Forgetting to update your address when you move can prove costly
1 in 5 people have problems with mail when moving home — so why don’t they redirect it?
Moving house can be difficult and stressful. For most, it means a significant investment of time, effort and upfront costs. The potential for things to go wrong is considerable.
It’s also expensive. Between 2016 and 2017, the average cost of moving nationally increased by £628 (6%) to £11,624, which was well above the yearly growth in average earnings (2%).
Last year, we helped people with more than 400,000 housing issues. We’ve revealed the sharp practices people encounter in the growing private rented sector, including difficulties renters face with letting agent fees.
People want to run their lives online — but mail is still important
Finding a place to live is difficult. It’s understandable that informing everyone about a change of address can seem like an afterthought. This list could include energy suppliers, insurers, banks, local authorities and any number of Government departments. But not doing so can have severe consequences, and our research has found that the way mail redirection services are designed may be preventing particular groups of consumers from using them.
Today, many people manage their lives online wherever possible. Yet as we’ve shown in previous research, many still receive vital and sensitive items by post, including bank statements, utility or phone bills and notification of medical appointments. And people like this. 8 in 10 (79%) say that receiving bank statements or other financial documents by post is important to them.
Not redirecting mail can cause serious problems
Earlier this year we asked 2,009 adults who’d moved home in England and Wales in the last two years about their experiences with mail.
We found that almost 1 in 5 (19%) people have problems with their mail when moving, with roughly 1 in 10 (11%) for example not receiving or experiencing delays in receiving important letters. This was higher amongst particular groups, including disabled people and those on benefits. This often leads to further complications, such as asking for important post to be redelivered or being late in paying a bill.
Even more serious is the risk of identity theft. While only a small number of people told us they had their identity or money stolen (2%), this was higher among younger and disabled people.
New evidence from Cifas, the fraud prevention service, suggests that the risk of identify fraud is increasing. Previous occupier fraud (where a former resident’s identity is used to apply for credit or loans) went up roughly 5% between 2015 and 2016. It now accounts for almost 1 in 10 identity fraud cases in the UK.
Most people don’t find it easy to get their mail forwarded
Fewer than half (43%) of respondents said it’s easy to have mail forwarded to their new address. That’s even worse than notoriously difficult home tasks such as setting up broadband.
The reasons why people don’t use the service are not straightforward
Royal Mail offers a redirection service to most residential addresses in the UK. People can pay to have post forwarded to their new address for up to 4 years. Although many people told us they knew about the service (78%), overall only a third (34%) said they’d actually used it. So why aren’t more choosing to take it up?
One reason is that people simply don’t feel the need to use it. For instance, nearly 3 in 10 (28%) had already notified all relevant contacts of their change of address. Almost a quarter (24%) said that they didn’t receive enough mail to make it worthwhile. And some people may simply rely on family members forwarding mail to their new address.
Most people said they had no need to use the service, but other factors such as cost rank highly
However, when we looked in more detail we found that some people, particularly those less likely to use the service, may face barriers to receiving their mail when moving.
For instance, younger people, renters and people on lower incomes were less likely to state that forwarding their mail is an easy task. And when we looked at the reasons for not using the service, these groups were less likely to have notified all relevant contacts of their changed address. People aged 18–24 and renters were also less likely than those aged 35–44 to state that it is easier to collect post at their former address.
Another factor that could be putting people off is the price. Royal Mail currently offers the service in 3 options, ranging from £33.99 for the shortest 3 month service to £66.99 for a 12 month package. Over 1 in 5 (21%) people told us they had not used it because of the cost, while two thirds (66%) said that a lower price would increase their likelihood of using it.
The service doesn’t allow you to pay in monthly installments, which roughly a third (32%) of people told us would make them more likely to use it. There are also no concessionary rates for older people or those on low incomes.
Moving house is an expensive process, and the upfront payment for mail redirection only adds to the cost. So it’s not surprising that home movers, particularly those on low incomes, might pass on purchasing it.
Mail redirection services need to be accessible to all consumers
Our research has given us valuable insight into some of the problems people have with their post when moving, and an indication of why many don’t use mail redirection services. Over the next few months, we will look in further detail at whether the cost of the service prevents particular groups of consumers from using it. We’ll also be looking at how easy it is for people to update their address with essential service providers and government services.
Based on what we find, we will develop a series of practical recommendations for reducing barriers to take up of mail redirection services, and work to persuade Royal Mail to put these recommendations into practice.
