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Home > Guides > USPS Change of Address
Go to the official USPS movers site (moversguide.usps.com) and file a Change of Address request with a small identity-verification fee charged to your card. That starts mail forwarding to your new address. Third-party sites that charge much more for the same request are not affiliated with USPS, and a Change of Address only forwards mail: you still have to update your address with each bank, employer, and service.
You have two real options, both run by USPS itself. The fastest is online at moversguide.usps.com: enter your old and new addresses, pick a start date for forwarding, and pay a small identity-verification fee by credit or debit card. The fee exists to confirm you are who you claim to be; it is the only money USPS itself asks for. The other option is the paper form at any post office counter, which has no fee but requires a trip. Either way, forwarding does not start instantly: USPS needs a few days to process the request, so file it before you move, not after.
Two details people miss. First, you choose whether the move is permanent or temporary. Temporary forwarding is meant for short stays, like a summer rental or an extended work trip, and ends automatically. Second, moving within the same ZIP code still counts: your mail carrier will not know you moved unless you file the request.
Search engines are full of sites that look official, use words like "postal" and "change of address" in the name, and charge many times the official verification fee for the same request, often while collecting your personal details for marketing. Here is how to tell them apart:
| Check | Official USPS | Copycat site |
|---|---|---|
| Website | usps.com or moversguide.usps.com | A lookalike domain with words like "postal," "mail," or "change" |
| Fee | A small identity-verification fee, one time | A much larger "service" or "processing" fee |
| Fine print | None needed: it is the post office | Often admits it is not affiliated with USPS, in small print |
| Your data | Used to process the request | May be kept and sold to marketers |
If you already paid a copycat, the forwarding request itself usually still gets filed, so your mail is not at risk. The loss is the extra fee and the personal data. Going forward, bookmark the official movers page and ignore the ads around it.
Less than most people assume. A Change of Address forwards first-class mail and packages sent through USPS to your new address. It does not catch everything: periodicals and some other mail classes forward only briefly, and anything sent by UPS, FedEx, or other private carriers is completely unaffected, because USPS has no record of those shipments. If a package is coming by a private carrier, update your address with the sender directly.
Forwarding also expires. For most first-class mail it lasts about a year, which sounds generous until you realize how many senders never update their records. When it lapses, mail addressed to your old address is returned to sender, not delivered to you. Treat forwarding as a bridge, not a solution: the permanent fix is notifying everyone yourself.
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding in the whole process. USPS forwarding reroutes the physical mail; it does not tell your bank, your employer, the DMV, your insurance company, or the IRS where you went. Each of those needs its own update, through their own process. A practical order: file the USPS request first so nothing bounces while you work through the list, then update government IDs and voter registration, then banks and financial accounts, then subscriptions and everyone else.
In Canada the equivalent service is Canada Post Mail Redirection, which is a separate paid service with its own signup and its own coverage rules. And one last honest note for readers who mail a lot: if you send letters through LetterAgent, your own move does not affect anything, since LetterAgent prints and mails from its own facilities and only needs the recipient's address to be correct.
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.
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