Credit information agency Experian has launched Absolute Movers, a service designed to help financial services firms in the UK to keep better track of customers who change address.
Absolute Movers is an address tracking service that is available via Experian's online data cleansing firm Intact. The service is designed to help banks to improve the calibre of direct marketing campaigns by reducing the waste created by mailing individuals no longer at an address (goneaways).
Citing government statistics, Experian says more than 12% of the UK population move house each year, which equates to approximately 18,000 people every day.
Where this data is identified from mail returns, it can take months to receive, collate, capture and load the information before it is ready for use as a suppression list, says Experian
The new service also keeps up-to-date with people who temporarily move house and then return, such as students.
Sue Tomalin, data quality consultant at Experian's marketing services division, says: "Through improving the recency and accuracy of goneaway data, financial services companies now have the capability to significantly improve the effectiveness of direct mail campaigns."
Experian claims the service has identified over 3.5 million new movers in the last six months.