How to Put a Hold on Your Mail with USPS Online

When you go on vacation or travel for a while, your mail keeps coming. A stack of letters and packages in your mailbox or on your porch is a clear sign to thieves that nobody is home. The good news is the United States Postal Service offers a free service called USPS Hold Mail. You can request it online in about five minutes. Your local post office will hold all of your mail safely until you get back, then deliver everything at once on the day you choose.

You can hold your mail for as little as 3 days and as long as 30 days. If you need to be away longer than 30 days, you should ask about Premium Forwarding Service instead, which forwards your mail to a different address each week for a fee. For most short trips, the standard hold is what you want, and it costs nothing.

To use the online form, you will need a free USPS.com account. If you do not have one, you can create it at the same time. The site will ask for your name, address, phone number, and email. It also has to verify that you really live at the address you want to hold mail for. This is to prevent fraud. The verification is usually instant if your address information matches what USPS has on file.

Plan ahead. Hold requests must be submitted by 2:00 AM on the day you want the hold to start. If you are leaving early in the morning, set up your hold the day before. You can pick up held mail at your local post office or have the carrier deliver it on the resume date. Either way, your mail stays safe and out of sight while you are away.