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Photograph ©2019 by Brian Cohen.

Upcoming Changes to Hold Mail Service October 2019 by the United States Postal Service

If you place your postal mail on hold via the Internet while you travel, know that a couple of changes will be implemented to the service in order to provide you with greater security: effective as of early October of 2019, the United States Postal Service will require you to do the following prior to using its Hold Mail service:

  1. Create or sign in to your USPS.com account
  2. Verify your identity with several identity verification methods available — but please plan accordingly, as some of those methods may require up to one week to complete

Upcoming Changes to Hold Mail Service October 2019 by the United States Postal Service

To complete the creation of your account and satisfy the Hold Mail identity verification requirement prior to the aforementioned changes, you can sign up for the free Informed Delivery feature offered by the United States Postal Service — which is the only feature that currently offers identity verification. Once your identity is verified, you will not have to complete this step again for your current address and will be able to hold your mail in the future. As a subscriber to the Informed Delivery feature, you will also be able to digitally monitor your mail while it is on hold.

You can find out additional details with the Informed Delivery frequently asked questions.

If you have other questions related to the aforementioned upcoming changes, please feel free to contact the United States Postal Service or call 1-800-344-7779 for additional information.

Summary

If you have already placed a Hold Mail request with the United States Postal Service before these changes are implemented, your request will not be affected. Otherwise, ensure that you sign up for the free Informed Delivery feature offered by the United States Postal Service in order to use the Hold Mail service in the future for peace of mind while you travel.

Photograph ©2019 by Brian Cohen.

  1. I just activated a mail hold yesterday for my 30 day trip starring next week. I actually signed up for the postal account months ago but I can say its a really great feature. Daily I receive an email with a scanned picture of all the mail and packages I’m receiving for the day. Its a great feature and at if there was a mail or package theif at least you know what you should have received.

  2. I got an email from “USPS” informing me of this change. However, I am unable to find anywhere on USPS referencing these changes. The Hold Mail area is the same as before with no mention of this change. This gave me a red flag that the email was potentially malicious. This article confirms the changes, but USPS should have some reference on their website.

  3. I have an existing account with USPS; however, I did not know about the changes to “hold mail” service.

    On Sunday morning Oct 13 before a holiday Monday Oct 14, I had an unexpected trip come up. I immediately went online to request vacation hold. I signed into my account … but a could go no further:

    The site warned me that there would be additional layers of security (though it did not state, as I now understand, that these layers might take days to complete). The BIG surprise was that USPS “cannot process hold mail requests on Sundays or holidays” ????? Hello? Since when do global communications via internet get a day off?

    Fortunately, I have a human who can pick up my mail while I am away … as in ancient times.

  4. I’m an active military member who uses the hold mail feature often… or used to. After the change I was unable to get my address verified in connection with my personal information (military problems) so I went into my local postal branch and submitted a physical form to get my mail held. The lady behind the counter stamped it and said “it’s best to bring these in instead of do them online”. Long story short I’m currently 28 minutes deep into being on hold to talk to a USPS rep because my Ring doorbell still shows my postal person delivering my mail. This new “secure” way of holding mail is flawed in so many ways. Fix it.

    1. Cris sorry to hear your problems with the new system do you have an on post address causing the problems? Im active as well I love the new update. I have the USPS app on my phone I can easily and quickly hold my mail just by clicking 3 buttons so fast and easy once your verifyed. The other good feature about it is for sure more secure. In the past I had jerks to piss me off put my mail on hold multiple times, before anyone could submit the request on your behalf. It took me a week or so of not receiving mail before I inquired why to find out someone held my mail for me, I even had someone submit an address change on my behalf which was a bad experience. The new system put a stop to all of that fraud since you mist be verified now. I love it, it works great once your able to set it up.

  5. I also can’t log on to my account that I had to create just to hold mail. So frustrating. Instead of packing for my trip I have to send hours online trying to hold my mail. this is silly. I wrote down my user and password so I know that it is correct. I just held the mail successfully 3 weeks ago. It says my account has been disabled. Now I can’t make another account because my address is already used. Fix you system please.
    Joe

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