Address verification reduces your returned and undeliverable mail
Postalocity.com has the tools to help.
You know that mail you send out can get returned if your recipient has moved and not provided you with their new address. But did you know that your mail can be delayed or returned if the address isn’t standardized, has typos, lacks spaces, or doesn’t use proper abbreviations? Address verification helps resolve these issues.
Maintaining a free Processing Acknowledgement Form (PAF) with Postalocity.com will also allow Postalocity.com to check for any change-of-address updates when your mailing has one hundred recipients or more, ensuring that you’re sending your piece to your recipient at their most current location.
When you use Postalocity.com to send your mailing, address verification is one of the steps your job will go through before you approve and pay to send your mailing, giving you the opportunity to reduce or even eliminate returned mail.
The address verification process on a Postalocity.com job
When you send a mailing through Postalocity.com, one of the steps your job will go through is address verification. During this step, Postalocity.com compares your addresses to the USPS database through a reputable third-party address verification vendor. To ensure that information we reference remains current, the vendor updates the database information available to us every two weeks.
When we compare your mailing list to the USPS database, we check addresses for the possibility of low deliverability that occurs with improper formatting, misspellings, and missing information and format them as CASS Certified addresses, a standard that helps ensure delivery of mail. If your mailing has one hundred recipients or more and you have a PAF on file, we also check for any change-of-address updates during the address verification process.
What is a PAF?
A PAF is a Processing Acknowledgement Form. This is a free form that you can complete that Postalocity and USPS keeps on file. The form is valid for one year, and it allows us to show you the most current information for your mail recipients in mailings with over one hundred legally obtained, unique addresses. Your PAF can be renewed annually at no charge.
The PAF unlocks access to NCOALink, which includes the permanent change-of-address records submitted to USPS in the last 48 months.
Making changes to supplied addresses
If your addresses show a low chance of deliverability when they are checked against the database, you will have the opportunity to update those addresses during the address verification process. If you have a mailing of over one hundred pieces you will also have the opportunity to update addresses that NCOALink indicates have changed for your recipients. Any addresses that are deemed to be good addresses will be properly formatted to a standardized CASS Certified address and manual updates by the user will not be necessary.
Can I choose to ignore a warning about low deliverability for an address?
A Postalocity.com user can always opt to proceed forward in the address verification process with an address as they entered it if they receive a low deliverability warning for a mail piece. First class mail sent through Postalocity.com with CASS Certified addresses are mailed at a discounted rate. If you choose not to correct an address with a low chance of deliverability, it will not be CASS Certified, and it will mail at the full first-class rate.
Change of address updates for your records
If you have a PAF on file with Postalocity.com, a National Change of Address (NCOA) list from your mailing is available to you in your Postalocity.com account.
You will be able to find change of address information while logged in to your Postalocity.com account. Click on Job History from the navigation on the left side of your Postalocity home page. Once your jobs list loads, select the job with the mailing information you need. Then click on the Address Details button to show the options for addresses. To get the moves, click on the Moves link. This takes you to the mail pieces that have moves. Then click on the Address Data button in the top right corner. This will send a secure link to the email on file with your Postalocity.com account. Within your job you’ll also be able to get a report of manual address changes you made or see pieces that fell into low delivery categories.
Approving your addresses and mailing
You will need to complete all steps in the address verification process, even if you choose not to update addresses that have a low chance of deliverability. You will also be required to review proofs of how your job will be printed. It is strongly recommended that you check them carefully, as your mailing will be printed exactly as shown in your proofs. Once you complete these final steps you will be able to pay for job and approve Postalocity.com processing your mailing.
Checking a single address without doing a mailing
There is a tool available in Postalocity that allows you to check a single mailing address and get the CASS Certified standard for the address. On the homepage click on the Tools link, then click on Check Address. You’ll be able to input the address you have on file and certify it to get the accepted standardized address.
