If you currently use a mail forwarding service and are looking to switch to a new mail forwarder, you’re probably wondering what you need to do and what to watch out for. This article will show you some of the challenges you may come across, how you can go around them, and an easy way to make your transition smooth with minimum mail loss.
What’s So Hard About Changing Mail Forwarding Service?
Once you start using a mail forwarder for your mail, you no longer get certain benefits that USPS normally gives you.
No USPS Automatic Mail Forwarding
Normally when you relocate and move to another place, you can simply have USPS forward your postal mail by submitting a Change of Address request. USPS will take care of finding your mail and forwarding it to your new location.
When your mail is sent to a mail forwarder, USPS will no longer allow you to submit a Change of Address request to forward your mail to a new location. This is because USPS is no longer the one who sorts your mail; this job is now the responsibility of your mail forwarder. In addition, your mailbox number is not a real physical address that exists in the USPS database, but one that is linked to a physical location owned by the mail forwarder. Thus, USPS cannot forward mail for these non-physical addresses.
No Free Mail Forwarding
While USPS will forward your mail to your new location for up to 1 year free of charge, mail forwarding services are not obligated to perform this service for free. This is reasonable as mail forwarders incur shipping costs when forwarding mail on your behalf. If you’re switching to a new mail forwarder, this means that you will need to pay to have your mail forwarded from your old service to your new service. Depending on your mail volume, this may become expensive.
A Cost Effective Way to Switch Your Mail Forwarding Service
Here is a list of simple and effective steps you can take to successfully transition your mail forwarding service with minimum mail delivery interruption.
- Maintain your previous service while transitioning – This is perhaps the best and most effective way. By maintaining your current service, you can continue to receive any mail that are still being sent there during the transition. The recommended time to keep the account is 1-2 months.
- Update mailing address for your most important mail – Mail forwarding, whether provided by USPS or a mail forwarding service, is a temporary solution and exists to give you time to update your mailing address with your banks, friends, family, utilities, etc. Rather than delaying this task, update your mailing address as soon as you can. You have to do it sooner or later, so save yourself some money and do it now.
- Make proper arrangements with your current forwarder – If you are still expecting to receive some mail at your current address, you can make special arrangements with your current provider on how to handle any future mail.
Switch mail forwarding services doesn’t have to be a headache. By understanding what’s involved and following some simple steps, you can move to a new provider easily and without losing any important mail.
