NZ Post introduces fees for redirecting mail

Redirecting mail after moving house will now cost households $20, in a move New Zealand Post said would recover some of the costs of the "entirely manual" process.

Residential customers have previously had two months' redirection free of charge, with a tiered cost structure for redirections lasting four months, six months or a year.

The $20 fee will be introduced on November 1, with further costs remaining the same for four and six months ($30, and $45) and the one year fee dropping from $100 to $85.

NZ Post will also introduce a $5 fee per week fee for holding mail while customers are away.

This service is currently offered free of charge for up to 12 weeks.

NZ Post marketing general manager Graham Smith said the company had thought "long and hard" before introducing the fees.

Redirecting mail was expensive and labour-intensive.

"It involves lots of manual intervention and the reprocessing and delivery of mail and we need to recover some of the costs of providing these services," Mr Smith said.

The services still offered "excellent" value for money in managing mail delivery, he said.

Business customers already paid for redirection, and the fees remained the same.

The hold service would now cost businesses $10 per week.

Senior citizens will be exempt from the new fee for the first two months of a redirection, and from all hold fees.

- NZPA