National Change of Address (NCOA)
NCOA is a system of record for all change-of-address (COA) requests. It's a service provided by USPS and the product is a secure dataset of approximately 160 million permanent COA records constructed from names and addresses of individuals, families, and businesses who have filed a change-of-address with the Postal Service™.
If you wish to opt for the NCOA service for US-based addresses, please click on the corresponding checkbox for NCOA. The service is available for any number of addresses, and a flat fee of $100 USD will apply to files with up to 10,000 addresses. For files containing over 10,000 addresses, an additional charge of $0.01 per address will be added to the flat fee. This cost is in addition to the bulk address verification charge.
Once you have uploaded your file to PostGrid and it has run through our batch NCOA system, we will provide you with a processed file. This file contains both your original input as well as the results of our processing.
In processing this file, we run it through our CASS-certified USPS address verification engine and also through the USPS NCOALink® pipeline. The following is a description of the fields in the resulting file.
Field Descriptions
Field Name | Description |
---|---|
input_* | All the fields beginning with input_ are fields from your originally uploaded CSV file. These should match exactly with your file. |
PG_FIRST_NAME | The first name of the individual. |
PG_LAST_NAME | The last name of the individual. |
PG_COMPANY_NAME | The company name, if applicable. |
PG_LINE1 | The first line of the input address after running through CASS verification. |
PG_LINE2 | The second line of the input address after running through CASS verification. |
PG_CITY | The city determined after running the input address through CASS verification. |
PG_STATE | The state code (e.g. IL, NY, etc) determined after running the input address through CASS verification. |
PG_ZIP_CODE | The ZIP+4 after running the input address through CASS verification. |
PG_COUNTRY | The country code after running the input address through CASS verification. |
PG_VACANT | True/False depending on whether the input address (post-correction) is vacant. |
PG_RESIDENTIAL | True/False depending on whether the input address (post-correction) is residential. |
PG_STATUS | - verified: an address is deliverable as-is by USPS post-correction. - failed: The address could not be verified as-is by USPS post-correction |
PG_ADDRESS_TYPE | See DPV address types section below. |
PG_DPV_CODES | DPV codes resulting from running the original address through CASS verification. See DPV codes section below. |
PG_DPV_FOOTNOTES | See DPV Footnotes section below. |
PG_CASS_CODES | See CASS codes section below. |
PG_MOVED | True/False depending on whether this individual/company has moved from the provided address. Note that if this is True but no MOVE_DATE/MOVED_TO address is provided, this likely means that the individual has moved and not provided an address or they moved to a foreign country. See the NCOALink Return Code for more info. |
PG_NCOA_LINK_RETURN_CODE | Provides information about how the move was matched. See NCOALink Return Code section below. |
PG_MOVE_DATE | The date that the individual/company moved, formatted as YYYYMM. |
PG_MOVED_TO_LINE1 | The first line of the address the individual/company moved to. |
PG_MOVED_TO_LINE2 | The second line of the address the individual/company moved to. |
PG_MOVED_TO_CITY | The city the individual/company moved to. |
PG_MOVED_TO_STATE | The state code (e.g. IL, NY, etc) the individual/company moved to. |
PG_MOVED_TO_ZIP_CODE | The ZIP+4 of the address the individual/company moved to. |
PG_MOVED_TO_COUNTRY | The country code (e.g. US) of the country that the individual/company moved to. |
PG_MOVED_TO_ADDRESS_TYPE | The address type (see DPV address types section below) of the address that the individual/company moved to. |
PG_MOVED_TO_RESIDENTIAL | True/False depending on whether the address that the individual/company moved to is residential. |
DPV Address Types
- F - ZIP+4 Match on the Company Name
- G - General Delivery Record
- H - High Rise Record
- P - PO Box Record
- R - Rural Route Record
- S - Street Record
DPV Codes
The DPV code is 5 characters long. Here are the possible characters in each position and their meaning:
Position 1: DPV Confirmation Indicator
Code | Description |
---|---|
Y | Address was DPV confirmed for both primary and (if present) secondary numbers |
D | Address was DPV confirmed for the primary number only, and Secondary number information was missing |
S | Address was DPV confirmed for the primary number only, and Secondary number information was present but unconfirmed |
N | Both Primary and (if present) Secondary number information failed to DPV Confirm |
Blank | Address not able to be checked |
Position 2: Receiving Agent Indicator
Indicates a private business that acts as a mail-receiving agent for specific clients.
Code | Description |
---|---|
Y | Address was found in CMRA table |
N | Address was not found in CMRA table |
Blank | Address not checked |
Position 3: False Positive Indicator
Indicates if an address appears to be from an automatically generate address list.
Code | Description |
---|---|
Y | Address was a false address |
N | Address was not a false address |
Blank | Address not checked |
Position 4: DPV Vacant Indicator
Indicates if an address is vacant, usually not receiving mail for at least 90 days.
Code | Description |
---|---|
Y | Address is considered vacant |
N | Address is not considered vacant |
Blank | Address not checked |
Position 5: DSF2 No Stats Indicator
Indicates the address is correct, but not receiving delivery, the address is not counted as a possible delivery point any longer. These addresses are not receiving delivery because delivery has not been established, the customer receives mail as a part of a drop, or the address is no longer a possible delivery point because the carrier returns all of the mail.
Code | Description |
---|---|
Y | Address was found in NOSTATS table |
N | Address was not found in NOSTATS table |
Blank | Address not able to be checked |
DPV Footnotes
DPV footnotes provide additional information about the delivery point verification of an address. The follow is a description of what each code means:
Code | Description |
---|---|
AA | ZIP4 matched |
A1 | ZIP4 did not match |
BB | HSA_DPV confirmed entire address |
CC | HSA_DPV confirmed by dropping secondary info |
F1 | Military match |
G1 | General delivery match |
N1 | HSA_DPV confirmed a highrise or box type address without secondary info |
M1 | Primary number missing from address |
M3 | Could not confirm address |
P1 | Box type address missing box number |
P3 | Box number invalid |
RR | HSC_DPV confirmed address |
R1 | HSC_DPV confirmed a highrise or box type address without secondary info |
U1 | Unique ZIP code match |
CASS Codes
CASS codes provide more insight into how an address was matched/not matched via our CASS verification engine. There could be multiple for a given address. The following is a description of every possible code:
Code | Description |
---|---|
A1 | Address block used, it is always A1 |
1.1 | State not found |
2.1 | City not found |
3.1 | Street not found |
4.1 | Address not found |
5.1 | Incomputable +4 range |
5.2 | +4 unavailable |
6.1 | Multiple streets match |
6.1 | Multiple addresses match |
6.3 | Cardinal Rule multiple match |
7.1 | Time ran out |
7.2 | Output too long |
8.1 | Company phonetic match used |
8.2 | First company match used |
9.1 | State determined from city |
9.2 | State determined from ZIP |
10.1 | City phonetic match used |
10.2 | City determined from ZIP * |
10.3 | Acceptable city name used |
11.0 | Address component Chg/Del/Add |
11.1 | Street phonetic match used |
11.2 | Pre-direction dropped |
11.3 | Pre-direction added |
11.4 | Suffix dropped |
11.5 | Suffix added |
11.6 | Post direction dropped |
11.7 | Post direction added |
11.8 | Pre-direction standardized |
11.9 | Street standardized |
11.10 | Suffix standardized |
11.11 | Post direction standardized |
11.12 | Street missing |
11.13 | Alternate address used |
11.14 | Address Standardized |
11.15 | Dual address-Used PO Box |
11.16 | Dual address-Used Non-PO Box |
11.17 | Street Alias match-Better delivery address exists |
12.1 | Unit standardized |
12.2 | Unit missing |
12.3 | Unit not found |
12.4 | Unit unverified |
12.5 | Rural box not found |
13.1 | Leftovers found |
14.1 | No ZIP Code Available |
14.2 | Incorrect ZIP Code was changed to correct ZIP |
14.3 | +4 changed |
14.4 | Route changed |
14.5 | +4 added |
14.6 | Route added |
14.7 | ZIP assigned for Multi-matched address |
14.8 | Unique ZIP match |
14.9 | Small town default match |
15.0 | ZIP Code Changed |
15.1 | Highrise Default |
15.2 | Highrise Exact |
15.3 | Rural Route Default |
15.4 | Rural Route Exact |
15.5 | Early Warning System match |
15.6 | LACSLink Conversion Match |
15.7 | SuiteLink Match - Suite Returned |
15.8 | SuiteLink Match - No Suite Returned |
NCOALink Return Code
The NCOALink return codes provide information about how a record was matched or not matched against the NCOA database. See this link for information on all of the possible codes.
Updated 30 days ago