USPS Standard and First-Class Mail® mailings that have not performed change-of-address processing are not eligible for presorted (automation, non-automation and carrier route) discount rates and must be mailed at a price that does not require change-of-address processing e.g. First-Class single-piece rate.

The goal is to reduce the number of mailpieces that require forwarding or return due to change-of-address. Mailers who claim presorted or automation rates for First-Class or Standard Mail must certify that they have updated their addresses within 95 days of the mailing. This requirement is known as Move Update compliance.

Move Update requirement and compliance can be found in DMM® Section 602a.

Move Update Compliance

The USPS Move Update standard requires periodic matching of a mailer’s addresses with customer-filed change-of-address orders received and maintained by the Postal Service™. The mailer then is required to update the address on the mailpiece for any addressee with a USPS change-of-address match in the NCOALink national database.

Move Update Requirement Verification

The Postal Service has developed and deployed a process to measure a sample of the mailing and determine that the mailer has met the Move Update requirement by evaluating the effectiveness of a customer’s change-of-address processing and Move Update compliance.
The addresses in the verification sample are compared to the NCOALink national database to determine change-of-address accuracy. The process determines the number of pieces within the sample that should have been updated with a change-of-address match in the NCOALink national database and the number of pieces that were not updated matching to a NCOALink national database record.

USPS Verification Threshold

• Mailings with 5 or fewer pieces with a NCOALink change-of-address record on file that were not updated will pass the verification.
• A mailing with a passing score of 70% (tolerance 30%) or higher will pass verification.
• The passing score will be calculated using the total number of pieces with a NCOALink change-of-address record on file divided into the number of pieces that the mailer updated (within the date range, 95 days – 18 months).

Move Update non-compliance cost mailers

First-Class or Standard Mail mailings that fail to meet the Move Update requirement will be assessed as follows:

• The assessment will be calculated based on the percentage of failed pieces in excess of the tolerance (30%) multiplied by the total number of pieces mailed.
• The fee will be $0.07 per assessed piece.

For example: A mailing with a score of 60% and more than 5 pieces that were not updated will be assessed additional postage of $.07 per piece for 10% of the pieces in the mailing. The 10% is the difference between the not-updated percentage (40%) and the tolerance (30%). If the mailing consisted of 100,000 pieces, 10,000 of the pieces would be charged $0.07 per piece = $700.00.