Moving across the country can be an exciting time whether the place you’re moving to is your first grown-up apartment or it’s the house of your dreams. The thought of starting a new life and exploring new places to eat, shop, and hang out is very encouraging for someone who is about to undergo the hassle of moving. Before you start celebrating this new phase in your life, there are a few things that you need to take care of so that the moving process goes smoothly as planned especially if you’re a first time home buyer. Don’t forget about changing your address and informing everyone you know that you are moving. Here are some tips on how you can effectively change your address when you are moving across the country.
- Create A Contact List
The first thing to do is to create a contact list. Create different categories according to type and need. For instance, electricity, water, telephone, cable, internet, and trash all belong to the utility service provider category. Â On the other hand, you can combine the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) into one type. Banks, lenders, and investment managers go together.
- Add Task to Your Moving Timeframe
Once you have created a list of all the people and agencies that need to know about your change of address, then you can figure out how you are going to contact all of them efficiently. Informing your service providers of the address change may take precedence over some of your friends and subscription companies which you can do even after the move. Any letters that are actionable or contains personal private information such as bank or credit card statements, insurance claims and contracts should be sent to your new address without any hassle or delay to avoid any breach of information. If you think that you don’t have enough time to contact each agency within the timeframe, you can use the USPS change of address online as a one-stop service to inform interested parties about your new address.
- Contact Your Service Providers
You probably need to contact your utility service providers two to three weeks in advance so that they can update their systems accordingly. During your first day in your new place, you want to be comfortable as much as possible. And that means having electricity to cook and clean water to drink and wash up. It will be more exhausting if you are unpacking things during a winter season without a working heater inside the house. It is a lot better if all your utilities are working on day one.
- Update Government Agencies and Financial Institutions
Don’t wait until after a few weeks or a month before you inform the IRS or the Social Security Administration that you have moved to a new place. Your address is part of your identification and must always contain the correct information. If you own a car, you should also update your insurance company and the Department of Motor Vehicles of your new address. Call your bank account manager to update your home and billing address.
- Contact Everyone Else
Subscription companies, schools administrator, physician, your manager, and friends do not need to be informed before moving. You can tell them a few days after you have moved or once you’re settled in. If you are moving on your own and have a lot of tasks to do, it is better to compartmentalize and prioritize so that you don’t miss anything.
