Every day, people in America get married. Some of them change their last names. Evidently, though, no one in the history of Chase Bank has ever done this while they were in the middle of paying off their car loan. See, until the loan is paid, the bank has a lien on your car’s title. If you want to change the name on your car title and the loan hasn’t been paid off yet, Chase won’t let that happen. This isn’t a problem unless you have to move and register your car in a different state after your name change but before the car is paid off. That’s what happened to Michael’s wife, and how she ended up in a loop of bureaucracy sending them back and forth from Chase to the Maryland Vehicle Administration.

My wife and I recently got married last year and as a result, my wife had to legally change her maiden name to my last name. It sounds like a very simple process, but it really isn’t. She was able to change her maiden name to her married name on everything except for a credit card account and car title that has a lien against it. Both the credit card account and the car title are through Chase Bank. We don’t have a problem with the credit card being in my wife’s maiden name as we plan to cancel it after paying off the balance on it. However, Chase informed us that they would not change my wife’s maiden name to her married name on the car title until we have paid off the balance that we owe on the car loan. Fair enough, but it is a pain to deal with for my wife when registering the car because she has a different last name now. This is where the trouble begins.

Several months after getting married, we had to move to Maryland as I had switched jobs within my company. Upon visiting the Maryland Vehicle Administration to register both of our vehicles, we found out that the MVA will not title and register a vehicle in Maryland unless the vehicle’s title is in the same name as the owner. While we were at the MVA, we had to call Chase to plead with them to authorize the MVA to legally change my wife’s name on the car title. We even had an MVA representative explain to the Chase customer service representative that they are required by law to change the car title to reflect my wife’s name change.

However, the customer service representative told us that Chase will not change it without written authorization. We were not told this by the previous Chase customer service representative that my wife spoke to prior to our moving to Maryland. So, my wife sent a fax to Chase authorizing the name change but the fax apparently went into a black hole. On a subsequent trip to the MVA today, she found out that they had not received the car title with her married name yet and had to send a second fax. That fax will probably get lost as well, but we will find out on our next trip to the MVA if Chase decides to actually follow through.

Chase has completely dropped the ball on this. Ironically, I received the same poor customer service two years ago from Chase when I applied for a car loan with them but decided to choose a different lender because of it. I’ve decided that my wife and I will not have any further business with Chase in the future as a result of this poor customer service.

Good luck! If you’re still stuck after the next trip, maybe Chase executive customer service can help.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.