Tips & Trivia
The Evolution of National Change of Address (NCOA)
By
Aug 16, 2005, 09:00

NCOA as some of you have known in the past has been changed to a new technology. NCOA providers are now using the NCOA “link” technology. There are some important differences. These differences can be a differentiation amongst the various change-of-address providers. The following explains why.

The USPS files NCOA, and it is more than a marketing effort. It is an encrypted methodology that requires a zip+4 address via CASS certified software. The software takes a completed previous address and it then converts the address into an encrypted key. It is then used to search a series of “hash tables” for an exact match. The search key is a combination of the (name, business, family, individual), address, and ZIP+4 of the previous address. The match needs to be exact in order for the NCOALink to return the new address.

Keep in mind, without a complete ZIP+4 of the previous address, NCOALink will not be able to provide the correct results. So whatever CASS certified software is being used, it is an important component in obtaining the best value from NCOALink.


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