USPS change of address: what it does — and what it doesn’t update
A USPS change of address is filed at usps.com — a dollar and change online, free at a post office counter. It forwards most mail to your new address for about 12 months, and it updates nothing on your accounts: banks, cards, utilities, insurers, and subscriptions keep the old address until you change each one yourself. File it first, then work the account list.
What the USPS order actually covers
- Where to file: usps.com, or any post office counter. Nowhere else — paid third-party filing sites add a $40–$90 markup on the same form.
- Cost: a dollar and change online (an identity-verification charge), free in person.
- What it does: reroutes eligible mail from the old address to the new one, starting on the date you choose.
- How long: about 12 months for regular mail; roughly 60 days for magazines and newspapers.
- What it never does: tell your bank, card issuers, utilities, insurers, subscriptions, the DMV, or the IRS anything. Every account keeps the old address until you change it while signed in.
Why to change your address with USPS anyway
Because it is the safety net under everything you haven’t updated yet. The average household has 15–40 accounts tied to an address, and nobody updates all of them on moving day. For about a year, forwarding catches the statements, cards, and renewal notices from the accounts you missed — each forwarded envelope is effectively a reminder of an account still pointing at the old address. File it a few days before the move so nothing lands in the gap.
What forwarding quietly skips
Even inside its year, the order isn’t a full copy of your mailbox. Some mail is marked “do not forward” — many banks and card issuers won’t forward replacement cards, and government mail often goes back to the sender instead. Package carriers other than USPS never see the order at all, so deliveries keep going wherever the retailer’s account says. And when forwarding ends, everything still addressed to the old place is returned or delivered to the stranger living there now. The order is a bridge with an expiry date; the fix is changing the address each account actually holds.
After you file: the half USPS can’t do
The account half is yours either way — the only question is how much of the searching, retyping, and tracking you do by hand. The free path is the who-to-notify checklist plus 157 per-account guides, including the step-by-step USPS forwarding guide. The guided path is Movepost: you sign in to each site yourself, it fills your new address, records the account done, and opens the next one — $19 once for the whole move. And if a paid “address change” site already charged you real money, read what an address change service actually covers before paying anyone else.
Filed with USPS? Finish the other half.
Forwarding is your safety net for a year. Movepost is the guided queue for the accounts themselves — $19 one-time, 14-day money-back guarantee.
Questions people ask about the USPS change of address
Does a USPS change of address update my bank and other accounts?
No. A USPS change of address is a mail-forwarding order: it reroutes eligible mail from the old address to the new one, and it tells no company anything. Your bank, credit cards, insurers, utilities, and subscriptions keep the old address on file and keep issuing statements to it until you change each account yourself, signed in. That account-by-account half is the part USPS was never meant to cover.
How much does the USPS change of address cost?
Free at a post office counter — ask for the mover’s form (PS Form 3575). Online at usps.com it costs a dollar and change, an identity-verification charge on a card billed to one of your addresses, which exists to stop other people redirecting your mail. If any site wants more than that to “change your address,” it is a third-party filing site adding a $40–$90 markup on the same form. File directly with USPS.
How long does USPS mail forwarding last?
Standard forwarding for regular mail runs about 12 months from your start date, and magazines and newspapers forward for roughly 60 days. After that, mail sent to the old address is returned to the sender or delivered to whoever lives there now. Forwarding buys you a year to update the accounts themselves — it is a bridge with an expiry date, not a permanent fix.
Where do I file a USPS change of address?
Two official places: usps.com (the online change-of-address flow) or any post office counter, in person. Those are the only two. Search ads sometimes put look-alike sites above the real one, so type usps.com directly rather than clicking an ad. There is no legitimate reason to pay a third party to file this form.
Should I do a temporary or permanent USPS change of address?
Permanent is for a real move: forwarding starts, and USPS also updates the address it shares through its licensed change-of-address channels. Temporary suits stays of a few weeks up to a year — a work assignment, a semester, a renovation — and your permanent address stays on record. Either way the order only moves mail; the accounts holding your old address are a separate job.