Updater – Make Moving Easier

One of the most stressful parts of moving is making sure to let everyone know your new address. Change of address forms have to be submitted at the post office, business and personal contacts need to be notified, and magazine subscriptions need to be updated. Updater is a tool that can cut down on the stress involved in this process by quickly, swiftly, and cheaply letting all the right people know about your impending move.

Instead of standing in line at the post office and filling out change of address forms, you can log onto Updater.com and make all the necessary updates in just three simple steps. Tell Updater who’s moving, when the move is taking place, and how long the postal service should forward your mail, then type in your new and old addresses. The last step is to create an account – which you can do by entering your email and selecting a password, or by logging in with Facebook or Google – and confirm your personal information. In addition to contacting the postal service, Updater will also send change of address notifications to all the businesses and organizations you select. When you use Updater, you can feel confident that your newspapers, magazines, professional journals, and charity newsletters will all arrive safely at your new location and important documents won’t get lost in the shuffle.

The real genius of Updater is that the application is able to update all this information without tipping off marketers. Users who pay $14.99 can prevent unauthorized businesses – like catalog companies, for example – from accessing their new address and personal information. This fee also goes toward activating a “spam filter” for paper mail. Updater automatically contacts any marketers who a user adds to his “Do Not Mail List,” and requests that the users’ information be removed from the marketers’ databases.

Practical Uses:

• Save time when changing your address with the post office
• Protect your new address from marketers
• Make sure your magazine subscriptions are forwarded to your new address
• Stop getting catalogs from businesses you dislike

Insider Tips:

• Updater works for individuals and businesses
• The address privacy service lasts for three years
• Each individual in a household must create his own Updater account
• Updater processes all updates within 48 hours of receipt

What we liked:

• People can save time by updating their address with the postal service from home
• Updater users can avoid waiting on hold with companies to update their addresses
• The address privacy service stops unwanted junk mail, including catalogs, coupon books, sweepstakes entries, and promotional offers
• People who use this service are less likely to get their identities stolen, since fewer marketers will have their names and addresses

What we didn’t like:

• Nothing

Alternatives:

• USPS – https://moversguide.usps.com

Company Info:

• Launched: July 2011 (Public Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: New York, New York
• Founded by: David Greenberg
• Web site: https://www.updater.com

Costs:

• Free plan
• Address Privacy plan is $14.99 for three years