Address change service: update every account, not just your mail
An address change has two halves. Official USPS forwarding reroutes your mail for about a year. Updating the accounts that hold your address (banks, cards, utilities, insurers, subscriptions) is the half that eats a weekend, and the half Movepost turns into one guided workflow: three accounts free, then $19.
What does a change of address service do?
Three different things use the name:
- USPS mail forwarding: the official one. It redirects eligible mail to your new address for about a year and changes nothing on any account. File it at usps.com.
- Look-alike filing sites: paid sites that file the same USPS form for $40–$90 and add nothing. If a site other than usps.com charged you to “change your address,” this is what happened.
- Account-update services: help with the records each company keeps. Banks and insurers only change an address for the signed-in account holder, so the workable version is a guided workflow: Movepost opens each address page, helps fill your new address once you’re in, records it done, and queues the next account.
The half that needs a service is the account half
Forwarding buys you time, then expires. Meanwhile a typical household has 15–40 accounts holding the old address: the second credit card, the brokerage you opened years ago, the insurer, the pharmacy, the subscriptions that renew to old billing. Each one keeps issuing statements, renewals, and packages to an address you no longer control until its own record is changed, one signed-in session at a time.
That work is free to do by hand, and the who-to-notify checklist and 157 free guides exist for that. What a paid service can sell you is the removal of the tedium: finding each site’s buried address page, retyping the same address, remembering where you stopped. That is what Movepost charges $19 for, and why it never needs your passwords.
Address-change services, compared
| USPS forwarding | Paid filing sites | Notify-style services | Movepost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it changes | Nothing on your accounts. It forwards eligible mail for about a year | Nothing extra. They file the same USPS forwarding order | Sends notifications; password-protected accounts still need you | The address on the accounts on your list, updated by you with the tedious parts handled |
| Account-update help | Not included. Forwarding does not update accounts | Not included. They only submit the forwarding form | Varies; often bundled with moving services | $19 once for the whole move |
| Where it helps | The bridge while you update accounts | Nowhere. Skip these | Utility hookups and partner offers | The account-by-account work that eats the weekend |
File the USPS order either way, since it catches whatever you haven’t updated yet. File it at usps.com directly. Here is what it covers and what it skips.
What no address change service can do
- Sign in to your accounts on your behalf. Banks and insurers change an address only for the authenticated account holder, and their terms forbid handing that session to a company. Any service claiming otherwise is overpromising.
- Make one form reach everyone. There is no registry that pushes a new address to your bank, your utility, and your pharmacy at once. Each record is separate; that’s why the job is a list.
- Beat the USPS at forwarding. Mail rerouting is a postal monopoly. A service can remind you to file it; only USPS can do it.
Movepost works inside those limits: you stay the one signed in, and the product removes the searching, the typing, the tracking, and the “which ones are left.” To see how far automation can go, read what can and can’t be automated in an address change first.
Want the account half handled?
Build your list in about two minutes, sign in to each site yourself, and work the queue until it’s all green. Three accounts free, then $19 one-time with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Questions people ask about address change services
Is there one service that changes your address everywhere?
No single service can do the whole job, because the two halves of it are different. Mail forwarding is a USPS service — nobody else can reroute your mail. Updating the accounts themselves (banks, cards, utilities, insurers, subscriptions) has to happen inside each account while you are signed in, so the workable version of that service is a guided workflow rather than a form you submit and forget.
How can I tell whether a change-of-address site is official?
The official online change of address lives at usps.com, and the in-person option is a post office counter. Look-alike filing sites buy ads on the same search terms, so type usps.com directly rather than relying on an ad.
What does account-update help cost?
Updating your accounts is free if you do it by hand. The searching, signing in, and typing is the real cost, usually a weekend. Movepost charges $19 one-time for the guided version of that account work, with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
What is the difference between mail forwarding and an address change?
Forwarding redirects eligible mail from the old address to the new one for about a year, while the sender still has the old address on file and keeps using it. An address change updates the record each company holds, so statements, cards, renewals, and deliveries go to the right place from then on.
Can a service notify my bank of my new address on my behalf?
Not reliably, and usually not at all. Banks, brokerages, and insurers change an address only for the authenticated account holder (it is a basic fraud control), and their terms do not allow a third party to act inside your account. Services that "notify companies on your behalf" can send a letter, but a letter is not an authenticated change and most institutions will not act on one. The dependable path is you, signed in, with the tedious parts handled for you around that sign-in.
Related reading
Comparing tools rather than services? See the change-of-address app comparison. Handed an invite to a moving app and wondering about the trade? Read the Updater and MovingWaldo alternatives page. Doing it all by hand? Start from the free who-to-notify checklist.