Your new home is everything you want, from the convenient location and friendly neighborhood to the wooded backyard and Cape Cod dormers. But before you can start enjoying your new residence, there's a lot of work to do.
Whether you're relocating across town or across the country, moving can be stressful. There are utilities to cancel and reinstate. You'll need to choose a moving company or recruit some friends to help out. It's time to return the things you borrowed from your neighbors and retrieve those they borrowed from you. And then there's the packing.
With all of the chaos that comes with setting up new digs, you might think that changing your address is an insignificant item on your checklist. Although it may seem minor, it's an important step for keeping at least part of your life running smoothly, while you hunt through boxes for your black shoes.
Read on for some helpful tips to make changing your address a little easier.
10: Verify Your Address
No one can blow this one, right? Don't be too sure. With the stress of moving, the number of potential properties considered and how busy people are when moving, mistakes occur more often than you might think.
Start by verifying your new address with your landlord or realtor. Double-check the house or apartment number and the spellings of the street and city. If moving into new construction, make sure the developer didn't change the street name from what was originally filed.
Find out how the post office codes your mail. Check street and city names against what you have. This will also give you the opportunity to obtain your zip + 4 code if you don't already have it. By using zip + 4, your mail will be delivered faster and more accurately.
The basic step of verifying your address will reduce errors and save you time. It will also save you the embarrassment of having to make your address changes twice.
9: Choose Temporary or Permanent
Assuming you live in the United States, you'll want to change your address with the U.S. Postal Service, but before you do, you'll have to decide whether to file a temporary or permanent change of address (COA).
A permanent COA is just that; it allows your mail to be forwarded to your new permanent address for a specified period of time. It covers first-class mail and periodicals, but generally doesn't forward standard mail, such as circulars and catalogs. With a permanent COA your new address is made available to companies who subscribe to the National Change of Address Service and provided to business mailers upon request.
If you plan on spending winter in a warmer spot or summer somewhere cool, a temporary COA might be for you. This service allows you to have first-class mail and periodicals forwarded piece by piece to a different address for your specified period of time, from 15 days to 6 months. If you just aren't ready to come home yet, you can extend the service up to 12 months.
Premium forwarding service is an alternative to the temporary COA. However, rather than the piece-by-piece forwarding, all of your mail, including standard and package service, is packaged in a single shipment and sent to you by priority mail each Wednesday. There is a one-time enrollment fee and a nominal weekly reshipment fee for this service.
Unlike the permanent COA, with the temporary options your address will not be provided to business mailers. That's one way to avoid junk mail.
8: Let the Post Office Know
When you move, it's important to let the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) know. You can do that in one of three ways:
After you file the change, you can expect a move validation letter to arrive at your old address, unless you've already moved. In addition, seven to 10 days after your COA effective date, a confirmation letter will be sent to your new address, as well as a welcome kit, which contains helpful information, a community guide, special offers and coupons.
