How was that PCS?

In a summer that saw the WORST nation-wide military moving results, I can say our move was not as bad as some I read about online.  I did my homework, though.  I printed labels for boxes, researched the area, and did the best I could to be ready.  Privacy-wise, I absolutely took ultimate steps to keep our PII off search engines and data broker sites.  A summary of what I did:

• 6 months before moving, I rented a UPS mail box and changed all the addresses to that mailbox for banking, magazines, catalogs, etc.  I called each company and changed the address.  I also took our names off the list by changing the mailing labels to a business name or first initial and last name.  Customer service reps don’t care who the mail comes to if it’s a magazine or catalog.  You can’t do that with your bank or credit cards.  For any solicitations that came to the house address, I returned to sender and marked them *Moved.
• After I secured our new address, I rented a USPS post office box in the name of our ‘business’.  I preferred a UPS box, but there was not a location nearby.  Since I hadn’t moved yet, I used my old address on the paperwork for the USPS, because they will ask for your current location.  Once I had the new PO Box, I called all the companies back and personally gave them that address.  Again, I made sure the ones that I could change did not show our full names.
• The mail started arriving at the new PO Box about the time we did.  Any straggling mail sent to the UPS Store back in the old location was also OK.  The UPS Store will package and send your mail to you.  I kept the old UPS box for 3 months after we moved just to make sure I didn’t miss anything important.  When I finally closed it, I had a contact at the store who had helped me and I asked her to shred any address labels for the junk mail that came in after that date.  Done!
• DO NOT FILL OUT A MAIL FORWARDING REQUEST WITH THE USPS.   They sell the new address and it will show up online within a few weeks.
• I contacted FL where we vote registered our vehicles with the new PO box.  I resent the public records exemption form.  I hope your state allows you to exempt from releasing your PII like FL does.
• Our utilities are included in our rent on base, so no issues with that information leaking through setting up water, power, etc…
• Setting up cable was totally a happy accident.  I went to the Xfinity office and put the account in our ‘business’ name.  They still needed my name, though.  Luckily, when I handed the CSR my military ID, she wrote my first and MIDDLE name!  So now this account is not connected to our last name AT ALL!!  They send the bill to the service site, so I changed to paperless billing when I registered the account online.

So far, our new information is not visible online.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this holds for the two years we’re here!

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