USPS rolled out a new service called Informed Delivery which sends out a daily digest via email of everything that came in the mail that day. For a lot of people, Informed Delivery is only marginally interesting, but for travelers and those with P.O. Boxes or multiple addresses it’s a game-changer. A lot of people find it useful for added verification that all their mail made it to their address and didn’t get lost somewhere in transit.
Signup for Informed Delivery Here / FAQ
The free service started a few years ago in targeted areas as part of a pilot program, and has recently been launched for most/all people nationwide. Early each morning you’ll get an email with pictures of the all mail that will come today to your mailbox. They don’t open your mail, it’s just an exterior scan which they take regardless for security purposes. It will also give notification of any USPS packages that came in the mail (without photos). Packages will even show up in advance in your USPS login; though the daily email will only show packages the day they are delivered.
Here’s a sample email:
An interesting thing is that USPS pays to advertise Informed Delivery in Google search. Unclear how they profit from it; looks like (pdf) they may be using it to lure businesses to send things via USPS.
I have a P.O. Box mailing address and it’s super helpful to know what came and whether I need to stop by the post office. I also like that they send pictures in the actual email; you don’t have to go the extra step and login to see them.
For most people, signing up for USPS Informed Delivery just takes two minutes. However, something didn’t go through for me in the online identity verification from USPS, and the system prompted me to go to a USPS branch with ID to get it set up. It wasn’t easy since the forms of address verification include a driver’s license, mortgage, lease, deed, voter or vehicle registration, home or vehicle insurance policy. These are all things that usually use a home address, effectively ruling out most PO Box users from Informed Delivery. The workaround I used was to switch my insurance mailing address to the PO Box and then generate an official insurance letter with the POB address.
Informed Delivery should be something popular among travelers. Frequentmiler notes that you’ll even get an email with pictures when your mail is on hold with USPS. There’s also a similar service to find out about UPS packages with UPS MyChoice and with FedEx it’s FedEx Delivery Manager. (HT r/churning).
Let us know your own experiences with Informed Delivery in the comments.
