You’re moving home, and getting in touch with every single provider is a pain in the neck, and definitely time-consuming.
A client recently said our methods were out of date – ‘who writes letters any more?’. Exactly. Who does? The providers (pensions, loyalty cards, investments, HMRC, to name just a few) want us all to log into their apps or call them to tell them about our change of address in the way they want.
This is time-consuming. Writing letters means one template letter, and if we’re helping or you know how to do it, you can do a mail merge and therefore quickly get multiple letters out. You sign each letter, stuff them in a window envelope and send them off. You also have the list if you need it for the future (another move, or probate when you die).
Although some clients we’ve helped have had just a handful of letters to do, others have had over 50, and if this is you, then the mail merge is the way to go. It’s easier to keep track of what you’ve done too.
It’s not the be all and end all of course. Insurance providers (car and home) will need a phone call, and your main bank should be called or done online on the day of the move. Utility companies fall into a different category as they are providing a service at your address.
But we stand by our mail merge system as being the least time-consuming and easiest to keep track of.