How to Change Your Mailing Address With The Post Office

The United States Postal Service says that over 40 million people move to a new address each year! If you are one of those people, there are many things you need to do when you move, but one that often gets overlooked is changing your mailing address right away. You can miss out on valuable mail unless you put in a request to forward your mail. There are actually three ways that you can change your mailing address with the Post Office. Here is How to Change Your Mailing Address With The Post Office.

Things You'll Need

• Internet Connection
• Credit Card

Instructions

1. 

   You can change your mailing address online for a $1.00 fee.
   Go to the United States Postal Service website, www.usps.com.
   On the main page, there is a section under Products and Services that says RECEIVING MAIL. The drop down box here gives you a selection that says CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS. Click here, and you will be taken to the online OFFICIAL CHANGE OF ADDRESS FORM. You must have a valid credit card to complete the submit your change of address online.

   Read the notes and the Privacy Act Statement, and then click on CLICK HERE TO BEGIN. The nest step is to select whether this is a TEMPORARY or a PERMANENT change of address. Only select Temporary if you will be moving back to your old address within 12 months. Then type in the date you want the Post Office to start forwarding your mail, and click on CONTINUE. On the next page, select whether this change is for an INDIVIDUAL, FAMILY, or BUSINESS. Click on Continue, and on the next page, fill in your Old and New addresses and an email address for the Post Office to send you an email confirmation of your change of address. Click Continue again, and you will be required to enter credit card information as a fraud prevention measure. Your card's billing address must match either your old or new address. Your card will be charged $1.00 for submitting your change online. Hit SUBMIT at the bottom of the page, and you will receive on-screen confirmation that your address change was accepted. You will also receive an email confirmation, as well as a hardcopy confirmation in the mail at your new address.

2. 

   If you don't want to use a credit card and pay $1.00 to submit your change of address online, you also have the option of printing your form directly from the usps.com website. You can then mail it to your local Post Office, leave it in your mailbox for the mail carrier to pick up, or take it to your local Post Office in person. To do this, go through everything listed in Step 1 up to the page that asks you to enter your credit card information. At the bottom of that page, there is this statement:

   Prefer not to submit your form online? Print your request and mail or deliver it to your local Post Office™.

   Click on the embedded link in the text, follow the instructions, and you will be able to print your form and then mail or deliver the printed form to your local Post Office.

3. 

   If you prefer not to go on the internet, or you happen to be near a Post Office, you can pick up a of PS 3575, Official Mail Forwarding Change of Address Order. These forms are normally available in the lobby of your post office in a packet that will be marked, MOVERS GUIDE. You can fill out the required information and give it to a postal worker at the counter, leave it in your mailbox for the mailman, or drop it in a collection box. There is no postage necessary for sending this form in through the mail. There is an area for you to write in the city, state and zip code of your old address on one side of the form which will cause it to be sent to the post office that delivered mail to your old address.

4. 

   As another fraud prevention measure, the USPS will send confirmation letters to both your old and new addresses. The letter to your old address asks anyone that might still live there if this is a valid change of address. This is done because some people have maliciously submitted address changes on people who haven't really moved. You can contact the USPS in this case and have the address change cancelled. A confirmation is sent to the new address and you are asked to verify if all the information on the form is correct.

Tips & Warnings

• It can often take a week before any of your forwarded mail will be delivered to your new address. Forwarded mail is first sent to a Computerized Forwarding Center to be processed and then sent onto your new address.

• You can submit your change of address up to 3 months before you actually move, or you can submit it the day of your move! The Post Office recommendation is that you do it 2 weeks before your actual move date.

• Don't wait until after you move to put in a change of address. Your mail can pile up in your old mail receptacle after you have gone if your carrier doesn't know you have moved. Someone could take this mail from your box and steal account information.

Resources

• www.USPS.com