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Premium Forwarding Service is USPS's paid option for people temporarily away from home. Your local post office bundles everything addressed to you into one box and reships it to your temporary address each week by Priority Mail. It runs from two weeks to a year, with a one-time enrollment charge plus a weekly fee, and works for domestic addresses only.
Instead of forwarding each piece individually as it arrives, your post office collects a week's worth of mail and packs it into one Priority Mail shipment, which goes out on Wednesdays at most locations. Each week you get an email with the tracking number, even in weeks when you received no mail. Your permanent address never changes on USPS records, and your temporary address is not shared with senders, so it looks like you never left.
Not everything waits for Wednesday. Registered Mail and Priority Mail Express items are rerouted to you immediately, and Priority Mail pieces go out right away if that gets them to you faster. Large packages, Media Mail, and Ground Advantage parcels are forwarded automatically at no extra charge, outside the weekly box.
| Free forwarding (change of address) | Premium Forwarding Service | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | One-time enrollment charge plus a weekly charge |
| How mail moves | Piece by piece, as each item arrives | Bundled into one weekly Priority Mail box |
| Duration | 12 months | Two weeks to one year |
| Best for | A permanent move | A temporary stay: snowbird season, a work assignment, an extended trip |
The free version is built for moves. Premium is built for absences. If you are relocating for good, the free change of address is the right tool. If you are spending three months at a winter rental and then coming home, Premium keeps everything flowing without changing your address on record.
First, domestic only. The service does not cover military (APO/FPO/DPO) addresses or Guam. Second, plan ahead: USPS asks you to allow a week to ten days before the first weekly shipment lands, and forwarding usually begins the Wednesday after you enroll. Third, the enrollment channel matters. If you enroll online with a USPS.com account, you can extend, shorten, or cancel your weeks online. If you enroll at the post office counter, you cannot manage the order online afterward. Changes have deadlines too: cancellations and date changes are due the day before the start date, and adding or removing weeks must happen by the Monday before your last Wednesday shipment.
Businesses get a separate flavor called Premium Forwarding Service Commercial, with daily, weekly, or monthly reshipment and Priority Mail Express as an option. Same idea, tuned for companies that need all their mail in one place.
It depends on how much your mail matters while you are gone. If bills, checks, legal notices, or medical mail will reach your home mailbox while you are away for months, the weekly bundle beats asking a neighbor to forward things, and it beats a hold, which only lasts 30 days. For a two-week vacation, a free hold is simpler. For a season away, Premium is the service USPS built for exactly that.
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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