MovePlanRoyal Mail redirection — is it worth it, and for how long?
The question people actually argue about isn't whether to redirect. It's whether three months is enough, and it usually isn't.
Redirection sits at week four on every moving checklist, including ours, and it's the one task people quietly wonder about skipping — especially when the move is round the corner and the price has gone up again. So, plainly: yes, buy it, even if you're moving two streets away. Then the real decision, which is the length.
Why 'we're only moving nearby' doesn't work
Distance isn't the problem. Access is. Once you've completed, the letterbox belongs to someone else, and whatever lands on their mat is theirs to return to sender, bin, or — in the case that matters — open. Being five minutes' walk away doesn't give you a key to their hallway, and it makes you the neighbour who keeps turning up for their post.
The other reason is the one Citizens Advice puts first: previous-occupier fraud. A new occupant who receives a bank letter, a credit card renewal or a pension statement in your name has most of what's needed to take out credit as you. Citizens Advice's March 2026 report notes that Royal Mail itself cites Action Fraud's recommendation of at least twelve months' redirection for exactly that reason.
Three, six or twelve months
This is where the honest answer costs money. Redirection is priced by duration — from £45 for three months for one adult, more for six and twelve, and more again for each additional adult — so the temptation is to buy three months and rely on having told everyone. Here is what each length actually catches.
| Length | What it catches | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| 3 months | The organisations you forgot in the first few weeks — the ones the first redirected envelope reminds you about. | Anything that writes to you less often than quarterly. Bank cards expire on their own schedule; a card sent to the old address three months and a day after you move is the classic failure. |
| 6 months | Most of it. It's the length people on the moving forums most often say they bought, and most of them say it was enough. | Everything annual. Pension statements, insurance renewals, the tax summary, the Christmas cards from people who don't have your new address. If you moved in March, six months ends before any of those arrive. |
| 12 months | One full cycle of everything that writes to you, so every organisation you'd forgotten has revealed itself by the time it ends. It's the length the fraud advice above points to. | Only the things that write to you less than once a year — and by then you'll have a year's worth of redirected envelopes as a list of who still needs telling. |
The discount four in five eligible people don't know about
If anyone in the household receives a means-tested benefit — Universal Credit and Pension Credit are the usual ones — Royal Mail has a concessionary rate. It has existed since 2019 and was widened to all means-tested benefits in 2021, and it is not well advertised: Citizens Advice's March 2026 research found that of eligible people who knew redirection existed, only about one in five knew they could get it cheaper.
Two things to know before you rely on it. First, at the time of that report the discounted 12-month price was £62 against a standard £87 for a single adult — a smaller discount than on three or six months, which Citizens Advice called out as backwards given the fraud advice. Both figures pre-date Royal Mail's April 2026 price change, so check the current ones. Second, you cannot apply for the concession fully online. It starts with a web form, then an email, then a phone call — or a printed form by post with proof of benefit. Standard redirection takes five minutes online; the concession takes days. Start it as soon as you have a moving date.
What you need to apply, and when
- Apply at least five working days before the move. Royal Mail's own lead time. Apply on the Friday before a Monday completion and the first week's post goes to the new owners.
- The full names and dates of birth of everyone whose post is being redirected, including children — Royal Mail's help hub asks for these for every person on the application.
- A credit or debit card in the applicant's name registered at either the old or the new address. Not American Express, not a prepaid card. This is how they check you're entitled to redirect that address, so a card registered somewhere else won't go through.
- Be ready for security questions. Royal Mail says you may be asked to prove identity with details from a bank card, a loan or a mobile phone contract. Have one to hand rather than abandoning the form halfway.
What redirection doesn't do
- It doesn't tell anyone you've moved. A redirected letter arrives with your old address on it, and the sender still has the old address on file. The change of address checklist is the job redirection buys you time to do, not a replacement for it.
- It only covers Royal Mail. Parcels from Evri, DPD, Amazon's own vans, Yodel, DHL and the rest are delivered by companies with no idea you've moved. Anything you order goes to whichever address the retailer holds.
- It ends. Whatever is still arriving in the last month of your redirection is a list of organisations you never told. Read those envelopes as a to-do list, not as junk.
Where this sits in the plan
MovePlan puts redirection at four weeks before the move, with the lead time, the card requirement and the concession in the task itself, so it's done before the week where nothing gets done. It doesn't apply for you — nothing does — but it makes sure the five-working-day lead time is a date on your plan rather than a fact you discover afterwards.
Every task, dated from your moving day — £14.99
A 26-task plan across the twelve weeks around your move, filtered for buying or renting, with the address-change letters written for you. One payment, six months' access, nothing to cancel.
See what £14.99 includes