It is estimated that 40 million Americans move each year and that 8% of all mail is undeliverable because of incorrect addresses.
Because undeliverable mail presents a strain to the USPS, the post office requires that discounted mail (such as bulk mailings) make efforts to have the correct address or use alternative addressing, such as Or Current Resident.
A standard part of our service for our clients is to run their mailing list through the USPS NCOA Link—National Change of Address link.
Our license fee offers us changes that have occurred in the past 18 months. It also identifies questionable addresses and non-mailable addresses. We generally return the results to our clients so they can update their database.
The lists we rent or purchase for our clients are usually already NCOAd by the list company.
There is now a service that will go back 35 years to find and change previous addresses—PCOA Plus—Premium Change of Address. In addition, it tracks name information to resolve multiple names or aliases, such as maiden names or initials
PCOA Plus will also confirm that the name associated with the address is current. And it includes 35-year deceased file processing.
Addressing/sending mail to a deceased individual can cause anguish and anger to the living relatives.
Consider PCOA Plus if you are trying to find and connect to long lost donors, alumni and/or customers.
Contact Darci@dirmailserv.com for more information.