Q&A for How to Put Your Mail on Hold While You're Away

Specifying an individual is only possible for mail forwarding, not for mail holding. For mail holds, the USPS will hold all mail for the address, not just the individual's.

Yes, you have to request a holding period in person and pick the mail up in person.

You can contact the post office directly to extend your mail hold.

Yes, you can go into your local post office, cancel the hold request, and pick up your mail.

Normally when you put your mail on hold you either fill out a form with the start and re-start dates and mail it in or do the same form online. If you for some reason did not include a re-start date when you suspended your mail delivery, the easiest way to get your mail delivered again might just be to go to the post office and request it.

Go to your local post office to cancel the hold and pick up your mail.

You would need to ask the post office what they require from you in order to do this. You probably just need to add their name to a list.

Go to your local post office during business hours. Fill out PS Form 8076. Submit the completed form to the clerk at the front desk. Keep the confirmation number for your hold mail request.

No, it will not. Holding mail is a free service. If you have a PO box and it becomes full, however, they will return new items to the sender rather than hold them.

The service is free.

You can fill out a hold mail card online, or at the USPS location near you. It will ask for a start and stop date. Accumulated mail with be delivered to you on the stop date.

Go to your post office ask if there is a hold on your mail. If so, ask who did this.

Yes, you should only be putting mail hold requests through the official USPS website.

The Step 2 section of the USPS Hold Mail Service form is grayed out until you fill out all of the required fields in Step 1 and then click the Check Availability button.

Ask someone you trust to pick up your mail if you're worried about it.

Yours is an unusual situation. Ask at your post office about your options.

No. US mail only.

You can file a hold order on behalf of your relative, but someone will have to pick up the mail at the post office periodically. Alternatively, you could have the mail permanently or temporarily forwarded to some other address.

Fill out a regular hold order, but be sure to apply it only to yourselves as individuals (rather than to all names at that address -- such as anyone who might soon move into the address). Pick up your held mail at the post office at your convenience. Then when you move into your new address, file a change-of-address form from the old address to the new one (and pick up the last of your held mail).

In theory, yes.

In theory, yes.

No, it has a 30-day maximum. You could file a temporary forward to some other address for the three weeks after the hold expires, or have someone collect your mail at your home during that time.

A Hold Mail request applies to all mail and packages delivered to your address during the period you specify in the request.

There is no charge for a Hold Mail request or for forwarding through a change of address (COA). If you want premium forwarding, you will have to pay an enrollment fee plus a weekly service charge.

USPS will not leave any notices in your mailbox regarding your Hold Mail request. When your Hold Mail request ends, USPS will leave a delivery notice if all of the accumulated mail wouldn't fit in your mailbox.

Submitting a Hold Mail request for one property shouldn't have anything to do with verifying your identity. To verify your identity online, the USPS asks a series of questions based on information in your credit report. To verify your identity in person, you simply need a government-issued photo ID and a lease, mortgage, or piece of mail with your name and address on it.

This is simply the way the USPS website is set up. You must create an account if you want to access any of the online services USPS offers, including Hold Mail. USPS accounts are free. All you need is a valid email address, which you can also set up for free.

Forwarding requests only apply to an individual name. The person who wanted their mail forwarded would have to place their request first. After that, if the other person wanted to submit a Hold Mail request, they would be free to do so. However, if the forwarding request isn't processed first, the Hold Mail request would apply to all mail at the address.

You have 10 days from the date your Hold Mail request ends to pick up your mail at the post office. Any mail remaining after that date will be returned to the senders.