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National Change Of Address
The National Change of Address (NCOA) file is sourced from Royal Mail Redirection Service. The file is built through the capture of detailed information from customers who register their move with Royal Mail. It can be used either to suppress gone-aways or to locate lost or missing customers.
The National Change of Address (NCOA) file is updated monthly and contains just over 17 million records. Details of movers date back as far as April 1994 right up to the present day. Updates number approximately 100,000 per month. Names are only removed from the file if specifically requested by the addressee.
NCOA Suppress
The NCOA Suppress file is used to identify when a person has moved, where records are matched to our NCOA Suppress service they are Suppressed or Flagged as Gone-away.
NCOA Update
The NCOA Update service is used to identify when a person has moved, where records are matched to our NCOA Update service we can update the addresses provided. It provides the ability to identify not only the fact that the customer has moved but also offers details of where that customer has moved to.
In the time it has taken you to read this page approximately 3 people will have moved to a new home, are they on your marketing list?
National Change of Address (NCOA) forms part of our Data Cleansing Service, an example of what you can expect from this service is shown below:-
Example
You have the following data in your consumer database:
| Title | Forename | Surname | Address1 | Address2 | Address3 | Address4 | Postcode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before Data Cleansing for NCOA | |||||||
| Mr | David | Smith | 1 Cherry Tree Close | Bramley | Leeds | West Yorkshire | LS8 5AB |
| Mrs | Margeret | Taylor | 14 Hope Way | Colne Valley | Huddersfield | West Yorkshire | HD5 6FP |
This data is cleansed by the National Change of Address service (NCOA) to:
| Title | Forename | Surname | NCOA Flag | New Address1 | New Address2 | New Address3 | New Address4 | New Postcode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| After Data Cleansing for NCOA | ||||||||
| Mr | David | Smith | NCOA SUPPRESS | 1 Cherry Tree Close | Bramley | Leeds | West Yorkshire | LS8 5AB |
| Mrs | Margeret | Taylor | NCOA UPDATE | 138 West Place | Rothwell | Leeds | West Yorkshire | LS26 0JJ |
If you compare the 2 tables you can see that Mr David Smith has been matched to NCOA Suppress and has now moved from the given address so we flag (or suppress) the record with an NCOA flag. Mrs Margaret Taylor has also moved from the given address but as we have this individual listed in our NCOA Update file we can supply the new address as in the second table.
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