Postal redirection - WWYD?

[hyperspacebug]

We are moving from one rental into another rental property. We are going to live at most 12 months only (plus break clause) in next house before we are buying a house.

I have tons of accounts. Apart from the obvious important things like gas and utilities, can I just rely on postal redirection service until we get our own house and then inform every database out there of the address change? How reliable is the postal redirection service?

We paid for a year's redirection from both our own house we'd sold and the rental we'd been in for 9 months, when we moved 2 years ago.

Every so often we'd either get mail that had clearly been redirected by the new renters, or something we were expecting wouldn't arrive at all. I suspect the redirect was very hit-and-miss.

I would either switch everything to internet-only, or let people know of the address change.

Not 100% reliable, afaic.
I'd use it as an opportunity to reduce the number of accounts you have!

And make a list of everyone you need to phone for when you move again!

It seems to be area dependent. If you are moving locally and your postie is good, there should be no problems, but introduce yourself to the next tenants/owners, with a sheet of pre-printed stickers, just in case.

nextphase has a good point: that this is not your last move! I have a computer file of redirection letters, which I update with the appropriate addresses whenever we move. I also have a separate list for online/"own system" redirects, like the GP. DON'T FORGET YOUR DELIVERY SERVICES, e.g. eBay, Amazon, groceries!

I wouldn't rely on postal redirection because sometimes it goes wrong and also if you have things like bank accounts they will expect you to give them your current address.

I have had my post redirected from my old house for 4 months so far. We've had 1 item go to the old address, 1 for the new owners of the old house redirected to me, and about 4 for someone in a street near our old home redirected to us. I gave my new address to everyone quickly and at a guess I'd say I've had around 15 - 25 items redirected correctly plus 6 mistakes.

I had a gap between houses and we contacted our building societies and banks to ask them to stop post til we had a new address. The b socs agreed, but both banks refused. But we still got some post from some of the b socs. You might be able to switch to online or change from monthly statements to annual to reduce items in the post.

just change your addresses is my advice. 12 mo is ages to live somewhere!

change the addresses, yes - but every one of those changes triggers a letter to both old and new addresses so you do need the redirect. How reliable it is actually depends on the post office concerned as the final sort is done there. I've had three from three different areas and all have worked, in fact the last one was still happening two weeks after the payment expired!

I did exactly what you did (sell-rent-buy), and it does work. Set everything possible to online only and make that list.

remember the urgent ones: your insurances (old house, tenants contents, new house,car), driving licence (do online, send back the old one when the new one comes) and utilities.

In my experience and people I know perhaps 20% or more does not get redirected and it is totally random. So good idea o keep intouch with people at your old home and give everyone your new address.

I would inform everyone that you're moving, AND get a postal redirection for at least 1 year. Make a spreadsheet and write down everyone that needs to know, and just mark off when you do it. It won't take you too long. I agree with another poster - 12 months is actually quite long.
We moved 3 months ago and we've not had any problems with our redirection so far - I think, anyway, as the post office is still forwarding marketing bumpf from companies!
I think it's better to be safe than sorry, and redirection is not expensive. It also catches contacts that you'd forgotten about.

Thank you, mumsnetters! I've got postal redirection sorted for 1 year and I'm definitely going to inconvenience myself with informing every database, like it or not.

I'd get it. The woman in the house before us didn't. We had the bailiffs around yesterday looking for her.