As it comes with every move, you’ll need to update your address with the United States Postal Service (USPS). This is fairly easy to do with the USPS’ change of address online form, but we’ve broken it down to six quick steps.

USPS change of address

Step 1: Who’s moving?

There are six quick steps to officially change your address with the USPS. First, you’ll need to identify who is moving or is going to move into the new home with you. There is an individual USPS address change, a family change, or business change form. If you have a spouse and/or children, select the family icon online. This will help your postman better understand who lives at the property and hopefully deter from letters being returned to sender.

Here is what you need for Step 1:

First name, middle name/initial, last name, suffix
Email address
Phone number
Previous address information

Step 2: What type of move?

With step two, there are two options to select from; permanent and temporary. Most moves are permanent, meaning you’ll more than likely be living at the residence for 6+ months. If you bought a home from Offerpad, we’re assuming you just secured your dream home, so for our customers, you will probably need to select permanent.

After selecting the type of move through the USPS address online form, you’ll be asked “when”, to help them determine when your mail should begin being forwarded. This is really beneficial for those building a new home or not closing escrow for another 30+ days You can inform the USPS service before you actually move, and they’ll automatically start sending your mail to the provided. Of course, this means that you will need to know your new address, so make sure to have that handy.

Pro Tip: If you’re not moving into your new home for 30 days to six months, you can elect for Informed Delivery which is a free service from the USPS that allows you to digitally preview, track, and manage your mail and package deliveries.”

Step 3: Double check your info!

This is the easiest step of the online USPS address change form, but also one of the most important! Take a moment to review all the details you’ve provided. It’s crucial to ensure that you haven’t made any mistakes when providing your information. You don’t want your mail being sent to the wrong home, or too soon. Trust us, mail being sent back to its sender with multiple addresses in the system can cause unwanted headaches!

Step 4: Verify who you are

Because this is an online process, USPS will want to identify who you are to help eliminate any mail fraud. They will ask you to select an address on file that’s associated with your debit or credit card. If the selected payment card is not associated with your home address, you can select the option ‘enter a different address’, which hopefully should match the address on your card, allowing you to be properly verified with the USPS.

Step 5: There’s a small fee

Since the USPS successfully services and processes upwards of 15 million online USPS address changes per year, they charge a small fee of $1.05. They accept the following types of payment:

American Express
Mastercard
Visa
Discover

Step 6: Email verification & welcome kit

Once you make that one-time, $1.00 payment, you should receive an email that confirms the details of your submitted request, with a confirmation code. If you selected a ‘family move’, the primary registrant or member of the family that submitted for the address change, will receive a welcome kit. Others will receive a change of address confirmation letter.

To start this simple and necessary USPS change of address for online, visit their website by clicking here. And, if you still want to do the old school method and skip on the online process, you can print off the form and take it to your local post office. Download the form here.

Pro Tip: Changing your address online with USPS DOES NOT change your address with other organizations such as your bank, vehicle loan, insurance, TV and internet providers, magazine subscriptions or other physical forms of mail subscriptions.”