If a charge of £2.95 (or a similar small amount) keeps appearing on your bank statement with "deed poll" in the description, you are paying a monthly subscription that some deed poll websites add during checkout. It is usually described as document storage, membership, or priority support, and it is often ticked by default when you buy. It is not a government fee. There is no official body that charges anything monthly for a deed poll, and a deed poll itself never involves recurring costs.
The good news: you can cancel it today, cancelling does not affect your name change in any way, and in some cases you can get the money back. Here is how.
What the £2.95 charge actually is
Several deed poll websites bundle an ongoing subscription with the one-off document purchase. The wording varies: "secure document storage", "membership benefits", "free reprints", "priority support". Whatever the label, the mechanics are the same. At checkout you agreed, sometimes via a pre-ticked box or a line buried in the small print, to a recurring monthly payment on the card you used. Banks process this as a continuous payment authority, which is why it keeps going through even though you never set up a direct debit.
To be clear about what you are paying for: a deed poll is a single document. Once it is signed and witnessed, it is complete. Storing a PDF costs nothing, and you can keep your own copies forever. Ongoing payment adds nothing to the legal status of your name change.
How to find out which company is charging you
The statement description usually names the company or its trading name. If it is vague, search your email for the day of the first charge or the day you bought your deed poll; the order confirmation will name the service. If you paid through PayPal, log in and check Settings, then Payments, then Automatic payments, where every active subscription is listed with the merchant's name.
How to cancel the subscription
- Cancel with the company first. Log in to their website and look for a membership or account section with a cancel option. No login or no obvious option? Email them, quote the card charged and the date of the last payment, and ask them to cancel the subscription and confirm in writing.
- Cancel through PayPal if you paid that way. In Automatic payments, select the merchant and press cancel. This stops them collecting anything further, immediately.
- Or tell your bank to stop it. You do not need the company's permission. Ask your bank to cancel the continuous payment authority to that merchant; once you have told them, they are required to block future payments. Do this if the company is slow, unreachable, or you simply want it stopped now.
- Check your next statement. If a payment goes through after you cancelled, your bank must refund it.
Can you get the money back?
Sometimes. If the subscription was not made clear when you bought, complain to the company in writing and ask for a refund of the payments taken; describe where the charge was disclosed, or rather where it was not. Companies faced with a clear written complaint often refund a few months rather than argue. If they refuse and you genuinely never agreed to the charge, ask your bank to dispute the payments. Banks can claw back unauthorised recurring card payments, and payments taken after you asked for a cancellation are always recoverable.
Is your deed poll still valid if you cancel?
Yes, completely. A deed poll's legal force comes from the document itself: the correct wording, your signature, and your two witnesses. It does not depend on the website that generated it, on any account with them, or on any subscription staying active. Cancelling changes nothing about your name. Just make sure you have a copy of the signed document (and the PDF, if you like) stored somewhere safe, because after cancelling you may lose access to downloads from their site.
How to avoid this with any name-change service
Before paying for a deed poll anywhere, check three things: the total price on the payment page, any pre-ticked boxes, and the words "monthly", "membership" or "subscription" anywhere near the buy button. A deed poll is a one-off purchase; there is nothing about it that justifies a recurring fee.
For what it is worth, this service charges once. £14.99, you download your deed poll, and that is the end of the transaction: no account, nothing that renews. The optional extras (notification letters, printed copies by post) are one-off too. If you have been burned by a subscription and need a fresh deed poll, you can generate one here in a few minutes, though if your existing signed deed poll is safe in a drawer, you do not need to buy anything again.