Ot Charge for address change

[RayP(MI)]

Daughter-in-law just bought a new place a significant distance from current home. Went to PO and given a form to fill out and mail, several week delay, or she could go online, and several day delay. Went online. Believe it or not, they charged her for address change. Only $1.10, but still. Cheap ba......!

 

[bmack95hd]

Yep, we just changed our address from AZ to CO. If you do it on line it costs $1.?? And the billing address of the card has to be your new address. Found the manual form at the PO down town, no charge if you use the form.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

To be fair this isn't something that happens by magic. It requires time and effort from people, computer and physical resources. People expect to be paid. Computers and sorting machines cost money to run.

 

[timcasbolt]

(quoted from post at 11:02:32 05/26/22) Daughter-in-law just bought a new place a significant distance from current home. Went to PO and given a form to fill out and mail, several week delay, or she could go online, and several day delay. Went online. Believe it or not, they charged her for address change. Only $1.10, but still. Cheap ba......!

ere in MD, if you don't fork over the 20 bucks for electronically filing your income taxes they are going to hassle you. In my case they sent the 1099's back with a note saying that I didn't submit all necessary forms. I have no idea what they were lacking as I thought I sent everything Turbotax said to send, so I printed off everything including the worksheets (18 pages) and sent it back. They want the $20.

 

[RESLLS]

We just moved. Went through that. If you go to the P.O. there is no charge. On line there is and you get emails telling you what is coming. I went to office, wife didn't. She tells me what is in the mailbox an hour before it is there.

 

[John T]

When we travel for extended periods I use an online temporary address change for which they charge me one dollar. Im not sure if its the same if I go to the post office and do it in person ? I will have to check that out.......

Best wishes to all G _ _ Bless America

John T

 

[MarkB_MI]

I suspect the charge is for security reasons. Anyone, including a scammer, can do an online address change on any other person, making it easy to redirect someone else's mail. Requiring a credit card makes it much harder for a scammer to conceal his identity. Sure, the scammer can use a stolen credit card number, but if it doesn't belong to person who is supposedly doing the address change USPS will probably reject it.

 

[GordoSD]

Look at the bright side. State of GA saved thousands by NOT reporting COA of thousands of residents who moved out of state. LOL

 

[Steve@Advance]

Good point Mark.

I haven't done a change of address in a long time, but when I did the scammers were all over it!

Got SLAMMED with junk mail, calls, Emails...

 

[1948CaseVAI]

That charge is not new and helps tp defray the cost of their online presence.

 

[redforlife]

Well, listen to this change of address.

A rural farmstead about 2 miles down the road, use to be owned by an old bachelor gent. He went to the care home. Neices/nephews liquidated his house, buildings, and small acreage.

A young couple bought the place. Bull dozed the house. Refurbished and converted barn into a house. Spent alot of money doing it. There was probably only 4 to 6 years in-between these two owners, where nobody received mail at that address.

When the young couple went to change thier address, they were told they could not receive mail there. The rural mail carrier would not go more than an X amount out of thier way to deliver mail to one single new address. Thier options would be, a PO box, a mail box put up along the carriers current mail route, or put up a box along side the closest neighbors mail box.

They chose putting a box up along side the closest neighbors (1 1/4 miles away). Which, is a dirt road that they use to get out when dry, but are rocked out a different way.
All because the rural mail carrier wouldn't go to a place he use to go to, or go out of the way more than the X amount of distance to get to, which apparently the X amount is less than 1 1/8 miles (the distance back the other way, that they are actually rocked out).

Seems kind of a short distance to me, for a rural mail carrier to no longer go to. Other box stops that are grandfathered in on the route are easily a mile or two between stops. So, there's going to be many people that face this same thing in the future, is what I'm thinking. Whenever these houses are vacant for awhile in between residents.

 

[flying belgian]

What happened to RFD.?

 

[Russ from MN]

It's for security, and, with Louis DeJoy running the postal system, I'm surprised it works at all, his goal is to destroy it!

 

[ss55]

There was a small fee for COA when we moved mom in 2019. It was worth it not to have to run down to the PO.

 

[Rich'sToys]

(quoted from post at 11:47:53 05/26/22) Well, listen to this change of address.

A rural farmstead about 2 miles down the road, use to be owned by an old bachelor gent. He went to the care home. Neices/nephews liquidated his house, buildings, and small acreage.

A young couple bought the place. Bull dozed the house. Refurbished and converted barn into a house. Spent alot of money doing it. There was probably only 4 to 6 years in-between these two owners, where nobody received mail at that address.

When the young couple went to change thier address, they were told they could not receive mail there. The rural mail carrier would not go more than an X amount out of thier way to deliver mail to one single new address. Thier options would be, a PO box, a mail box put up along the carriers current mail route, or put up a box along side the closest neighbors mail box.

They chose putting a box up along side the closest neighbors (1 1/4 miles away). Which, is a dirt road that they use to get out when dry, but are rocked out a different way.
All because the rural mail carrier wouldn't go to a place he use to go to, or go out of the way more than the X amount of distance to get to, which apparently the X amount is less than 1 1/8 miles (the distance back the other way, that they are actually rocked out).

Seems kind of a short distance to me, for a rural mail carrier to no longer go to. Other box stops that are grandfathered in on the route are easily a mile or two between stops. So, there's going to be many people that face this same thing in the future, is what I'm thinking. Whenever these houses are vacant for awhile in between residents.

The line of travel for a rural route is mapped out and officially established down to the tenth of a mile. That is the official description of the route and is the mileage the carrier gets paid for.
It must have gotten changed during the interim when no one was living there. I'm sure they don't want to change it back, because they would have to pay the carrier more. It also depends on how much of a jerk the local postmaster is. I've been retired from my route for over 13 years now, so don't know what may have changed since then, or what hoops to jump through to get the route extended.

 

[MarkB_MI]

> I haven't done a change of address in a long time, but when I did the scammers were all over it!
> Got SLAMMED with junk mail, calls, Emails...

The USPS sells lists of changed addresses. Those are intended for businesses that have a legitimate need for the information, e.g. financial institutions, magazine publishers and government agencies. But at one time the postal service would sell them to anyone who would fork over the price, and a lot of shady outfits started buying the information. USPS got in hot water over it, and I think they no longer sell address change information to anybody who can't prove a legitimate need.

 

[MarkB_MI]

> Seems kind of a short distance to me, for a rural mail carrier to no longer go to. Other box stops that are grandfathered in on the route are easily a mile or two between stops. So, there's going to be many people that face this same thing in the future, is what I'm thinking. Whenever these houses are vacant for awhile in between residents.

This isn't happening just with rural addresses. We had a rental house in Pontiac that was vacant for several months while I remodeled the bathroom. We were notified by USPS that we would have to move the mailbox from the front door to the sidewalk, a distance of about 50 feet. The house next door still has its mailbox at the door, so it doesn't save the postman very many steps; the postman walks across the neighbor's grass either way.

I can understand the rationale for doing this: The less distance the postman has to travel, the more efficient the delivery. But there are plenty of specific instances where it doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[Pitch]

1.00 charge is for security purposes. Just making sure you is you.
I retired 12 years ago and at the time, the PO could not make you change your box location. Once it has been established and approved that is it. Post Masters will stomp their feet and pout and threaten,but as of my retirement there was nothing more they could do.