not see that number in any of the remaining posts. A hard pull drops your credit between 2 and 4 points per pull for 1 year with old pulls sometimes having a diminished effect. The higher and lower your score the higher the effect on your credit, additionally if you have old pulls but no recent pulls that doesn't hurt your score as much as old pulls plus recent pulls. In other words consistently pulling your credit hurts more than the same number of pulls at one time then a long break. It is impossible to accurately calculate the effect of a monthly hard pull but we can guess that at an 800+ credit score it is somewhere between 20 and 30 points.