INFO ABOUT COMMERCIAL MAIL RECEIVING AGENTS

A Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA) is a private company that acts as an agent for receiving and delivering the recipient’s mail. A CMRA is sometimes referred to as an OBC (Office Business Center) or a CEC (Corporate Executive Center).

1. You may file a Change of Address (COA) request to a CMRA.

2. You may not file a COA from a CMRA to another address.
(When the CMRA contract/business relationship has ended, the individual is responsible for informing any/all senders of their new address.)

3. The CMRA (not the United States Postal Service) is solely responsible for forwarding mail intended for individuals after the agency/recipient relationship has terminated. CMRAs that do forward the mail are required to put new postage on the mail. CMRA must accept and re-send mail to former customers for at least 6 months* after termination of the agency relationship.

*Mail will not be forwarded at the expense of Texas Home Base. The client must keep postage account balance open until the 6 months after contract ends or until no mail is received for the client.

4. When the contract is terminated, you must provide a permanent address. Any remaining money in your postage account balance at the end of the six months period will be refunded to you. After the 6-month period, the CMRA may refuse mail addressed to a former customer. 

5. CMRA ‘s may accept all accountable mail items except for Registered Mail items. CMRA customers must go to the local Post Office facility to accept Registered Mail items.

6. Items a CMRA can accept include: Foreign Origin and Express Mail items, as well as mail that includes: Insurance or Postage Due, Certified Mail, Delivery Confirmation, Collect on Delivery (COD), and/or Signature Confirmation service. To allow the CMRA to accept these Restricted Delivery items, the CMRA customer must extend authorization to the Postal Service to deliver these items to the CMRA by signing in box #5 on USPS Form 1583.

7. If a CMRA cannot (or chooses not to) accept an item for which payment is due or which they cannot accept for other reasons, they can still accept and deliver the re-delivery notice on the item. A Private Mail Box (PMB) is obtained through a CMRA. A PMB is a private mail drop that has most of the advantages of a P.O. Box, plus it can receive parcels from UPS, FedEx, etc.

Some information on this page was taken from USPS website