The Royal Mail offer customers a mail redirection service, whereby mail addressed for their previous home is redirected to the new residence. The information compiled from this service is collated into a redirection database from which the National Change of Address (NCOA) file is created.
Approximately 50% of people requesting mail redirection are omitted from the NCOA file as they have opted-out from allowing their new address details to be available to third parties.
Nevertheless, The National Change of Address file is still a useful forwarding address linking database in the UK, holding over 15 million records spanning 10 years. This information has many commercial applications and as such is featured within the Tracesmart Corporate datasets.
NCOA
National Change of Address forwarding address data is incorporated into the majority of our core services.
The most obvious use for NCOA data is people tracing. The National Change of Address file is incorporated into our Smartlink tool, which can be used to identify a new address for a trace subject. Our tracing agents also have full access to National Change of Address data when conducting asset reunification tracing projects. NCOA often assists in locating a more recent address to that held, but very rarely to a current address and as such it should only be called upon as part of an extensive tracing process.
When confirming the identity of a new client, the more information you gather the better. The National Change of Address file is one of the many datasets which drives our identity check system – Smart ID Plus. National Change of Address data is used within Smart ID Plus to ascertain a subjects forwarding address, enabling you to verify their claims and truly Know Your Customer.
It is much easier to retain an existing customer than acquire a new one, so if a quality customer moves address but fails to notify you why miss out? Cleansing your consumer database against the National Change of Address file can provide forwarding addresses for lost customers allowing you to regain contact with them.
If you are carrying out direct mailings it is also advisable to screen your prospects against the National Change of Address file. Ensuring mailshots are getting to the intended target will ultimately enhance your response rates.
Search NCOA
Search NCOA data through our tracing and identity verification tools, and on an automated basis through our data cleansing service.
For more information about the NCOA file, please contact Tracesmart Corporate.
