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I was just wondering when is the right time to file for a change of address - before or after the move?
Thanks!
I filed mine as soon as I had the new address, but dated it so that my mail stopped at my old address the day I left. There is a lag time for the forwarding, so by the time I was at the new place, my mail was arriving.
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You pick the date when you want it to take effect. Don/t forget to call your insurance carriers-home, car, medical, etc. There is a checklist for this sort of stuff in the USPS change of address packet.
I would actually have the first effective day set for about 5 days before you will actually leave the address and no longer be there to receive mail, because it will give you an opportunity to flag down your mail carrier if/when they leave mail after that effective date. Or if you are fortunate and see that they have stopped delivery at your old address, it will take about 5 to 10 days for that forwarded mail to start showing up at your new address. If for some reason it will take you any longer than that to be at your new address to accept mail, you could file a temporary hold there.
I have had a lot of bad experiences with the USPS on moves and simple vacation holds, though. And if your route is handled by more than one carrier, good luck getting them to coordinate these requests...left hand and right hand kind of thing.
My local post office doesn't even want to deal with the paper forms any more, and I prefer the convenience of doing it online anyway. But when you do the online, they verify your mailing address through your credit card address, and it may be hard to do a move request and a hold on the other end at the same time and with the same credit card address.
We are officially moving on Monday and have yet to file the Change of Address with the Post Office. We are not worried. We found a note from our letter carrier yesterday asking when she should start delivering to the other address. Yup-we are not even going to be changing letter carriers with this move.
We are officially moving on Monday and have yet to file the Change of Address with the Post Office. We are not worried. We found a note from our letter carrier yesterday asking when she should start delivering to the other address. Yup-we are not even going to be changing letter carriers with this move.
Cat
Well, the reason you want to file the post office change as soon as possible and preferably before you move is that they actually electronically communicate the change to your business correspondents. Like your credit card company. I know that most people cut back flips contacting and calling their credit cards, etc., but really they learn of your address change from the post office so that you don't have to contact them.
So while your carrier is being friendly, what you really need to do is send in the official change to inform all of your correspondents of the change (at least those companies that participate in this electronic system).
Last edited by Westbound and Down; 05-09-2014 at 05:20 PM..
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