Finding a forwarding address for an individual you barely know or even a person you were once close with can be a confusing task, especially if you’re not sure where in the world the person in question moved to. However, locating an accurate forwarding address is sometimes essential if you want to send back old things or deliver important documents, which is why we’re here to help you with this process.
This article will help you understand the easiest ways to find a forwarding address through several different methods.
Why Would You Need To Find a Forwarding Address?
There are many different reasons why you might need to find someone’s forwarding address as easily and quickly as possible. Maybe you want to reconnect with an old friend or family member, and you aren’t too sure of their other contact information, or you want to ship old items you found around your home to a friend or relative. Alternatively, maybe you want to reach out to an ex-partner that you swore you’d never talk to again, but you’re now having second thoughts.
Additionally, sometimes people move to avoid major life situations, such as lawsuits and debt collections. You may find yourself in a position where you need to serve legal papers, locate previous renters, or attempt to collect on unpaid debts – all of these items will likely require a valid forwarding address for the party that you are trying to contact.
Easy Ways To Find a Forwarding Address
Finding a forwarding address doesn’t need to be the complicated process that you might think. All of the methods below can help you narrow down someone’s forwarding address and give you the essential information you need.
Use the USPS
One of the most effective and reliable ways to find a forwarding address is to use an Address Correction Request (ACR). This will forward the piece of mail that you are trying to send to the person in question and give you notification of what this forwarding address is.
For this method to work, you must send a piece of mail to the individual’s last known address with “Address Correction Requested” written on the mail. If forwarding service is still available for the individual (USPS forwarding service lasts up to a year after a move), the mail will be forwarded on. However, if no forwarding address or service is available, the mail will be returned to you and marked as undeliverable.
It is important to put the return address you want the forwarding address sent to in the proper place and clearly mark it, so you get the information that you need.
Other USPS services you may use similarly to obtain a forwarding address include Return Service Request – this doesn’t forward the mail, only returns it to you with the forwarding address information so you can choose to send the mail on yourself or keep it secret – and Change Service Request – this doesn’t forward the mail or return it to you, but USPS will notify you of the forwarding address if there is one.
Alternatively, you can utilize the USPS’s mail tracking service to follow a piece of mail to the new address. This will require you to pay for first-class tracking services on a piece of mail, send it to the old address, and then watch along on the tracker to see which address the mail is forwarded to. Like with the ACR method, you should only use this option if you don’t mind the individual receiving whatever mail you send.
Contact Friends and Family Members
If you don’t mind the individual in question knowing that you are trying to find their forwarding address; you can ask friends and family members who may know where the person has moved to. This is a slightly more direct method and not recommended if you are trying to be secretive; but it can give you answers more easily than some of the other research methods on this list.
Search Online
An online search can answer plenty of questions; and turn up the forwarding address of the individual you are searching for. For this method, you must type the individual’s name and the word “address” into a search engine. Click on any social media pages (Facebook and LinkedIn are likely the most helpful here); job websites, and other search results that come up as connected to that person; and evaluate them to see if the individual has updated their address. If they have, you now know where to send mail to. If they haven’t, it’s time to move on to a different search method on this list.
Use a People Search Tool
Another easy way to figure out an unknown forwarding address is to utilize a people search tool like Information.com. This tool allows you to put in a person’s name, phone number, or email address and perform a search.
The tool aggregates third-party and public record information and provides you with all of the known addresses of an individual in addition to other known phone numbers, email addresses, social media accounts, and known friends or relatives.
You can review the information that gets pulled up using the people search tool and locate an individual’s forwarding address from here. Keep in mind that if they just recently moved, the information may not be completely up to date; so if you don’t see any potential forwarding addresses, keep searching every so often until it turns up.
Reach Out to an Alumni Office
This method only works if you went to the same college as the individual you are trying to locate. The alumni office at your shared school will more than likely have forwarding address information for every individual, as this is important to keep in contact with graduates for various reasons.
You can call the alumni office and ask about the individual’s forwarding address; they may or may not give it to you depending on internal information-sharing policies; but it is worth a shot if you haven’t been able to find the forwarding address through any other method listed.
FAQs About Finding a Forwarding Address
As you search for the forwarding address you need; several questions about the process and the information you find might come to mind. Review our answers to frequently asked questions about finding forwarding addresses below to put any worries to rest.
Do I Need To Search Public Records?
Public records are one of the most helpful items when finding all of an individual’s known addresses. However, it can be complicated to browse through all of the information out there and access public records one by one.
If you use a people search tool instead, you won’t need to search public records – the search tool will pull all of this information from public records and third-party sources on the internet out for you and show it to you in one neat report so you can find that forwarding address with ease.
Is It Legal To Perform a People Search?
People search tools often give a lot of information about the individual in question; such as forwarding addresses, previous known addresses, phone number information, email addresses, and social media accounts. This can feel a little suspicious to learn about someone all at once; especially if you are researching them without their knowledge, but it is perfectly legal to find this information. It all comes from public records, so you are not doing anything shady to find it.
That being said, it is illegal to use the information you find in a people search to harass or stalk an individual or to commit a crime. You also may not use people search tools to vet potential employees or tenants.
Can USPS Give Me a Forwarding Address Directly?
Due to privacy protection laws, the USPS cannot directly give you a forwarding address for a certain individual. This means that you cannot call or walk into a post office and ask for this information; you will be turned away. The only way that you can receive a forwarding address from USPS is to use one of the methods we listed above; with the Address Correction Requested being the most common tactic.
Should I Hire a Private Investigator?
If you’ve tried out all of these methods and none of them are working for you; you may consider hiring a private investigator to figure out the forwarding address. This is a highly personal decision, but it may be beneficial if you need to serve court papers; are pursuing an individual who moved in a lawsuit or want to collect on a debt or unpaid rent.
Keep in mind that private investigators can be an expensive hourly cost; typically ranging from $90 to $200 an hour for their services. However, they more than likely will be able to retrieve a forwarding address for you to use.
How Do I File for a Forwarding Address?
When you’re doing the moving, you may wonder how to file for mail forwarding. This can be done through USPS’s website and only costs $1.10 to implement. You can learn more information about this or start your mail forwarding here.
Making the Most Out of Your Information Search
Finding a forwarding address may seem difficult initially; but this process doesn’t have to be as stressful as you might think. Simply work your way through the methods that we list in this article and take your time researching. Eventually, you will find the information you need and be able to use the forwarding address you have collected to reach out to a long-lost friend or relative, serve court papers, or send out items that belong to someone else.