Anyone here move and NOT forward your mail?

[dparm]

I am moving tomorrow and strongly considering NOT notifying the post office to forward my mail. Why? Three reasons:

1. I receive very little snail mail, and the stuff I get already has my new address (mostly just the few bills that don't support e-billing, Netflix, etc)

2. It is a known fact that the USPS sells the new address to marketing agencies thereby increasing your junk mail.

3. I figure that anything else I didn't think of is probably non-critical.


Has anyone else ever moved and not bothered to set up mail forwarding?

 

[expat]

Yes.

For some the reasons you mention, plus the PO wanted $60 for Six months forwarding.

 

[IndyIan]

We didn't set up mail forwarding when we built our house 10 years ago. I don't think we had any major issues. Just less junk mail for a while. Most of our junk mail is just mass delivery these days.
Even more beneficial is changing phone numbers on the land line, and then not giving our new number to any commercial enterprise, really cut down on the telemarketers even today, but I'm sure you don't have a land line anyways.

 

[dishdude]

You're going to get junk mail no matter what, but there is always something you'll forget about. A 1099 at tax time, a bill from the dentist, etc.

You can do it online for $1, I don't know why you wouldn't.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
You're going to get junk mail no matter what, but there is always something you'll forget about. A 1099 at tax time, a bill from the dentist, etc.


I tend to agree with this. Junk mail will follow you. An important bill or financial statement might not. It's not like we have a banker's box of mail to comb through every day. Junk mail just gets shredded up along with anything else we don't need. It takes almost zero time out of our day, really.

 

[Food Scientist]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
You're going to get junk mail no matter what, but there is always something you'll forget about. A 1099 at tax time, a bill from the dentist, etc.

You can do it online for $1, I don't know why you wouldn't.


I would agree with this and if it is a known fact that the USPS sells your address, don't they have your new address to sell and you still get junk mail?

 

[javacontour]

How long do you really think you'll go junk-mail free at a new address?

Too much risk, too little reward in this strategy for me. Something with my personal info goes to the old address, now opened by the new resident. Are they honest? Are they an ID thief?

Just forward it and recycle any mail you don't want.

 

[pandus13]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
How long do you really think you'll go junk-mail free at a new address?

Too much risk, too little reward in this strategy for me. Something with my personal info goes to the old address, now opened by the new resident. Are they honest? Are they an ID thief?

Just forward it and recycle any mail you don't want.

forward it for at least 6 months.
and remember in 6 months to do it again.
you very rare personal important stuff worth it.
not much junk mail gets forwarded by PO.
your bank and a lot of your other places of business sell your info...

by the way: about "recycle":
there was a post somewhere on BITOG on how to setup an return to sender marketer envelope the size of a fridge box....

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: SVTCobra
Originally Posted By: dishdude
You're going to get junk mail no matter what, but there is always something you'll forget about. A 1099 at tax time, a bill from the dentist, etc.

You can do it online for $1, I don't know why you wouldn't.


I would agree with this and if it is a known fact that the USPS sells your address, don't they have your new address to sell and you still get junk mail?



The point is that you will always get the generic bulk junk mail (coupon books or whatever), but companies who spam you with stupid catalogs or solicitations won't get the new one.

 

[rjundi]

The forward only lasts one year then expires with return to sender.

 

[mrsilv04]

In this lousy excuse for a state, the Secretary of State's office will sell your information for money.

Due to their own incompetence, they had my last name spelled wrong on my motorcycle registration.

And then I start getting junk mail from the so-called "motor company" in Milwaukee with the same exact misspelling.

So... are you getting lucky and are leaving Illinois?

 

[A_Harman]

I went through kind of the opposite situation last winter when a snowplow knocked down my mailbox, and I took a Box at the Post Office. It slowed down mail delivery so that I was receiving bills about 2 weeks late, and some of my magazine subscriptions stopped coming. But it did cut down on the junk mail by ~80%. Then when the city put up a new mailbox for me, it took about 3 weeks and two trips to the Post Office to get them to cancel the forward mail order and start delivering to my home again.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: SVTCobra
I would agree with this and if it is a known fact that the USPS sells your address, don't they have your new address to sell and you still get junk mail?


The post office wouldn't, not unless you gave it to them to forward your mail, no. The post office doesn't really "know" where you live. Obviously, they deliver your mail, but you can't give them a piece of mail for "John Smith" and expect them to deliver it. They deliver a package to the address on the package. The name really isn't relevant. They just carry mail addressed to "123 Main Street" to 123 Main Street.

Now...if you give them your name and address as a forwarding address, NOW they have your name and address in a database. So if they were going to sell it, they'd be able to.

I do think the comment mentioning whether or not the new resident at your current address is honest...that has merit. You don't know what's going to be delivered to your old address and you don't know who's going to open it. I agree that there are too many risks and too little rewards with this approach.

 

[Kuato]

I've done it; if you know your new address and change everything just as you move, no forwarding required. Very nice to get no junk (for a few weeks anyway)

 

[Trav]

No but the tenants i evict who didn't pay their rent do it all the time hoping to avoid the Constable, it doesn't work.

 

[bubbatime]

Miss out on that one IMPORTANT document that you should have seen and you will seem mighty foolish. Just change your address with the post office. The whole argument that you will get less junk mail is just silly non sense.

 

[The_Jeff]

They tell magazines etc when you update your address, so you won't have to go through those hoops.

It's something like 3 months for 3rd class and a year for 1st class. So you'll still get that valuable Xmas card, and know which senders don't know your new address.

My idiot parents gave my college my first apartment's address against my wishes. Their alumni office hounds me since then as they get the info from the PO somehow. "Forwarding service requested"?

 

[Papa Bear]

I moved without telling anyone .. and they found me anyway.

 

[zzyzzx]

I pretty much figure on most deadbeats not having their mail forwarded either.

 

[Cutehumor]

I have moved three times since 2000. Yet my alumni magazine from my college still founds me and harassing me for donations