Just Call Me Norma Ray

“All progress depends on the unreasonable man. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.”
— George Bernard Shaw


I need to change my name on my "second mortgage". Yes I was one of the 80/15/5 subprime mortgage interest only fools. Except I'm not defaulting....

It's a pain in the ass if you don't work in an office. The whole fax machine/copier thing. The other day I took a picture of my license, uploaded it, reduced it to a manageable jpeg, printed it - and attached it to the name change form for my brokerage account. Yes I was one of the invest now so you can retire later fools.

So I'm talking to the Antonio, my customer service representative, and he tells me that I can attach a copy of my marriage certificate with a letter.

Which.... I am, for the most part, happy to do. Except for the fact that our marriage certificate has our cities of birth, mothers maiden names and social security numbers.

Which.... I don't think the mortgage company needs.

Because see, here's the thing, the mortgage company may keep MOST of your information confidential. Say your social, your financials, to them, that's what needs to be secure. But a name change form? No one is going to secure that as confidential. That goes to the 'input" dept ie data processing.

Essentially what they are saying is send me the answers to your top four security questions along with your social and we'll file it, maybe, in data processing. Maybe.

I've decided that they don't need all that information.
What they need is to know that I have changed my name.

So I'm typing up a form, having it notarized and and they'll get a copy of my new social security card. Antonio says they "may not be able to accept it".

My feeling? If it's good enough for the government, it should be good enough for the mortgage company the government is bailing out.

So that's my cause of the week. I've fought it twice now, with two separate banks getting a third generation photocopy of my marriage certificate with everything blacked out but my names.

And while this may verge on the cusp of "too much free time" I'm willing to fight the good fight.