Is there any reason to change my address?

I think you have to change your address with the DMV for legal reasons.

As far as I know, you do have to change your address on your driver’s license. Everything else should be fine, though – I still use my parents’ address as my mailing address for government stuff and university stuff.

How come you don’t want to change your mailing address if you don’t mind me asking. I think for legality your important stuff for tax purposes and government things it’s needs to have the proper info, otherwise later on in life they can come back and say you didn’t file your taxes properly. Like when you file taxes they want your address so you can get refunded for things like rent, can’t do that if you say your still living at home…ok well you can but it will look weird when you give your rent reciept from another address. Unimportant mail can stay at your parents address, but unfortunately the government likes to keep track of us…

If you change the address on your license you will have to change it on your checks and your voters registration. Until I knew I was not going to apartment hop and was at a place I knew I was going to be living at for some time, I kept my address as my parent address.

@Meego You can get a tax refund for renting?

@Meego The reason is because you never know what might happen. Until I know this is absolutely permanent, I don’t want to go through all of that stuff just to have to do it again in a few months. I won’t have any bills in my name (other than the ones I’m paying now) and I won’t even be paying rent. The only thing that will be different is where I sleep at night and where I wake up in the morning. I work from 10AM-5PM and then I go to school from 6PM-9PM. I spend most of my time with my boyfriend as it is, so moving in isn’t much of a transition. I don’t see the harm in people thinking I live with my parents. I’m not trying to get more money out of my taxes or anything. My parents haven’t had me on their taxes as a dependent since three years ago.

@chyna You can use it as a tax write off.

@Taciturnu I would think you would have to be able to itemize before you can use it as a tax write off and in a students case, I would doubt this would be the case.

I wouldn’t be in too great a hurry. My son kept our address as his permanent address all the years he was away at school, even though he had his own apartment in another state. As long as we were paying the bills and he knew his residence was very temporary, he used his local address only for immediate things like Netflix subscription and Amazon orders. Everything else came to us and we held it for him.

He didn’t even change his driver’s license until after he graduated, got an out-of-state job, and wanted to buy a car in his new location.

@Taciturnu really hard to get rent as a tax writeoff. Only two ways I’ve ever seen it done:

(1) Home office under a Schedule C
(2) You are more than (I think) 50 miles from your home address, and you’re working under a Schedule C.

@lbwhite89 I wouldn’t bother changing your address at this point.

@bpeoples I did it every year?

@Taciturnu Cool! Do you remember how you did it?

@chyna in California you can get a renter’s tax credit.

I’ve always kept my parents’ address for all government stuff (except my license) and have had no problems with rental tax refunds, but things might be different in the US.

I’d wait since it’s so convenient for you to check you mail there anyway. But make sure they’re reliable enough to not throw anything out or lose your mail.

I think you should change your address with DMV and credit cards. Although, if you wait a little I don’t see any harm. You might be able to change your address with DMV online by the way. I think once you have lived there a while, it will become normal for you when asked your address to give the address where you are actually living, not your parents house, and then it will be better to have your ID match. You are moving in with your boyfriend, and over time, that relationship and your new home will feel more and more like your primary one. You don’t have to do it with the post office since your mom will give you whatever winds up still going there.

@jeruba I am assuming he was an out of state student, so he was not required by law to get a license in the new state?

I haven’t changed my address. I keep moving around so there’s no point in changing my address until I’m planning on being somewhere for a long time. I do bills online and my parents tell me the contents of any other mail I get. I figure nothing will get lost bouncing around the places I used to live if I keep changing it, and I see no problem with you doing the same, especially since you’ll be so close.

Well…this is what happened to me…my vehicle was stolen and the CHP came knocking at my door @ 1:30 in the morning…they knew where I lived because I had the correct address on file…I did not know my vehicle was stolen until they came to my address…my correct address…you can always get a PO box if your unsure if you will be moving back or not…but I ere on the side of caution…and laws…when it comes to stuff like that…there is always that reason you never thought of, as to why you should have changed your address…you never know what is going to happen in life : )

Well, other than the fact that you are required by law, to notify your state’s DMV within 10 to 30 days, I think, depending on the state, of a change of address I see no compelling reason to do it. :-) I don’t know exactly what would happen to you if you didn’t notify them but it is a statutory requirement in, I’m almost certain, all 50 states. You should check with your state’s DMV on what their requirements are. It’s not like bank robbing but it is the legal requirement, if that matters.

But there are some good reasons to do it. It’s a good idea to have your current address on your driver’s license in case you lose your wallet or it gets stolen. Then you have at least a chance of getting it returned to you, whatever’s left of it. Several good samaritans have returned a lost wallet to me. And it’s generally a good idea, in my opinion, to have the same address on your driver’s license and all the paperwork that follows us all around in daily life. You have to present your driver’s license under all sorts of circumstance and it just looks better and makes things go more smoothly if all your addresses match. And it makes you feel like a grown up, I think, to have your own address on your license as opposed to your parents’ address. At least it made me feel more grown up when I went off to college. And, as @meds4every1 pointed out, having the correct address for you on record can come in handy sometimes.

If I lost my wallet or someone stole my car and the cops showed up at my parents house instead of my boyfriend’s, I don’t see the harm in that. I’m a phone call and 15 minutes away. Whatever ends up at my parents’ house for me will end up in my hands soon after. It’s not as if I have a friend living there that may or may not tell me when things like that come up. It’s my mom and dad.

I plan on giving it at least a few months before I change anything. Changing it within 10 to 30 days may end up being a huge waste of time.

@lbwhite89 What is most odd to me about your statement, is it almost seems like you think living with your boyfriend won’t work out. I think most people who answered here, are not thinking that, even if they said not to change your address right away.

@JLeslie No, I don’t think it won’t work out. I see how what I said sounds that way, though. I just don’t want to jump the gun, change my address everywhere, just to have to change it back. A lot of things could happen within the next two years that could cause me to move home. Not things like me and my boyfriend splitting up (which, realistically, could happen but I don’t see it happening). More like money issues. If his roommates bail and he can’t afford the place on his own, then we’re both out of a place to live.

If I give it a few months, I’ll know if the place he’s living is permanent, not if he and I are permanent. I just don’t want to get into a situation where I go through all the hoops to change my address everywhere just to have to go through it again in a few months, if the need arises. If, for some reason, I can’t afford to live with him, he most likely won’t live there either, which means getting my mail forwarded will be an immediate need. I have a very busy life right now and if this can be put off for a few months just so I can get settled, then that would be ideal.

I hope that clears up my intention with what I said.

In this case I say just leave it cuz its kinda like your just “sleepin’ over” for long amounts of time. But I do think that when you get stability in a spot you should cut the strings maybe your not quite ready yet? I am not sure but when I left home everything came with me EXCEPT MY PARENTS! LOL. And yes it was rocky the first few years but I figured it out am I’m a parent myself now with a kid who will be in your position soon!