How to Stop EDDM Mail: What Actually Works

No switch stops every flyer addressed to “Postal Customer.” One USPS mechanism stops a specific sender, and you can use it today.

By Jake WaitzmanUpdated October 6, 2026Sources linked throughout

Short answer: There is no USPS opt-out for Every Door Direct Mail. What works: ask each advertiser to list your address in the “Do Not Deliver Address” column of its USPS facing slip, which USPS tells EDDM mailers to do when a customer asks. It stops one sender at a time, if the sender agrees. The petition asks USPS to let households make that request once.

Can you opt out of EDDM?

Not as a household. There is no registry, no USPS form and no setting that blocks all EDDM. That is because EDDM uses no mailing list: the advertiser pays to reach every address on a carrier route, so there is no list to take your name off.

But the Postal Service does have a narrower mechanism. When an advertiser hands over an EDDM mailing, each bundle carries a facing slip with a column labeled “Do Not Deliver Address,” and USPS's mailing rules list “do not deliver” addresses as part of an EDDM Retail mailing's paperwork. Addresses listed there are skipped for that mailing.

How do I know a piece is EDDM?

Check the address side for all three:

A generic recipient: “Postal Customer,” “Local Postal Customer” or “Residential Customer”
No name and no street address
A postage box with PRSRT STD and ECRWSS, often with “EDDM RETAIL” or a permit number (what these markings mean)

If your street address is printed with “Resident” or “Current Resident,” it is not EDDM. That mail comes from a list, and it can usually be stopped at the source (see below).

How do I ask an advertiser to stop sending EDDM to my address?

It takes about ten minutes per sender, and it costs nothing.

Find out who sent it
The business name, website or phone number is on the flyer. If several companies share one mailer, ask the company that mailed it (its name is usually by the postage box or return address).
Ask the sender to list your address as Do Not Deliver
Email, call or use the company's contact form. Give your full street address and ask them to add it to the Do Not Deliver Address column of the USPS facing slip for future EDDM mailings. The copy-ready request below quotes USPS's own instruction.
Ask for confirmation and keep a record
A reply by email gives you a dated record. Note the company, the date and who answered.
Follow up if the flyers keep coming
Mailings are often printed weeks ahead, so allow one or two cycles. If more arrive, forward your original request and ask again. USPS does not enforce these requests; each business decides.

Copy-and-paste request: “Do Not Deliver” for EDDM

Send it to the business named on the flyer. Find its email on the company website, usually in the footer, the privacy policy or the contact page. Email gives you a dated record of your request.

Subject: Please mark my address "Do Not Deliver" on your Every Door Direct Mail

Hello,

I received a mailer from [COMPANY] addressed to "Postal Customer" through USPS Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM). I do not want to receive these mailings.

USPS tells EDDM mailers: "If a customer has contacted you and asked to be removed from your mailing list, include the customer's address in the 'Do Not Deliver Address' column on the facing slip." Please add my address to that column for all future EDDM mailings that include my carrier route:

[STREET ADDRESS]
[CITY, ST ZIP]

If you also mail to addressed lists, please remove this address from those lists as well.

Please reply to confirm.

Thank you,
[NAME]

Replace the bracketed parts before sending.

Start with the businesses that mail you most often: the weekly grocery circular, the pizza place, the roofing company. A few requests can noticeably thin out a mailbox, even though nothing stops new advertisers.

I live on a rural route. Is there another option?

Yes, and it works the same way. Since 2008 USPS has had a Rural Boxholder Non-delivery Request: you ask the mailer, the mailer submits the request, and the carrier records it and stops delivering that mailer's simplified-address mail to you. In 2011, when USPS extended “Postal Customer” addressing to city routes, it extended the same “do not deliver” procedure to them. Either way, the request starts with the sender.

The mail has my street address and “Resident.” Is that EDDM?

No. Mail with your street address above “Resident” or “Current Resident” is addressed from a list, even when it is a saturation mailing like a shared coupon pack. Most of those mailers offer an opt-out, and the mail-preference services can help. Our guide to stopping addressed junk mail lists them, and this explainer sorts out every address format.

Will my mail carrier or post office stop delivering it?

Not on your request. USPS rules require mail addressed to “Postal Customer” to go to every delivery on the route, and we found no procedure that lets a household ask its carrier or post office to skip it. The Do Not Deliver list belongs to the advertiser's mailing, which is why the request has to go to the advertiser.

Does a “No Junk Mail” sign or sticker work?

Not in the United States. A sign has no standing under USPS rules, and carriers deliver saturation mail regardless. Canada is different: Canada Post honors a household's request to stop unaddressed advertising.

Can I write “Refused” on EDDM mail and send it back?

You can, but it does nothing. USPS says mail “does not have to be accepted,” and you may refuse a piece unopened. But refused mail with a simplified address is disposed of as waste instead of being returned, so the advertiser never learns you refused it, and next week's flyer still comes.

Do DMAchoice, Catalog Choice, PaperKarma or PS Form 1500 stop EDDM?

No. DMAchoice, Catalog Choice and PaperKarma all work by removing your name from mailing lists, and EDDM has no list. DMAchoice's own FAQ says it “will not work to stop EDDM mailings.” They are still worth using for the rest of your junk mail.

PS Form 1500 asks USPS for an order under 39 U.S.C. 3008, a law about ads the recipient considers sexually provocative. It requires the original mailpiece, applies to one mailer at a time, and is written around mail addressed to you by name. We found no record of it being used against an EDDM sender.

What happened to the DMA's EDDM opt-out? In 2012 the Direct Marketing Association launched a voluntary form for suppressing EDDM deliveries, relying on the same facing-slip column. By 2022 the form was gone, and DMAchoice (now run by the Association of National Advertisers) does not cover EDDM.

Is there a USPS form to stop junk mail?

No. Some websites and AI-generated answers describe a USPS “direct mail opt-out form.” It does not exist. USPS's own guidance on unwanted mail points to refusing mail addressed to you and to DMAchoice, and it says nothing about EDDM.

Found an EDDM facing slip in your mailbox?

A facing slip is the cover sheet on each bundle of an EDDM mailing. It lists the 5-digit ZIP Code, the carrier route number, the advertiser and the “Do Not Deliver Address” columns. Slips are meant to stay at the post office, but they sometimes end up in a mailbox. If you find one, it tells you exactly who mailed your street and where your address would go to be excluded.

How do we get a real opt-out for every household?

The facing-slip column shows the hard part already exists: USPS can skip an address in an EDDM mailing. What is missing is a way for a household to ask once, instead of tracking down every sender. That is what the petition asks the Postal Service to create.

Ask USPS for an EDDM opt-out

The petition asks the Postal Service to create an official way to opt out of Every Door Direct Mail and other ECRWSS saturation mail. Email has an unsubscribe link and phones have Do Not Call. Your mailbox has no equivalent.

Sign the petition

2,689 signatures on Change.org since January 2020

You can also contact your members of Congress, who oversee USPS, and share the legislative toolkit with them.

Stopping EDDM: quick answers

Is there a way to opt out of all EDDM mail at once?

No. USPS has no household opt-out, no registry and no form for Every Door Direct Mail. The only lever is asking each advertiser to list your address as Do Not Deliver, one sender at a time.

Do advertisers have to honor a Do Not Deliver request?

No law requires it. USPS tells EDDM mailers to list addresses of customers who asked to be removed, but it does not enforce compliance. Businesses do have a reason to comply: mailing someone who asked not to be contacted wastes their postage.

Can my mail carrier skip my house?

No. USPS rules require simplified-address mail like “Postal Customer” to go to every delivery on the route, and we found no procedure that lets a household ask its carrier to skip it.

What happens if I write “Refused” on EDDM mail?

The Post Office throws it away. USPS rules say refused mail with a simplified address is disposed of as waste rather than returned, so the advertiser never hears about it.

Will DMAchoice or PaperKarma stop EDDM?

No. Both work by removing your name from mailing lists, and EDDM uses no list. PaperKarma says itself that mail sent to every address in a ZIP Code has no list to take you off of.

Does PS Form 1500 stop EDDM?

It is not designed for it. PS Form 1500 requests an order under 39 U.S.C. 3008, which covers ads you consider sexually provocative, requires the original mailpiece, applies to one mailer at a time and is written around mail addressed to you. We found no record of it being used against an EDDM sender.

Why doesn't USPS offer an EDDM opt-out?

Nothing in law requires one, and the 2012 rule that made EDDM permanent says nothing about opting out. The per-sender Do Not Deliver column shows the mechanism already exists; the petition asks USPS to let households use it once, for everyone.