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It's an instruction printed on the envelope telling the post office what to do if the recipient moved. "Address Correction Requested" means: forward the mail, and send me the new address. Mailers use these ancillary endorsements to keep their lists clean. Each of the four options trades forwarding, returns, and correction notices differently.
| Endorsement | If the recipient moved | What you get back |
|---|---|---|
| Address Service Requested | Forwarded for the forwarding period | A correction notice with the new address (a fee applies per notice) |
| Return Service Requested | Not forwarded at all | The piece returned to you with the new address attached |
| Change Service Requested | Not forwarded; the piece is discarded | An electronic notice of the new address |
| Forwarding Service Requested | Forwarded for the forwarding period | A correction notice; the piece is not returned |
Any time you're mailing to a list: customer notices, donor mailings, tenant communications, billing. Addresses go stale fast, and every returned or misdelivered piece costs postage for nothing. An ancillary endorsement turns each move into updated data instead of a dead letter: the post office tells you where the person went, and you fix your list.
The tradeoff is the fee. USPS charges for each address correction notice it sends you, so a mailing to a very stale list can generate a stack of notices and a real bill. That's why big mailers clean their lists against the National Change of Address database before mailing: it's cheaper to update addresses up front than to pay per correction after.
No. Ancillary endorsements only work with the mail classes that support them, generally First-Class and Priority Mail. They have to be printed on the envelope above the delivery address, in a spot the sorting equipment can read. "Address Correction Requested" by itself, without one of the four service endorsements, is treated as Address Service Requested by default.
One detail that trips people up: "Return Service Requested" sounds like it just means "send it back if undeliverable," but it specifically waives forwarding. If the recipient filed a change of address last month and you used Return Service Requested, the letter comes straight back to you instead of following them. Choose the endorsement that matches what you actually want to happen.
If you've moved and someone mailed you with one of these endorsements, you'll see a yellow change-of-address sticker on the envelope with your new address, and the piece arrives forwarded. After the forwarding period ends, the same endorsement determines whether the mail comes back to the sender or gets discarded. Either way, the sender learns your new address, which is exactly the point: if you'd rather a particular mailer not follow you, update or remove yourself from their list directly.
Ready to mail it? Send your letter with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it's printed and mailed.
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