National Change of Address (NCOA)

Update your contact addresses for movers using Canada Post’s change-of-address records.

The Canadian NCOA database contains a 72-month history of National Change of Address (NCOA) information submitted to Canada Post from individuals, families, and companies. Addresses on the file are standardized and appended with the most recent forwarding addresses. Multiple moves are chained together to provide the most current address from any prior address in the chain. Since one in five, or approximately 20% of households and businesses in Canada move each year, the NCOA service is increasingly valuable in reducing undeliverable mail and helping increase response rates.

NCOA mover address update processing involves matching your contact file to Canada Post's master database of individuals, families and businesses that have moved during the past 72 months. This master file is updated monthly and contains an estimated 80% of all movers in Canada.

Your result file will contain your original input file with the new, corrected data appended to it. A field indicating the move type is also included. A summary report provides you with statistical data describing your results and a record layout defines field positioning and content.

Delivery Options

Full-Service

Self-Service

API

Enterprise

Benefits

1. Prevent the lost revenue that occurs from losing track of customers.
2. Increase marketing campaign ROI by improving deliverability.
3. Improve cash flow and reduce collection costs by maintaining accurate billing records.
4. Reduce environmental and financial costs associated with undeliverable mail.
5. Improve the accuracy of data analysis and comparison processes.
6. Save costs associated with manual mover tracking.

Match Rates

1 - 3% Range.

Match Rate Factors

• List age (older lists may contain more movers)
• List type (some organizations are more likely than others to be notified directly of moves)
• List demographics (young or low-income list less likely to update Canada Post when moving)

Related Services

The Address Standardization & Correction service is included with our National Change of Address (NCOA) service. Also consider our Phone Number Append service which adds and verifies telephone numbers to ensure that you have the most up-to-date telephone contact information.

File Format Specification

*Please note that following our file format specifications is required only for our Self-Service products.

Please see our File Format Specification page for more information on required input and standard result fields.

The National Change of Address (NCOA) service also appends the following field: