Discard Zip Code Title For Free

Stores want your ZIP code because, combined with your name from your credit card, they can use it to find out other information about you from commercial databases, like your full mailing address. They may even sell the information to data brokers, who sell it to other marketers.

A ZIP+4 Code or 9-Digit-ZIP Code is a 4-digit code added to the end of a 5-digit ZIP Code. The last 4 digits of each 9-digit ZIP Code indicate specific delivery routes of roughly 1-20 mailboxes, and the five digits before the +4 Code indicate the destination post office or delivery area.

ZIP Codes are numbered with the first digit representing a certain group of U.S. states, the second and third digits together representing a region in that group (or perhaps a large city) and the fourth and fifth digits representing a group of delivery addresses within that region.

What is the four-digit extension? It represents a specific delivery route within that overall delivery area. For PO boxes, the four-digit extension usually includes the PO box number. Including the last four digits means mailings will arrive to their intended destination faster, as well as discounts on bulk mailings.

Your ZIP+4 is a basic five-digit code with four digits added as an extra identifier. It helps to identify a geographic segment within the five-digit delivery area, such as a city block, a group of apartments, an individual high-volume receiver of mail, or a post office box.

Use the standard U.S. Postal Service abbreviations below for addresses, whether used in text or block address form. As a general guide, the inclusion of a ZIP code makes it an address; the omission of a ZIP code makes it a location. (See also state abbreviations.)

(Making you key it in serves as an added security measure to foil a thief who doesn't know the numbers.) But it's usually unnecessary at brick-and-mortar stores, so just say no. And your ZIP code certainly shouldn't be posted on social media or other public websites.