First, I need to start this post to let you know that you are absolutely not required or obliged to change your last name when you get married. You can totally keep your maiden name, I have a lot of friends who never changed and its normal. So why am I doing it? And most importantly – WHERE do I even begin!? Read away!
You guys know me as Yuki but did you know my real name is Alexandra? So that already makes it tricky, not having “Yuki” on my ID. I think it would also be nice to have our whole Higfam go by the same last name (also, to avoid questions if ever the last names aren’t the same.)
So I definitely respect and applaud ladies who choose to keep their maiden name. You do you, sistah! And for me, I choose to change to my husband’s last name and if you are thinking of that too, I hope this blog post helps as a guide on changing IDs to your married name.
Disclaimer: Info is accurate only as of date of blog post. Always call and check with the office to be sure!
Goal for all IDs: To change my marital status, change to my marital name (Tansengco to Higson) and update my current address / revision of records.
Government ID #1: LTO Drivers License
Where To Go: Go to your local LTO district office where you reside. In my case, this experience is based on a trip in the LTO Makati office in Pililia St., Makati.
Tip: I’m pregnant as of blog post writing so I wore a comfy outfit that clearly showed the bump so I was instantly upgraded to the Priority Lane. Wuhoo!
Total time it took from arriving and leaving the LTO office: Less than 30 minutes
Cost to change: Php325.00
P.S. Do note LTO (and I think most gov’t offices) accept cash payments only.
Requirements: Bring original and 1 photocopy of each item
1. Certificate of Marriage
2. Barangay Clearance – Since I live in a condo, I had to request a Certification of Residency first from my condo admin as a requirement before they issued me a Barangay Clearance.
3. Proof of billing to show new address (I brought our waterbill. You can bring any from credit card bill, Meralco, etc)
4. Your old drivers license (of course!)
Procedure:
- When you arrive in the LTO office, you’ll give the requirements mentioned above (don’t forget the photocopy ha!) and they’ll tell you to proceed to a window so someone from LTO will quickly scan your requirements.
- Afterwards, I was immediately led to a computer to create an online LTO account (which you must verify via your email) on their portal and digitally encode my OLD information, input the scanned documents and encode the NEW last name and new address. Super quick!
- After encoding information on the LTO online portal (make sure spelling is correct ha!), it generates a receipt of Php325 which you have to pay in cash.
- After paying, they take your biometrics, photo (you can even ask them to re-use your previous license photo) and signature then voila – my fresh new driver’s license with my marital name was printed within 2 minutes!
Government ID #2: Postal ID (Primary)
Where To Go: Go to your local PHL Post Office where you reside. In my case, this experience is based on a trip in PHL Post in Gil Puyat in Makati.
Tip: Process this right after you do your driver’s license because they have very similar requirements. For the second time around, I was instantly upgraded to the Priority Lane. Yay!
Total time spent in the Postal office: Less than 30 minutes
Cost to change: Php504.00
P.S. Like the LTO office, they accept cash payments only.
Requirements: Bring original and 1 photocopy of each item
1. Certificate of Marriage
2. Barangay Clearance
3. Certificate of Live Birth
4. Two copies of the Postal ID (PID) Application Form which you can download here. If you don’t have a printer, no problem because they have application forms ready for you in the office mismo but it saves time to fill it out before going.
If you happen to lack one of the mentioned documents above, you may refer to the PID official website to see what you can bring to replace it.
Procedure:
- When you arrive in the Post office, you’ll simply give your accomplished Application Form, your photocopied requirements and pay Php504.
- Afterwards, they’ll call out your name to take your photo, biometrics, and encode your information on the spot so you can double check the spelling. Super quick!
- Unlike the LTO license that gives you the printed ID right away, there is unfortunately no “Rush” option at the moment for Postal IDs. I received a stub and was told to expect my Postal ID to be mailed to my home within 30 days. Now the waiting game begins but hey – it was quite easy!
Mission Accomplished! I was super happy to have succeeded in updating these gov’t IDs in less than 30 minutes.
After you’ve done the items above and when you have at least 2 government IDs with your married name, everything else will be easy. Here is how you update your bank accounts based on the 2 establishments I bank with:
Bank Account #1: BDO Debit and Credit Card
Where To Go: Go to your BDO branch of account. In my case, I went where I opened my account which is in BDO SM Makati.
Tip: I found this relatively easy. BDO just asked for 1 government ID with married name and I presented by TIN ID at that time. They immediately processed it and I picked up my new cards in a few weeks.
Bank Account #2: BPI Debit Card
Where To Go: If you can, go to your BPI branch of account. In my case, I was heavily pregnant and had no energy to go to my original branch of account. I just went to the BPI near my home and asked that BPI branch to forward my documents to my BPI branch of account.
Tip: BPI was a bit more strict. BPI asked for at least 2 primary government IDs with married name (it needs to be primary so they didn’t honor my TIN ID) I sent my drivers license and postal ID. They immediately processed it and I picked up my new cards in a few weeks. Success! Update: passport has been updated as well – read about it here!
XO,
Mrs. H