Linking a Joint Bank Account to Building Society Account

[hal3210]

I've just opened a building society savings account that I'd like to be linked to our joint bank account for making withdrawals.

When I tried to type in the name on our joint bank account (e.g. Mr A Smith and Mrs B A Smith) there wasn't enough room to type in such a long name so I just put the equivalent of 'A and Mrs BA Smith'. I've logged into the building society account and I see that the named account is now down as 'A & Ba Smith' with the 'a' incorrectly in lower case.

I'm now concerned that transfers won't reach the account as the shortened bank account name does not match the names of the bank account as printed on the cheque book with the Mr and Mrs.

Given the transfers will be going to a joint account, am I right in thinking only one correct name needs to be specified, i.e would I be best to change the details of the named account to just 'Mrs B A Smith'?

I know that account numbers are automatically matched to the correct name when making a transfer so I'm concerned that at the moment I may not be able to transfer funds out of this account.

Much appreciate any advice / experience of anyone linking a joint bank account to a savings account.

[Colonel Cupcake]

Try transferring a couple of quid to see if it works.

[1690cc]

Change it to however your name is printed on your bank account debit card.

The algorithm used by clearing banks is nowadays sophisticated enough to distinguish the name of just one of the two account holders. No need to try and include both names.

[Glosphil]

Our account is Mr X X XXXXXX & Mrs X X XXXXXX. Transfers to either name work fine.

[Vasco]

The banks used to primarily use the Sort Code plus Account Number - the name was secondary and only used if the other data was not fully correct.
I doubt that the overall principle has changed more recently.