Free tool
Change of address checklist
Updated August 21, 2026
Filing with the Post Office tells the Post Office. Everyone else you have to tell yourself. Tick what applies to your move and the generator builds a printable list of exactly who that is, grouped by when to do it, no account, no email, free.
Step 1
Which of these apply to your move?
Two are ticked to start. Change them to match your move and the list below rebuilds itself. The rows nobody can skip stay on the list either way.
39 places to notify·0 done
Change of Address Checklist
Made with Granite, an AI document vault. granite.co
For a move where: I own my home, I have a car.
2+ weeks before the move
Anything with a lead time, an install slot, or a notice period.
- Financial
Update it in online banking. A reissued debit card goes to whatever address is on file that day.
- Financial
Each issuer separately. A billing-address mismatch is a common reason cards decline.
- Financial
Notify the current servicer, not the originator. Loans change hands and the new servicer is the one holding your address.
- Government
File once per household adult, or once for the family if everyone shares a last name and moves together. Online costs about a dollar to verify your identity on a card in your name; free in person with photo ID. Only use usps.com, because lookalike sites charge $40 or more for the same filing.
- Government
The DMV “motor voter” update is not guaranteed to carry over. A new county or state means a new registration, and deadlines run 15 to 30 days before an election.
- Insurance
Premiums are rated on where the car sleeps. Get the new quote before the move, not after. A new declarations page lands in your files either way.
- Insurance
The new policy has to be in force on closing or move-in day. Renters policies are usually re-issued rather than edited.
- Subscriptions & deliveries
USPS forwards periodicals for only 60 days, so tell the publishers directly.
- Utilities & home
Schedule the stop at the old place and the start at the new one for the same day. Overlap by a day if the provider allows it.
- Utilities & home
May need an in-person meter appointment. Book it early.
- Utilities & home
Often municipal, which means a different office from the power company.
- Utilities & home
Install slots run two to three weeks out. Book before the move, not on moving day.
- Utilities & home
Update their records, the gate codes tied to your name, and where the dues bill goes.
- Work & income
Drives W-2 delivery and state tax withholding. Update it before the first post-move paycheck.
The week of the move
Deliveries and services that would otherwise arrive at the old door.
- Community & other
Leave the new address with a trusted old neighbor for the mail that slips through.
- Subscriptions & deliveries
Change the default address and any Subscribe & Save shipments separately. They do not update together.
- Subscriptions & deliveries
Skip the delivery for the week of the move or it ships to the old door.
- Utilities & home
Municipal in most places. New bins can take weeks to arrive, so start the account before you need them.
- Utilities & home
The billing address drives your taxes and your E911 location.
- Utilities & home
Transfer or cancel monitoring before the new owners move in.
The first week after
The deadlined ones. Do these before the boxes are unpacked.
- Government10–30 days, varies by state
Most states give you 10 to 30 days: California says 10, Florida says 30. Check your own state before you assume.
- Government
Usually a separate transaction from the license, even at the same counter. Ask before you leave.
Official site ↗What a vehicle registration looks like →What a car title looks like →
- Health
Transfer prescriptions before a refill runs out, not after.
- Insurance
A move is a qualifying life event. It opens a Special Enrollment Period if you buy your own coverage.
The first month after
The long tail. Low urgency, high cost if you skip it.
- Community & other
An out-of-state move can change how your will and trust operate, and part-year taxes span two states.
- Community & other
Donation receipts need the right address at tax time.
- Financial
Your state of residence can change tax withholding on distributions.
- Financial
Old-employer plans are the most commonly forgotten account in a move.
- Financial
The bureaus update from your creditors, not from you. A month after the move, pull a free report and confirm nothing still points at the old address.
- Government
USPS forwarding does not update the IRS. It is a paper form. An IRS notice counts as delivered to the address on file even if you never see it.
- Government
Update your Trusted Traveler account. PreCheck goes through your enrollment provider at tsa.gov/precheck.
- Health
Request records transfers if you are leaving the area.
- Health
Same records-transfer request, same reason.
- Insurance
Lapse risk. A premium notice mailed to a dead address still counts as delivered.
- Subscriptions & deliveries
Billing address only, but household and location checks can lock you out of an account until you fix it.
- Subscriptions & deliveries
Cancel or transfer. Contracts often want written notice.
- Work & income
Including any plan that has since moved to the PBGC.
Deadlines and requirements change, and state rules differ. Treat the linked official page as the source of truth for anything with a date on it. Granite organizes the paperwork a move produces; it does not submit address changes for you.
The distinction that matters
Forwarding your mail is not the same as changing your address
A USPS change of address does one job: it takes mail that is already addressed to you at the old house and redirects it to the new one. First-Class mail is generally forwarded for 12 months. Magazines and newspapers get 60 days (USPS Domestic Mail Manual 507, checked August 2026). Nothing about that filing tells your bank, your insurer, your employer, the IRS, or your state DMV that you moved. Their records still say the old address, and they will keep sending things there long after the forwarding stops.
That gap is where the expensive mistakes live. A reissued debit card goes to the old house. An insurance premium notice arrives at an address you no longer own, and a policy lapses because a letter counted as delivered. An IRS notice with a response deadline sits in a stranger’s mail pile. Forwarding hides the problem for a year instead of solving it, which is exactly why so many people discover the misses in month 13.
So the real task is not one filing. It is a list of organizations, each told separately, which is the same one-list, many-agencies drill as changing your name after marriage. The generator above builds that list for your move rather than handing you everyone else’s.
How to work the list
Sorted by when, not by category
Most change-of-address lists are grouped by type: government, financial, utilities, subscriptions. That grouping is useless on a Tuesday, because it does not tell you what is already late. Timing is what actually varies. An internet install slot books two to three weeks out. A gas meter appointment needs a person on site. A driver’s license has a legal deadline counted in days after you arrive. A streaming service can wait a month and nothing bad happens.
So the generator sorts every row into one of four windows, and keeps the category as a small label on the row instead of as the organizing idea.
Work them in order and print the list, or copy it as text and paste it wherever you already keep your move. The two windows people underestimate are the first and the third. The first fills up with things that need a technician, a notice period, or a quote. The third holds the rows with actual deadlines attached, and the boxes are still packed when the clock starts.
When it is over, everything the move produced needs somewhere to live. That is a home filing system problem, and the same records belong in your family emergency binder.
Where these numbers come from
Sources, and what we deliberately left out
The forwarding durations come from the USPS Domestic Mail Manual 507: 12 months for First-Class mail on a permanent change, up to 18 additional months of Extended Mail Forwarding in six-month increments, 60 days for periodicals, and 15 to 185 days for a temporary forward. The 10-day reporting requirement for non-citizens comes from uscis.gov/addresschange. The driver’s license window comes from state DMV pages. Every link in the tool was opened and checked on 21 August 2026.
Two honest limits. First, we do not print a dollar figure for the USPS online filing, because the published sources disagree on the exact cents and the Postal Service’s own page is the only one that counts. It is about a dollar online and free in person with photo ID. Second, we do not hardcode your state’s DMV deadline. Only California’s 10 days and Florida’s 30 are verified here, so the tool shows the range and sends you to your own state’s page rather than guessing on your behalf.
Nothing you tick leaves your browser. The list is saved locally on this device so you can come back to it, and there is no account and no email. Print it or copy it before you go.
Worked example
A renter with a car, across town
Say you rent, you own a car, and you are moving to a new apartment in the same state. You tick I rent and I have a car, and the list comes back at 38 rows across the four windows: 14 before the move, 5 in the week of it, 4 in the first week after, 15 in the first month.
Two weeks out, you file the USPS forward at usps.com, give your landlord written notice on whatever schedule the lease demands, and book the internet install, because the slot is three weeks out and you will not get a better one by waiting. You call the auto insurer for a quote at the new ZIP before the move rather than after, since the premium is rated on the new ZIP. You update payroll so the next paycheck and the W-2 go to the right place, and you update the bank and each card issuer, because the billing address has to match. You schedule the electric stop and start for the same day.
The week of the move, you change the default address at the online retailers, skip the meal-kit delivery so it does not ship to the old address, and update the mobile carrier.
The first week after, you deal with the deadlined rows: the driver’s license, then the vehicle registration as a separate transaction, then the pharmacy so a refill does not fail. Renters insurance gets re-issued for the new unit, and your new declaration page is worth reading rather than filing unopened, because the coverage limits often change with the address.
The first month after, you mail Form 8822 to the IRS, update the brokerage and the old 401(k), and pull a free credit report to confirm nothing still points at the old apartment. That last check is the one that catches whatever you forgot.
What is left at the end is a small stack of paper: the signed lease, the final utility bills, the new declarations pages, the updated registration. Those are keepers, and how long to keep important documents says which ones and for how long. Buy instead of rent and the stack is heavier: the closing disclosure and the property deed are permanent records, not move paperwork.
Questions
Changing your address, answered
- Does USPS notify everyone of my new address?
- No. A USPS change of address forwards mail that is already addressed to you at the old house. It does not tell your bank, your insurer, the IRS, or the DMV that you moved. Every organization has to be told separately, which is what the list above is for.
- How long does USPS mail forwarding last?
- A permanent change of address generally forwards First-Class mail for 12 months, and magazines and newspapers for only 60 days (USPS Domestic Mail Manual 507, checked August 2026), so tell publishers directly. Extended Mail Forwarding can add up to 18 more months in six-month increments for a fee. A temporary forward runs 15 to 185 days and can be extended, but not past 364 days total.
- How much does a change of address cost, and why do some sites charge $40?
- Filing online at usps.com costs about a dollar, charged to a credit or debit card in your name as an identity check. In person at a Post Office it is free with photo ID. The sites charging $40 or more are not the Postal Service. They are lookalike middlemen that make the same filing on your behalf and keep the difference. Type usps.com/move yourself rather than clicking a search ad.
- How far in advance should I file?
- You can file up to about 90 days ahead, and roughly two weeks before the move is the sweet spot. Forwarding starts about three business days after the date you give, so a start date on moving day means a few days of mail still landing at the old address.
- How many days do I have to change my address on my driver's license?
- Most states give you 10 to 30 days. California says 10, Florida says 30. Your license and your vehicle registration are usually two separate records, so updating one does not update the other. Check your own state's DMV page. Updating your license at the DMV usually offers a voter-registration update, but it isn't guaranteed — a new county or state means a new registration.
- Do I need to tell the IRS I moved?
- Yes, if you moved after you filed or before you expect any correspondence. USPS forwarding does not update IRS records. Form 8822 changes your personal address and Form 8822-B changes a business address tied to an EIN. Both are paper forms. It matters because an IRS notice mailed to your address on file counts as delivered whether or not you saw it.
- What happens if I don't tell someone I moved?
- The damage is quiet. A reissued debit card goes to strangers. A premium notice you never see turns into a lapsed policy. A tax notice expires in someone else's mail pile. Forwarding buys you 12 months of not noticing.
- When should I stop and start utilities, and what about the final bill?
- Book utilities two to three weeks out. Schedule the stop at the old address for the day after you hand over the keys and the start at the new one for the day before you arrive, so you are never without power or water and never paying for an empty house for long. Internet installs and gas meter appointments need a technician, so those book first. The final bill from the old address arrives two to six weeks later at your forwarding address; keep it, because it proves the account closed and settles any deposit refund.
- Does my insurance change when I move?
- Usually yes. Auto and home premiums are rated on the ZIP code, so the same car and the same coverage can cost noticeably more or less a few miles away. Tell the insurer before the move, not after, and expect a new declarations page for each policy: renters policies are normally re-issued for the new unit rather than edited, and homeowners coverage has to be in force on closing day. A move is also a qualifying life event for health insurance, which opens a Special Enrollment Period if you buy your own coverage.
- Who else do I need to notify besides USPS?
- Everyone who mails you something that matters. In practice that is nine groups: government (DMV, IRS, voter registration, Social Security or VA if you get benefits, USCIS if you are not a citizen), banks and card issuers, loan servicers and retirement accounts, every insurer, utilities and your landlord or HOA, your employer's payroll, doctors and pharmacies, schools and daycare, and your subscriptions and delivery accounts. The generator on this page prunes that to the rows that apply to your move.
- Do I have to report my move to immigration?
- If you are not a U.S. citizen, federal law requires you to report a change of address within 10 days of moving, using Form AR-11 or your USCIS online account. A and G visa holders and Visa Waiver Program visitors are exempt. It is the shortest legal deadline on the whole list, and the online filing satisfies it.
- What documents should I keep from a move?
- Keep the ones that prove what things cost and who owns what: the closing disclosure and deed if you bought, the signed lease if you rent, final utility bills from the old address, the new insurance declarations pages, the updated license and registration, and the mover's bill of lading and inventory. Most of these become the paperwork you need years later, at sale time or after a claim.
Keep exploring
Related from Granite
- How to build a family emergency binderA move is a good excuse to build one. What goes in it, and how to keep it from going stale.
- How to set up a home filing systemWhere the lease, the deed, the new policies, and the final bills should land once you unpack.
- Name change after marriage checklistThe same one-list, many-agencies drill, with a sequence that keeps the DMV from turning you away.
The list gets you through the move. The paperwork outlives it.
What Granite does is read and file what the move leaves behind: final bills from the old place, the new declarations pages, the closing disclosure, the updated license. A year from now they're one search away instead of in a box. Free for your first 25 documents.