You cannot call USPS and ask them to send your package to a different house. There is no hotline for that. How to change your USPS delivery address for a package already moving comes down to one official tool: USPS Package Intercept.
It costs $19.45, and USPS makes no promise it will actually work.
This is different from changing your permanent mailing address. If you moved and want all your future mail sent to a new house, that is a Change of Address filing.
This article covers redirecting one specific package that has already shipped, not a permanent move. For the moving version, read our guide on filing a permanent Change of Address with USPS instead.
So here’s how to change usps delivery address for a package already in transit. Who can file the request, what it costs right now, and what the free tools do instead. I’ll also get into what sellers say happens when they try it, which isn’t always what the USPS page suggests.
What USPS Package Intercept Actually Does
Package Intercept stops a piece of mail or a package somewhere along its route. It reroutes the item before the carrier delivers it.
There are three possible outcomes. Back to the sender, on to a new address, or held at a Post Office for pickup.
It is not instant. Once you submit the request, USPS sends an electronic notice to the delivery unit currently handling the package. A clerk there has to physically find it before it goes out on a truck.
That window is often just a few hours. USPS says outright in its Package Intercept FAQ that this is not a guaranteed service. Nobody promises the item gets pulled in time.
Who Can Actually Request It
This is the part people get wrong most often. Package Intercept is built for the sender, meaning whoever created the shipping label and paid the postage.
A business account authorized to manage that shipment qualifies too. USPS states plainly that the request comes from the mailer, not the person waiting for the package.
Say you are the recipient and the seller shipped it. You generally cannot log into your own account and intercept someone else’s outgoing package. You have to contact the seller and ask them to file the request from their end.
This trips up a lot of online buyers. They assume intercept works like tracking, open to anyone with the number. Nope.
There is one common exception. If you printed the label yourself, for example on a return shipment, you are the sender for that package. You can request the intercept directly.
How to Change USPS Delivery Address on a Package in Transit
- Go to the USPS Package Intercept page and sign in to your USPS.com account. Commercial and high volume senders use the Business Customer Gateway instead. You need an account either way; there is no phone or walk in option.
- Enter the tracking number, or open your Sent Packages history and select the shipment.
- Confirm the package still qualifies. USPS checks this in real time and tells you if it is already out of the intercept window.
- Choose the outcome. A regular USPS.com account gets two choices: send it back to your own address, or hold it at a Post Office for pickup. Redirecting to a brand new street address is a commercial account option only, through the Business Customer Gateway.
- Review the estimated total and submit.
- Watch your account for a status update. It shows whether the package was found and rerouted, or whether the attempt failed.
Read that step 4 again, because it’s the detail most guides miss. With a plain USPS.com account, you can’t send the package to your cousin’s house across town. Your only real move is a hold at a Post Office near the new spot.
The Fee, and What You Actually Pay For
Checking usps.com directly, the current Package Intercept fee is $19.45, plus whatever new postage the redirect requires. That number has crept up over the years, so the $15.25 in older forum threads and the $17.00 on one 2026 blog are both out of date.
The fee only gets charged if the intercept actually succeeds. USPS is explicit that you are not billed if the package cannot be located in time. Once it does succeed, the charge is final.
No refunds if the new address turns out to be wrong. None if you change your mind, either.
This is the real cost side of how to change usps delivery address once a label already exists. Sellers on the eBay community boards land on the same math I do. Paying $19.45 to redirect a $25 order makes no sense.
Most undeliverable packages bounce back to the sender on their own anyway, for free.
Delivery Instructions, Hold for Pickup, and Informed Delivery: The Free Alternatives
Before you pay for an intercept, check whether one of the free USPS tools already solves your problem. None of them can send a package to a different street address. For a lot of people, that isn’t really the problem.
| Tool | What it changes | Cost | Redirects to a new address? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Package Intercept | Pulls a specific package off its route | $19.45 if successful | Back to sender or hold for pickup (retail); new address too (commercial) |
| Delivery Instructions | Tells your carrier where to leave items at your existing address | Free | No, same address only |
| Hold Mail | Pauses delivery at your address for 3 to 30 days | Free | No, holds at the same address |
| Redelivery request | Reschedules a missed delivery attempt for a later date | Free | No, same address |
Delivery Instructions, set through Informed Delivery, tell your letter carrier something like leave packages at the side door. You can also ask them to hold everything for pickup at the counter.
Carriers aren’t obligated to follow them. USPS does say Informed Delivery instructions carry more weight than a note typed onto a label.
Going out of town and worried about a porch pile? Hold Mail is the tool, not an intercept. If the package needs to end up in a different city, Package Intercept is the only option, and it costs money.
What Package Intercept Cannot Do
USPS excludes a specific list of mail from this service, and the PO Box one catches people off guard:
- Marketing Mail and Periodicals are not eligible.
- Anything addressed to a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency is excluded.
- Packages already addressed to a PO Box cannot be intercepted.
- International shipments, APO, FPO, and DPO addresses are not eligible.
- Anything requiring a customs form is excluded.
- Hazardous materials shipments cannot be intercepted.
- Packages over 130 inches in combined length and girth do not qualify.
If your shipment fits any of those categories, intercept is off the table before you even submit a request. The USPS Package Intercept FAQ page lists the full eligibility rules. The site usually flags it as ineligible the moment you enter the tracking number.
When Intercept Actually Works vs When It Doesn’t
Seller reports on the eBay boards line up with what USPS admits on its own FAQ page. Intercept does not always work, in one seller’s words. A few patterns show up again and again.
Intercept works best in the first few hours after a label prints, before the package leaves the local facility. Once it’s scanned into a regional hub or loaded onto a truck, the odds of catching it drop fast.
It also fails silently more often than people expect. Sellers describe submitting a request, waiting, and getting a status update that the package was not located in time. No charge, but no result either.
If you need a package stopped, treat intercept as a long shot you attempt within the hour. Honestly, if the package had already left my city, I’d skip the request and let it bounce back on its own.
What to Do If You Shipped to the Wrong Address
If you’re the sender and typed the wrong street address, file the intercept the minute you notice. Time matters more than anything else here.
If the package already shows as delivered to the wrong address, Package Intercept can no longer help. The item is out of USPS custody at that point. Your options are contacting the person at that address directly, or filing a claim if the package included insurance.
Package sitting at a regional hub rather than delivered wrong? Read what that scan actually means before you assume it needs an intercept. If tracking has stopped updating entirely, that’s a separate issue, and our piece on why USPS tracking stalls mid transit covers that case.
If you are the recipient and the seller used the wrong address, contact the seller first. Only they can file the intercept, and only while the package is still in transit.
Not a USPS Package?
UPS and FedEx run their own versions of this, with different fees and different rules on who can ask. See our guides on how UPS handles a mid route address change and redirecting a package through FedEx Delivery Manager, which is free for recipients, unlike the USPS version.
Not sure which USPS service your package even shipped under? Our mail class selector sorts that out. The mail class decides whether intercept is on the table at all.
Bottom Line
The real answer to how to change usps delivery address on a package already moving is a USPS Package Intercept. Only the sender can file it. It costs $19.45 if it succeeds, nothing if it fails, and it works best in the first few hours after the label prints.
A regular account can only pull it back or hold it at a Post Office. If you truly need it at a new address, that’s a commercial account job.
Moving house? That’s a Change of Address filing, a different thing entirely.
