National Change of Address Service (NCOA)

More than 45 Million Americans Change Their Addresses Each Year

Many of them are good customers of yours - customers you value and who are important enough for you to send mail. But not all of them told you they moved.

If you want to keep these customers, you have to make sure your mail reaches them. That's why it's good business to update your address lists now.

Effective November 23, 2008, the Postal Service is increasing its effort to improve the percentage of deliverable mail by revising the Move Update standards. NCOA is the most effective way to update your list prior to sending your mailing out.

What is NCOA?

NCOA stands for National Change of Address. The NCOA service keeps a list of all people, families and businesses that have moved in the past 48 months. They receive the data from the post office when a person fills out the Change of Address form at the post office during a move. When you send your list through NCOA, the service checks to see if there is a match between the address you have on file and one that is listed as a move. The new address is returned to you if applicable.

What are the benefits?

Updating your list through NCOA is a one step process to keep your database updated.
You will also reduce printing and postage costs by removing those that have moved without a forwarding address from your mailing list.
If you currently use the "Address Service Requested" or "Return Service Requested" endorsement on your mailings, you will reduce the cost of returned mail.
The payback typically ranges from 200%- 300 % of the cost on the first mailing.

Things to know about NCOA

Over 45 million people move each year. This is equivalent to the entire populations of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania;
Over 6 BILLION pieces of mail were thrown away because they were undeliverable as addressed. Of these, over 75% could have been delivered if NCOA was run first;
NCOA updates addresses every week and keeps the information for 48 months;
30-35% of the population does not file a Change of Address (COA) form with the post office. This is especially true for people in their 20's. There is no way to know who these people are until their mail is sent back as “unforwardable”;
It usually takes 2 weeks from the time a person files a Change of Address form with the post office until NCOA receives it;
NCOA is computerized, so they need exact matches. NCOA will not process a person as moved if the name is spelled differently, numbers are transposed, street directional is incorrect, etc. as NCOA does not want to show someone as moved if they haven't really moved. (The post office has a list of approved "nicknames" to ease this restriction);
The post office does a manual check for all change of addresses. Therefore, the post office will find some people who have moved when the NCOA service did not - this is due to the reasons listed above.

What are the costs?

Please contact Sales at 708-974-2600 ext 109 or email Sales@rescignos.com for current pricing.

More Information:

"Things to Know about NCOA" - PDF Version

How your list is returned

Send us a list for processing

You will need to fill out an authorization form (called a PAF form). Please click HERE to open the form. (You will need Adobe Acrobat reader to open the form.) Please fill in the top section, print the form, sign it, and fax to 708-974-0060. One of the fields is for your NAICS code. The NAICS is just a code to categorize your industry. For all educational institutions, the code is 611110. For all others, please click HERE to look up your NAICS code.

Please email your list to data@rescignos.com. Please include the following information with your email:

Your name
Your organization
Your phone number and email address
Total number of records in your list (for verification purposes)
If you require duplicates removed (if so, one per address, one per family or one per person). See our section on removing duplicates for more information
If you would like just the people who moved returned, or if you would like a complete, updated list returned

Do you have more questions?

Please contact Christy Lynch at (708) 974-2600 ext. 103.