The U.S. Postal Service's NCOALink provides change-of-address information on consumers who moved in the past 18 months. Beyond that, the mail was either returned to the mailer or disposed of.
Now there's ANKLink, a new addressing product that lets NCOALink limited service providers and end user mailers detect whether there was a “probable move” beyond the 18-month limit up to 48 months. ANKLink, which debuted Aug. 8, stands for “address not known” and is an optional enhancement to NCOALink. It uses the same secure data-store technology as NCOALink.
When a name and address match to an ANKLink data record, an informational code identifies that the person submitted a change of address in the past 19 to 48 months.
This is important because 45 million Americans change their addresses annually and 1 billion mail pieces are returned or disposed of because the addressee no longer resides at the address used on the mail piece and the forwarding period has expired.
ANKLink is available to NCOALink limited service provider licensees for an additional annual fee of $3,500 and to end user mailer licensees for an additional annual fee of $750. Customers interested in an ANKLink license should contact the USPS' national customer support center at 800/589-5766 or their current NCOALink limited service bureau provider.
