Affiliate disclosure
We earn a commission if you buy from Easy Name Change through the links on this page. It did not buy a favourable review — the second section explains why a lot of readers should not buy anything at all.
Easy Name Change has been selling name change paperwork kits since 2008 — compiled, pre-filled document packs for people changing their name after marriage or divorce, at about $39 to print at home or $79 printed and posted. It is one of the better-regarded services we have reviewed anywhere: an A+ BBB rating with zero complaints in three years and a Trustpilot average around 4.8. It is also selling something most buyers misunderstand, so the honest place to start is with what you are actually paying for.
Every Form It Sends You Is Free
You cannot buy access to these forms, because nobody is selling it. Every government document involved in a name change is free from the agency that issues it.
- Form SS-5, the Social Security card application used for a name change, has no fee and is downloadable from ssa.gov. Processing is typically around 14 business days.
- Form DS-5504, the passport name change form, is free to submit — no application fee and no execution fee — where your most recent passport was issued less than a year ago.
- State DMV forms are free from each state’s own agency.
This is not an accusation. Easy Name Change does not claim to sell you access, and we found no suggestion that it does. But it is the assumption a hurried buyer can make when a service advertises “name change kits” for $39, and it is the one thing that would make the purchase a bad one.
One government fee is unavoidable and no service can waive it: if your passport is more than a year old, a name change requires form DS-82 or DS-11 and the full passport fee, not the free DS-5504 route. That money goes to the State Department regardless of how you fill in the paperwork.
So What Are You Actually Buying?
Something real, and worth being precise about: compilation, personalisation and sequencing.
The company’s own framing is that a typical newlywed deals with more than 20 organisations across 11 industries — Social Security, the DMV, the passport agency, banks, credit cards, insurers, employers, utilities, subscriptions, professional licences, voter registration and so on — and that its aim is to turn an eight-hour research job into about fifteen minutes. It says it runs automated form-checking so you receive current versions, and employs researchers who track changing procedures.
The genuinely hard part of a name change is not obtaining any single form. It is knowing the list, and knowing the order. Social Security generally comes before the DMV; the DMV before some financial institutions; several organisations want to see a document you can only get once an earlier step is complete. Getting that sequence wrong is how a two-week task becomes a two-month one, and that ordering knowledge is precisely what is missing from a pile of free PDFs.
So the honest description is that this is a time product. At $39, it is worth buying if it saves you a few hours you value at more than about $13 each, and not worth buying if you would enjoy the research or only need to notify a handful of organisations. Both are reasonable positions.
Pricing and the Refund Asymmetry
| Package | Price | What differs | Refundable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Print at home | ~$39 | You print and post the forms yourself | 60 days stated |
| Printed and posted | ~$79 | Forms printed and mailed to you | Postage and handling non-refundable once mailed |
The $40 gap between the two buys printing and envelopes. That is a fair price if you have no printer or no patience; it is not a difference in what you receive. Most people should take the $39 option.
The 60-day refund is narrower than it sounds. Reported terms are that the premium kit is refundable only if you ask before it ships, and that on the print-and-post package a non-refundable postage and handling fee is deducted if the kit is already in the mail. Since fulfilment on a digital-first product is fast, the practical window is far shorter than 60 days. If you have doubts, raise them immediately rather than at leisure.
The Reputation Is Genuinely Strong
We have now written twenty-one of these reviews, and the customer-record section is usually where things go wrong. Not here.
- An A+ Better Business Bureau rating with zero complaints filed in the last three years. Across every company we have reviewed this session, that is the cleanest BBB record we have found — for comparison, one hearing-device seller had 450.
- Trustpilot around 4.8 across 100-plus ratings, with praise concentrated on ease of use and customer service.
- Trading since 2008, with the company reporting more than a million users.
A hundred-plus ratings is a modest sample and Trustpilot skews toward people with something to say, so we would not treat 4.8 as precise. But zero BBB complaints in three years is a structural signal rather than a sentiment one: it means very few customers have felt the need to escalate. For a service that handles personal data and sells a fairly abstract product, that is the most reassuring thing on this page.
A Large Weight Change Can Mean You Need a New Passport
This section is for readers of this site specifically, and it has nothing to do with changing your name — but it is the reason a page about identity documents belongs here at all.
State Department guidance is that you should apply for a new passport if your appearance has changed significantly — and it names a very large weight change explicitly, alongside major facial surgery, trauma, and the addition or removal of numerous large facial piercings or tattoos, as a reason a new photo may be required.
The test is whether you can still be identified from the photo in your current passport. If you can, you do not need a new one — dyeing your hair or growing a beard does not qualify. If you genuinely cannot, that is worth resolving before you travel.
For anyone who has lost a large amount of weight, this is a practical detail that rarely gets mentioned and is much better dealt with at a desk than at a border. The same logic applies informally to a driver’s licence, which is the ID most often used for domestic flights, banking and age verification — if the photo no longer looks like you, updating it saves friction in a dozen small situations.
One piece of sequencing worth knowing: if you are both changing your name and needing a new photo, doing them together avoids paying twice. And note the timing rule above — the free DS-5504 route only applies if your most recent passport was issued within the last year, so a photo update on an older passport is a full-fee application either way.
The Free Route, If You Would Rather
Since we have said the forms are free, it would be evasive not to sketch the free path. In broad order:
- Get certified copies of the underlying document — the marriage certificate or court order. Order several; almost every organisation wants to see one, and some keep them.
- Social Security first. Form SS-5, free from ssa.gov, typically around 14 business days. Most other agencies expect this to be done.
- Then the DMV, using your state’s own free forms, which usually requires the updated Social Security record.
- Then the passport, using DS-5504 if your passport was issued within the last year, or DS-82 or DS-11 with the full fee if not.
- Then everything else — banks, cards, insurers, employer and payroll, pensions, utilities, subscriptions, professional licences, voter registration, and anything holding a deed or title. This is the long tail, and it is where the list is genuinely useful.
That sequence is the substance of what the $39 buys, laid out. If reading it made you feel organised, do it yourself. If it made you tired, the service is doing something for you.
How to Judge a Name Change Service
We did not verify competitors’ current pricing, so rather than rank them, here is what actually separates one from another — and where this one sits.
| What to check | Why it matters | Easy Name Change |
|---|---|---|
| Does it claim to sell access? | The forms are free; any service implying otherwise is misleading you | No such claim found |
| Is the form set current? | An out-of-date form is worse than no form | Company states automated form checking |
| Complaint record | You are handing over personal data | A+ BBB, zero complaints in 3 years |
| Refund before fulfilment | Digital products ship fast, closing the window | Mixed — narrows sharply once mailed |
| Price against hours saved | The only real value calculation | $39 for a claimed 8 hours to 15 minutes |
Pros and Cons
Pros
- A+ BBB rating with zero complaints filed in three years — the cleanest record we have found
- Trustpilot around 4.8 across 100-plus ratings
- Trading since 2008 with a reported million-plus users
- $39 is a modest price against several hours of administrative research
- Solves the genuinely hard part — the list and the order, not the forms
- Company states automated form checking keeps versions current
- Does not appear to claim it sells access to anything free
- Print-at-home option avoids paying $40 for envelopes
Cons
- Every form it compiles is free from the issuing agency
- The 60-day refund narrows sharply once the kit ships or posts
- Print-and-post package deducts non-refundable postage and handling
- The $79 tier buys printing and envelopes, not extra content
- Cannot waive government fees — an older passport still needs DS-82 or DS-11 at full cost
- Of little use if you only need to notify two or three organisations
- You still do all the actual submitting, queueing and waiting
- We could not verify pricing on the company’s own site
Who Should Pick It, and Who Should Look Elsewhere
Easy Name Change suits you if you have a full name change ahead of you — the 20-organisation version rather than the three-organisation version — and you would rather pay $39 than spend an evening working out which form goes where and in what order. The complaint record is excellent, the price is modest, and the thing it sells is real.
Do it yourself if you only need to update a few organisations, you have the time and do not mind the research, or you simply object on principle to paying for something whose components are free. That is a perfectly rational position, and the sequence above is the outline you need. Take the $39 print-at-home tier rather than the $79 one either way — the extra $40 buys printing, not knowledge.
And if you are here because of weight loss rather than a name change: the passport section above is the part worth acting on, and it costs nothing to check whether you are still identifiable in your own photo.
Limitations of This Review
We have not bought a kit, so we cannot assess how complete, accurate or current the forms actually are — which is the whole product. We cannot confirm the claimed eight-hours-to-fifteen-minutes saving, the number of organisations covered for any given user, or the quality of the instructions.
Specific gaps: pricing and refund terms are as reported by third-party coverage rather than read from the company’s own checkout, so confirm both before purchase — treat the $39 and $79 figures as indicative. The BBB and Trustpilot figures are likewise third-party reported and we did not read the profiles directly; 100-plus ratings is a modest sample. We did not test the service’s data handling or privacy practices, which matter for a product that collects personal identity information. On the government processes, form fees and free-submission rules can change — verify current requirements with the SSA, the State Department and your own state DMV, which is free to do. Nothing here is legal advice, and requirements differ by state and by individual circumstance.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Easy Name Change cost?
Two packages, as reported at 7 August 2026: about $39 for a print-at-home kit, or about $79 for a package where the forms are printed and posted to you. The difference between them is delivery, not content — the $79 version saves you printing and stuffing envelopes.
Are the forms free elsewhere?
Yes, and this is the single most important thing to understand before buying. Every government form involved is free from the issuing agency. Form SS-5, the Social Security card application used for a name change, carries no fee and is downloadable from ssa.gov, with processing typically around 14 business days. Passport form DS-5504 is free to submit if your most recent passport was issued less than a year ago. State DMV forms are free from each state. You are not paying for access to anything.
Then what does the service actually give you?
Compilation, personalisation and sequencing. The company says a typical newlywed deals with more than 20 organisations across 11 industries, that it maintains automated form-checking so you receive current versions, and that it employs researchers who track changing procedures. What you buy is somebody having already worked out which organisations you need to notify, in what order, with which document, pre-filled with your details. That is a genuine product — it is a time product, not an access product.
Is the passport name change free?
Only in one situation. Form DS-5504 is free to submit — no application fee, no execution fee — if your most recent passport was issued less than one year ago, though expedited processing costs extra. If your passport is older than a year, you need form DS-82 or DS-11 instead and pay the full passport fee. No name change service can waive that; the fee is the government’s, not the retailer’s.
What is the refund policy?
A 60-day full refund is offered, with an important asymmetry. On the premium kit you are only eligible for a refund if you ask before it ships. On the print-and-post package, if the kit is already in the mail when you request the refund, a non-refundable postage and handling fee is deducted. So the practical window is much shorter than 60 days once fulfilment starts — if you have second thoughts, raise them immediately.
Is the company reputable?
Unusually so, on the measures we can check. It holds an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau with zero complaints filed in the last three years, and Trustpilot shows an average around 4.8 across 100-plus ratings. The company says it has served over a million users since 2008. Across the reviews we have written, a zero-complaint three-year BBB record is rare.
Do I need a new passport if I have lost a lot of weight?
Possibly, and this is separate from any name change. State Department guidance is that you should apply for a new passport if your appearance has changed significantly, and it names a very large weight change alongside major facial surgery, trauma and extensive facial tattoos or piercings as reasons a new photo may be required. The test is whether you can still be identified from the photo in your current passport — if you can, you do not need a new one. If you cannot, that is worth resolving before you travel rather than at a border.
Should I use a service or do it myself?
It depends entirely on what your time is worth to you and how much you dislike administrative research. If $39 buys back several hours you would otherwise spend finding forms, working out the correct order and chasing requirements, that is a straightforward trade. If you enjoy paperwork, have plenty of time, or only need to update two or three organisations, doing it yourself costs nothing but effort. Neither answer is wrong — just be clear which one you are choosing.
Verdict
4.2 / 5
A well-run service with the cleanest complaint record we have found, selling something genuinely useful at a modest price — provided you understand you are buying somebody else’s research, not access to forms that are free.
It is a pleasure to write a review where the company record is the easy part. An A+ BBB rating with zero complaints in three years, a Trustpilot average around 4.8, and eighteen years of trading is about as good as this section gets — and across the twenty-one reviews we have written this session, nothing else comes close on that measure.
The only thing standing between this and a higher score is the nature of the product, and it is a caveat rather than a criticism. Every form in the kit is free. What costs $39 is not having to find them, work out the order, or discover halfway through that the DMV wanted your Social Security record updated first. That is a real service and a fair price for it — but it is a service you can decline, and a fair number of readers should.
The practical test is simple. If you have twenty organisations to notify and dislike administrative research, $39 is good value and the print-at-home tier is the one to take. If you have three, or you find this sort of thing satisfying, keep the money. And whichever you choose — if you have lost a large amount of weight, take two minutes to look at your passport photo and ask whether you are still recognisably the person in it. The State Department names that explicitly, and it is much cheaper to deal with now than at an airport.
Take the $39 Tier, and Check Your Passport Photo
The $79 package buys printing and envelopes, not extra content — take the print-at-home option. Order several certified copies of your marriage certificate, do Social Security first, and raise any refund request before the kit ships. Separately: if a large weight change means you are no longer identifiable in your passport photo, that needs a new passport.