Automatic changes of address-dangerous in my opinion

[takncarabizniz]

Recently, our grown son was in transition to a new duty station and stayed with us for about a month.  He had all his family mail forwarded to us, and upon their final move, updated his address again to his new home, in Hawaii (we live in Washington).  The USPS change of address system has defaulted to require payment for every address change per individual, so he did a simple "family" update. Oooops, that meant any mail by the same last name ended up forwarded to their new address, including ours.  We didn't even realize it until my daughter-in-law alerted me that our mail was showing up at their new home.  2 months later!  Thankfully, we are already on online billing, mostly paperless billing, but what was disturbing was that none of our billers ever contacted us to verify we had moved, in fact, many just "automatically" updated our address based upon the USPS notification they received.  USPS didn't alert us, our mail lady didn't ask if we had gotten a box in town, even though we would chat regularly.  Nothing.

Just think of how many people could potentially be victims of ID and credit theft because apparently anyone can pay the dollar+ to do an address change and it takes months for it all to catch up to the actual affected person.

I post this because after we thought we had everything straightened out, my daughter-in-law alerted me that my AARP mail was now showing up at their address.  So I opened my account (which by the way told me I needed to update my password due to a security breach with one of their partner businesses), which I did, and found out that my address had indeed automatically updated to my son's address, even though I never requested it or changed our AARP account.

I did send feedback to AARP asking why they did not verify prior to changing my online account info.  

I would urge everyone to regularly check with your bank, billers, credit companies, etc, to make sure that USPS has not sent automatic change of address to any of them.

[ClaytonWing]

FYI…

Two ways to submit USPS COA’s free of charge - 

* Request a handwritten form from your local USPS - NOTE: normally reserved for senior citizens or individuals that don’t have debit/credit cards.

* Visit the USPS location that services your new/old address and ask clerk to submit COA (change of address) for you.

NOTE: You now have to verify your identity in person at servicing USPS (new/old address) to help stop fraudulent COA’s and wrong type of COA (family vs individual).

[ClaytonWing]

When an individual submits an USPS COA an USPS COA confirmation letter is mailed to the individuals old & new address. Did your address receive this COA confirmation letter?

* NO - Contact the USPS location that services your address for assistance.

TIP: Register your address with USPS Informed Delivery - this free service emails you daily the USPS mail addressed to/to be delivered to said address (including past residents mail). This way you know EXACTLY what is to be delivered to your address and when. 

* YES - The confirmation letter will state whether a “family” or “individual” COA was submitted. A family COA forwards ALL first class mail in that last name and an individual COA only forwards first class mail in that name variation.

TIP: If the wrong type COA was submitted IMMEDIATELY follow the steps to dispute COA or your addresses servicing USPS and have clerk submit form 3546 (Official Change/Correction to Mail Forwarding Change of Address Order).