Address change service: update every account, not just your mail
An address change has two halves. USPS forwarding reroutes your mail for about a year — that half is official and costs a dollar and change. Updating the accounts that actually hold your address — banks, cards, utilities, insurers, subscriptions — is the half that eats a weekend, and it is the half Movepost turns into one guided $19 workflow.
What does a change of address service actually do?
It depends which of three very different things is wearing the name. Knowing the difference is most of the decision:
- USPS mail forwarding — the official one. It redirects eligible mail to your new address for about a year and changes nothing on any account. File it at usps.com; it is the bridge, not the fix.
- Look-alike filing sites — paid sites that file that same USPS form for $40–$90. They add nothing. If a site other than usps.com asked you to pay real money to “change your address,” this is what happened.
- Account-update services — help with the records companies actually keep. Because banks and insurers only change an address for the signed-in account holder, the honest version is a guided workflow: Movepost opens each address page, helps fill your new address once you’re in, records it done, and queues the next account.
The half that needs a service is the account half
Forwarding buys you time, then quietly expires. Meanwhile a typical household has 15–40 accounts holding the old address — the second credit card, the brokerage you opened years ago, the insurer, the pharmacy, the subscriptions that renew to old billing. Each one keeps issuing statements, renewals, and packages to an address you no longer control until its own record is changed, one signed-in session at a time.
That work is free to do by hand, and the who-to-notify checklist and 157 free guides exist for exactly that. What a paid service can honestly sell you is the removal of the tedium: finding each site’s buried address page, retyping the same address, remembering where you stopped. That is the whole of what Movepost charges $19 for — and why it never needs your passwords to do it.
Address-change services, compared
| USPS forwarding | Paid filing sites | Notify-style services | Movepost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it changes | Nothing on your accounts — it forwards eligible mail for about a year | Nothing extra. They file the same USPS forwarding order | Sends notifications; password-protected accounts still need you | The address on the accounts on your list, updated by you with the tedious parts handled |
| What it costs | A dollar and change online; free at a counter | Typically $40–$90 for the same form | Varies; often bundled with moving services | $19 once for the whole move |
| Where it helps | The bridge while you update accounts | Nowhere. Skip these | Utility hookups and partner offers | The account-by-account work that actually eats the weekend |
File the USPS order either way — it catches whatever you haven’t updated yet. Just file it at usps.com directly; here’s what it covers and what it skips.
What no address change service can do
- Sign in to your accounts on your behalf. Banks and insurers change an address only for the authenticated account holder, and their terms forbid handing that session to a company. Any service claiming otherwise is overpromising.
- Make one form reach everyone. There is no registry that pushes a new address to your bank, your utility, and your pharmacy at once. Each record is separate; that’s why the job is a list.
- Beat the USPS at forwarding. Mail rerouting is a postal monopoly. A service can remind you to file it; only USPS can do it.
Movepost is built inside those limits rather than around them: you stay the one signed in, and the product removes everything else — the searching, the typing, the tracking, the “which ones are left.” If you’d rather automate more aggressively, read what can and can’t be automated in an address change first.
Want the account half handled?
Build your list in about two minutes, sign in to each site yourself, and work the queue until it’s all green — $19 one-time, 14-day money-back guarantee.
Questions people ask about address change services
Is there one service that changes your address everywhere?
No single service can do the whole job, because the two halves of it are different. Mail forwarding is a USPS service — nobody else can reroute your mail. Updating the accounts themselves — banks, cards, utilities, insurers, subscriptions — has to happen inside each account while you are signed in, which is why the honest version of that service is a guided workflow rather than a form you submit and forget.
Why was I charged $40 or more to change my address?
You almost certainly used a look-alike filing site rather than USPS itself. The official change of address lives at usps.com and costs a dollar and change online for identity verification (it is free at a post office counter). Third-party sites buy ads on the same search terms and charge $40–$90 to file the same form. If it happened, dispute the charge with your card issuer, then file directly with USPS.
How much should changing your address cost?
The USPS forwarding order costs a dollar and change online, or nothing at a post office counter. Updating your accounts is free if you do it by hand — the searching, signing in, and typing is the real cost, usually a weekend. Movepost charges $19 one-time for the guided version of that account work, with a 14-day money-back guarantee. Anything charging $40+ just to file the USPS form is not worth it.
What is the difference between mail forwarding and an address change?
Forwarding redirects eligible mail from the old address to the new one for about a year — the sender still has the old address on file and keeps using it. An address change updates the record each company actually holds, so statements, cards, renewals, and deliveries go to the right place from then on. Forwarding is the bridge; changing each account is the fix.
Can a service notify my bank of my new address on my behalf?
Not reliably, and usually not at all. Banks, brokerages, and insurers change an address only for the authenticated account holder — it is a basic fraud control — and their terms do not allow a third party to act inside your account. Services that "notify companies on your behalf" can send a letter, but a letter is not an authenticated change and most institutions will not act on one. The dependable path is you, signed in, with the tedious parts handled for you around that sign-in.
Related reading
Comparing tools rather than services? See the change-of-address app comparison. Handed an invite to a moving app and wondering about the trade? Read the Updater and MovingWaldo alternatives page. Doing it all by hand? Start from the free who-to-notify checklist.