LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Home > Guides > Forwarding one sender
No, neither USPS nor Canada Post will forward mail from just one sender to a new address. Change-of-address forwarding is all-or-nothing: everything addressed to your old address at that name moves, or nothing does. If only one sender matters, the real fix is to update your address with that sender directly, before the next mailing goes out.
Forwarding works at the address level, not the sender level. When your letter carrier sees mail for your old address, the forward order says "send everything for this name to the new address." The carrier never reads the return address and makes a judgment call; the system is mechanical by design, because selective forwarding would require carriers to inspect every piece and decide, which would slow every route to a crawl.
There is a second reason people do not expect. Forwarding matches on name and address together. If your bank mails to "J. Smith" and your change-of-address was filed for "Jonathan Smith," the forwarding still usually catches it, because the address matches and the name is close. But mail addressed to a completely different person at your old address, a roommate who did not file a forward, keeps delivering to the old address. You cannot extend your forward to cover them, and you cannot narrow yours to exclude your own mail. All or nothing, per person.
| Goal | What actually works |
|---|---|
| Only one sender's mail should move | Update your address with that sender directly: their online account, a phone call, or their change-of-address form |
| Everything should move while you update senders | File a full change-of-address (USPS Change of Address / Canada Post Mail Redirection) as a safety net |
| You are away temporarily and want mail bundled | USPS Premium Forwarding Service resends all your mail weekly to a temporary address |
| You want certain senders to stop mailing the old address entirely | Contact each sender: forwarding expires (about a year in the U.S.), but direct updates are permanent |
Go to the source. Banks, brokerages, insurers, government agencies, and subscription services all have address-change flows in their online accounts, and most process the change in a day or two. Do the important ones first: anything tied to money, taxes, or legal notices. Mailing lists and marketing senders can wait, and honestly, a move is a good excuse to cancel half of them.
File the full change-of-address anyway, as a safety net. It catches the senders you forgot and the ones with slow update cycles, and it runs for about a year while you work through the list. Just do not treat it as the solution: forwarding is a bridge, not a destination. Every sender that still has your old address after a year is a piece of mail that stops forwarding and starts bouncing.
USPS Premium Forwarding Service is the closest thing to selective forwarding, and it is still not selective: it bundles ALL your mail weekly and resends it to a temporary address, for a fee. It is designed for snowbirds and long business trips, not for cherry-picking one sender. Canada Post's Mail Redirection is the same all-or-nothing model, priced per person or per business.
One edge case worth knowing: if you share an address with someone who is not moving, their mail keeps arriving normally. Your forward order covers only your name. And if you are receiving mail for a deceased relative, do not fold them into your own forward: both carriers have separate deceased-mail processes that route the estate's mail correctly without mixing it with yours.
Ready to mail it? Send your letter with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is printed and mailed.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
Need help? Ask your assistant: it can check a job's status any time. If it ever can't handle something: hello@getletteragent.com