Change of Address Monitoring reports if an individual’s mail has been redirected through the United States Postal Service (USPS).
The benefits of the service:
Where does Change of Address Monitoring data come from? Change of Address Monitoring report only changes in address that have been processed through the United States Postal Service (USPS). Change of Address Monitoring does not track UPS or FedEx-only addresses or private mailboxes.
How long after I submit a change of address request will I receive an alert? The USPS can take up to two weeks after the "effective date" to publish the address change. You will receive a notification once the change has been published.
What do I do if there is an address in Change of Address Monitoring that I don’t recognize? If your report contains an address that is not familiar to you, there is probably an error in public records information. However, this could be an indication of identity theft. If you see unfamiliar information in Change of Address Monitoring, please contact customer support.
What time range does my initial Mail Change report cover? Your first report includes data from the past 3 months, including the current month.
Data Source Description
Data Range
Frequency
Required Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
Important Product Notes:
The USPS takes at least 2 days to process the request. It reportedly takes longer if the move is far enough to use a different central post office (i.e. the first 3 digits of zip code (zip3) are different between the old and the new addresses). The National Change of Address (NCOA) processing includes sending physical mail to both the old and the new addresses requesting that the consumer contact the USPS if the change was not authorized or is incorrect. Delivery of mail to the new address can be immediately on the effective date IF and only IF the request was submitted in advance of the effective date; otherwise, delivery of mail can take up to 2 weeks from the effective date or the submission date whichever was later.
Additionally, the USPS can take up to 2 weeks from the effective date of the move to publish the NCOA requests. For example, if the NCOA form is submitted 2 months in advance of the effective date, USPS will publish the change 2 months and 2 weeks after the form was submitted. The COA alert can only happen after the USPS publishes the change.
After a move, the subscriber’s previous address continues to be monitored for a period of 60 days to ensure that any changes to the address during the process are identified.
