Breaking up joint accounts should not be as difficult as the breakup
As if dealing with a divorce and house transfer wasn’t stressful enough, my bank and insurance company made it extra difficult for me to remove myself from joint accounts.
The bank experience
My ex and I had a joint bank account for shared expenses. After my ex decided to buy me out of our house, we agreed he’d keep the account since the mortgage payments came out of it. I’d just take my name off it.
Filling out a form to remove my name
I searched online for how to remove myself. I found some guidance that said I had to fill out a form to get my name off the account. This was in January 2022.
I filled out the form, and the bank sent a follow-up letter to my ex. It asked us to send in ID, so we sent copies of our passports.
We never heard any response following this.
Following up after no response
Finally, in April, with us getting close to our house transfer going through, I called the bank to ask what happened and what I needed to do now.
They said we actually needed to send two forms of ID: photo ID and proof of address.
I told this to me ex, and he sent me back a picture of the letter the bank had originally sent.
It said to “refer to List 1” to see what documents we needed to send.
List 1 listed photo identification like passports. It was list 2 that mentioned proof of address. So on the phone they were telling me I needed a proof of address, but that’s not what their original letter said to provide.
I took my documents (photo ID and proof of address) into a branch to get scanned, hoping this would sort getting my name off the account.
Having to go to a branch with my ex
When I heard nothing again, I followed up with a phone call. The bank employee said they should have been able to get my name off while I was in the branch, but they didn’t offer this service when I was there. The employee said to go into a branch again with both our documents.
I obviously didn’t have my ex’s documents. I told him what happened and asked if he was okay to go to a branch with me to get this sorted.
He agreed, and we met at a branch with our documents. They told us that we needed to meet with an advisor to get this sorted, but none were in that day. We would need to find another time to come in.
“You could have done this online”
We booked an appointment for a few days later. In the middle of our work day, we met at the branch again. We spoke with an advisor, and getting my name off the account got sorted quickly.
The advisor ended the appointment telling us we could have done this process online.
My ex and I, who were not on friendly terms since I ended the marriage, had a moment of brief humor between us as we looked at each other and did sort of a sigh-chuckle at the comment.
We let this employee know that their company’s process was, in fact, not so straightforward as they thought.
The insurance company experience
The other company that gave me trouble was our house insurance company.
Getting emails after being taken off the policy
My ex took my name off the insurance policy in April, and he sent me proof that he did it.
In August, three months after the house transfer went through, I got an email from the insurance company about a renewal of our policy.
I got in touch with the insurance company to confirm that I should be off the policy and to remove my details from their system.
They emailed me back: “Unfortunately there is no authorization on the policy for us to be able to discuss anything with yourself. The policy holder would need to give us a call for us to be able to discuss things further.”
I replied that their response seemed to confirm I was not on the policy since they weren’t authorized to speak to me about it. So if this was the case, I should not be getting emails related to it. I asked if they could please remove my details and not contact me again.
I didn’t get a response to my email, and a week later, I got another automated email about a renewal of the policy.
Not accepting their generic response
After receiving the second renewal email, I messaged the company on their live chat. I got the same standard response: they couldn’t speak to me because there was no authorization to discuss that policy with me.
I told them this was not an acceptable answer. If I was not on their policies, they did not have my consent to have my contact details.
The chat agent then said they’d send this to their IT team to deal with.
I said they needed to send me confirmation when this was dealt with, and much to my pleasant surprise, they did indeed send me a follow-up email a few days later when this was done.
Fix your removal policies, companies
Compared with all the other drama I had to deal with in my divorce and house transfer process, my experience with these companies was relatively mild.
But it was incredibly frustrating how difficult it proved to be to get my name off accounts.
With the bank, their content on how to handle the process was so far out of touch with how the service actually functioned.
With the insurance company, their responses made themselves sound like they were protecting customers by not talking to me about a policy my name was no longer on. However, they clearly were still keeping my details attached to this policy and sending me emails about it.
After telling the Scottish legal system and lawyers to do better, I’m ending these series of posts with the same message to companies who offer forms of joint accounts.
Companies: add fixing your removal policies to your service improvement backlogs. What you’re doing isn’t working, and you’re making life that much more stressful for people already under a lot of stress.
It shouldn’t be more difficult to remove your name from something than it is to add your name to something.
The divorce series
This is post five (and the final post) in my series of divorce blogs, following my previous four:
