Common questions on NCOA Mover Data Service
Get details on how the National Change of Address (NCOA™) Mover Data Service works and maintains the accuracy of your business’ data.
Canada Post licenses the NCOA Mover Data to Service Bureaus who have developed matching software based on defined Canada Post requirements. This software identifies movers in your customer databases or mailing lists, using a combination of names and addresses. To identify a match, the software must recognize your customer’s first and last name against the NCOA database’s first and last name and old address on file.
You can cleanse customer records via software-as-a-service or professional services, depending on your NCOA provider’s offering.
You can apply NCOA Mover Data to your data in one of two ways:
| If you... | Then... |
| ... are preparing a mailing and do not have an existing business relationship with a customer... | ... you can update your mailing list with the new address information. You cannot keep the Mover Data on file and must re-process your mailing list against NCOA Mover Data services for any subsequent mailing. |
| ... have an existing relationship with a customer... | ... you can update your customer records with the new address information. When a new address is provided, Terms of Use also allow you to contact the customer to confirm the new address information. |
A Business Relationship exists between a mover and an organization when an individual or business has:
- made a purchase or donation, rented, leased, contracted, or participated in an organization’s provision of products or services within the past 24 months;
OR
- made a purchase or donation, rented, leased, contracted, or participated in an organization’s provision of products or services within the past 24 months;
If such purchase, donation, rent, lease or contract for the provisions of products and services involves ongoing use or transactions under a subscription, account, loan or similar relationship, the 24-month period starts on the day the relationship terminates.
You cannot use the NCOA data:
- To enhance a database by adding the names and addresses of potential (as opposed to existing) customers.
- To create movers’ lists or other sub-lists to target certain individuals or groups.
- To update rental lists where no relationship exists with individuals on file.
- To update financial databases or registries such as to update credit bureau information or to assist in credit reporting or collection activities or shared in any manner whatsoever.
- To verify mover information manually, such as “skip tracing” or to correct returned mail on a “one by one” basis.
- To conduct any statistical activities or to analyze mover patterns within Canada.
- For any purposes other than correcting mailing lists and developing and/or maintaining matching software applications for use with the NCOA database as permitted under license.
Prior to processing NCOA data, all receiving parties must agree to NCOA Terms of Use, which ensure that each party handling the data understands how NCOA Mover Data can, and cannot, be used. Once you agree to the Terms of Use, you will receive a Terms of Use ID. Provide this ID to your NCOA Provider, and upon validation of your ID, they can begin processing your data. Under no circumstance can data be processed prior to submitting a valid ID. For this reason, be sure to agree to Terms of Use well beyond a scheduled data job. The Terms of Use must be renewed annually to keep your ID active.
Important note: Company and contact information collected as part of this process will remain strictly anonymous. Canada Post will never disclose company or contact information.
The NCOA Mover Data database contains over 11 million mover records with 6 years of history.