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This has been great for deciding if I want to walk out to the mailbox in the winter or not. But I believe signing up for this caused me to get a ton of junk mai

This has been great for deciding if I want to walk out to the mailbox in the winter or not. But I believe signing up for this caused me to get a ton of junk mail. There is something about either forwarding/address changing or this informed delivery that allows USPS to sell your new address to junk mailers. I signed up for both at the same time and was flooded with new junk mail the day I moved in. It gives me a serious distaste for the postal service as an organization.

secabeen 8y ago
It's the forwarding/address changing. They sell that DB widely, so that companies can update their records within the forwarding window. Junk mailers buy it too.
- tzs 8y ago
  Credit reporting agencies also get it. I had a change of address for a neighbor mistakenly applied to me [1], and now my credit report claims I briefly lived at their new address. Mostly not a problem, except when a site does the "ask questions about your credit report to verify identity" thin, and asks about prior addresses I need to watch for that address. [1] Briefly, me and the neighbors have the same last name. I'm at address 537 Our Street, and they are at 567 Our Street. They submitted a change of address form for 567 Our Street. It turns out the house they live in belonged to the wife before they got married, and in the post office records it is still listed under her maiden name. So when they filed the change of address, someone at the PO noticed that the name did not match the records for 567, but did match for 537, assumed that it was from me and I had botched entering the address, "fixed" it, and processed it.
Bedon292 8y ago
Its not informed delivery that did it. I signed up for this a while back with no change. It was the forwarding address thing. When I last did it there was a bunch of boxes you had to uncheck to not 'sign up' for all the other stuff.
logfromblammo 8y ago
The workaround is to do a temporary change of address, and contact each company that sends you mail forwarded from your old address individually, to update your address record. When the mail stops forwarding, you stop getting mail from anyone that you didn't explicitly inform of your new address. The permanent change of address triggers advertising that targets new residents. Restaurants want to try to snag your regular business before you find other options on your own. Hardware stores expect that you might be doing some post-move remodeling. Insurers might try to sell you on a new homeowner or renter policy. Cable and phone companies offer you limited-time deals for new customers. It's a one-time deluge that tails off pretty quickly. The USPS makes a lot of their revenue from periodicals (2nd class) and marketing (3rd class) mail.
- Rebelgecko 8y ago
  It's also one of the best ways to get the vaunted Bed Bath and Beyond 20% off your entire purchase coupon. Depending on how much stuff you're buying after you move, that can be worth a little junk mail
  - cobalt 8y ago
    i have never found anything at bbb that wasn't already 20% cheaper on amazon/other site
  - 1stcity3rdcoast 8y ago
    They’ve already started piloting an annual subscription that gives you a permanent 20% off every purchase, every time, with a barcode pre-loaded on your phone. It cost me $29 for the whole year. I buy a ton of stuff at BBB for my company and it paid for itself in the first hour. And no paper coupon needed!
  - Stratoscope 8y ago
    Agreed, that's how I have gotten that coupon too. It's time to share the Three Secrets of the regular 20% off one item and $5 off a $15 purchase coupons that BeBo (that's what we call them here) mails out: 0. Ignore what it says on the coupon! 1. The coupons do not expire. No one looks at the expiration date, they just scan the barcode and it always works. 2. You can use any number of coupons in a single purchase as long as they are on different items. 3. If you don't have a coupon with you, you have 30 days to come back with a coupon and your receipt and get the discount refunded.
eli 8y ago
You can opt out of the vast majority of junk mail here if you wish: https://dmachoice.thedma.org/ https://dmachoice.thedma.org/
- yjftsjthsd-h 8y ago
  Who/what is this? Official USPS service, third party...? It looks either really cool or really sketchy, and I can't tell which.
  - adrianmonk 8y ago
    It is an industry trade group for organizations that use direct mail marketing. It gets mixed reviews, and it's not perfect, but it seems to be basically legitimate. With email spam, costs are so negligible that there's no way it's worth the trouble of removing an address. Every piece of physical mail costs money for printing and postage, so while it's not a big incentive, a cost saving incentive actually does exist.
    - twothamendment 8y ago
      The other half of the "every piece of mail costs money" coin is to send back every prepaid envelope. What you put in it is up to you, but the thicker and heavier it is the better.
  - mgerdts 8y ago
    When I moved several years ago my new home got lots of catalogs for places I'd never shop at. I was shocked at how significantly it dropped the volume. Did nothing for things local ads, but the thick glossy catalogs all stopped.

secabeen 8y ago

It's the forwarding/address changing. They sell that DB widely, so that companies can update their records within the forwarding window. Junk mailers buy it too.

tzs 8y ago
Credit reporting agencies also get it. I had a change of address for a neighbor mistakenly applied to me [1], and now my credit report claims I briefly lived at their new address. Mostly not a problem, except when a site does the "ask questions about your credit report to verify identity" thin, and asks about prior addresses I need to watch for that address. [1] Briefly, me and the neighbors have the same last name. I'm at address 537 Our Street, and they are at 567 Our Street. They submitted a change of address form for 567 Our Street. It turns out the house they live in belonged to the wife before they got married, and in the post office records it is still listed under her maiden name. So when they filed the change of address, someone at the PO noticed that the name did not match the records for 567, but did match for 537, assumed that it was from me and I had botched entering the address, "fixed" it, and processed it.

Bedon292 8y ago

Its not informed delivery that did it. I signed up for this a while back with no change. It was the forwarding address thing. When I last did it there was a bunch of boxes you had to uncheck to not 'sign up' for all the other stuff.

logfromblammo 8y ago

The workaround is to do a temporary change of address, and contact each company that sends you mail forwarded from your old address individually, to update your address record. When the mail stops forwarding, you stop getting mail from anyone that you didn't explicitly inform of your new address. The permanent change of address triggers advertising that targets new residents. Restaurants want to try to snag your regular business before you find other options on your own. Hardware stores expect that you might be doing some post-move remodeling. Insurers might try to sell you on a new homeowner or renter policy. Cable and phone companies offer you limited-time deals for new customers. It's a one-time deluge that tails off pretty quickly. The USPS makes a lot of their revenue from periodicals (2nd class) and marketing (3rd class) mail.

Rebelgecko 8y ago
It's also one of the best ways to get the vaunted Bed Bath and Beyond 20% off your entire purchase coupon. Depending on how much stuff you're buying after you move, that can be worth a little junk mail
- cobalt 8y ago
  i have never found anything at bbb that wasn't already 20% cheaper on amazon/other site
- 1stcity3rdcoast 8y ago
  They’ve already started piloting an annual subscription that gives you a permanent 20% off every purchase, every time, with a barcode pre-loaded on your phone. It cost me $29 for the whole year. I buy a ton of stuff at BBB for my company and it paid for itself in the first hour. And no paper coupon needed!
- Stratoscope 8y ago
  Agreed, that's how I have gotten that coupon too. It's time to share the Three Secrets of the regular 20% off one item and $5 off a $15 purchase coupons that BeBo (that's what we call them here) mails out: 0. Ignore what it says on the coupon! 1. The coupons do not expire. No one looks at the expiration date, they just scan the barcode and it always works. 2. You can use any number of coupons in a single purchase as long as they are on different items. 3. If you don't have a coupon with you, you have 30 days to come back with a coupon and your receipt and get the discount refunded.

eli 8y ago

You can opt out of the vast majority of junk mail here if you wish: https://dmachoice.thedma.org/ https://dmachoice.thedma.org/

yjftsjthsd-h 8y ago
Who/what is this? Official USPS service, third party...? It looks either really cool or really sketchy, and I can't tell which.
- adrianmonk 8y ago
  It is an industry trade group for organizations that use direct mail marketing. It gets mixed reviews, and it's not perfect, but it seems to be basically legitimate. With email spam, costs are so negligible that there's no way it's worth the trouble of removing an address. Every piece of physical mail costs money for printing and postage, so while it's not a big incentive, a cost saving incentive actually does exist.
  - twothamendment 8y ago
    The other half of the "every piece of mail costs money" coin is to send back every prepaid envelope. What you put in it is up to you, but the thicker and heavier it is the better.
- mgerdts 8y ago
  When I moved several years ago my new home got lots of catalogs for places I'd never shop at. I was shocked at how significantly it dropped the volume. Did nothing for things local ads, but the thick glossy catalogs all stopped.