Personator Consumer:FAQ

Data Sources

Where does the Data from the Personator Web Service Come from?

The Personator Database is compiled from several sources and industries such as Property Information Data, Loan Data, Credit Data, Telephone Data, Voter Data, and several other private sources. The final combined database merges all contact records including Addresses, Phone Numbers, Emails and Names amounting to over a billion records of historical and current information. This data is then exposed through the Personator Web Service which allows for checking, verifying, appending and updating contact records. Since the service revolves heavily around the contents of the data, the exact provider for the sources is not something we can disclose at the moment as we prefer to keep this information private in order to maintain the product’s uniqueness and value in the industry.

NCOA and Personator Move Differences

What is the difference between USPS National Change of Address and Personator Move?

Users who wish to make use of the USPS National Change of Address (NCOA) for detecting move addresses should use the Smart Mover Web Service. This is commonly used by users who wish to avail of USPS discounts for mailing. Personator’s Move capability on the other hand, offers a more comprehensive and extensive coverage for detecting move addresses through the use of a massive consolidated data set compiled from several different sources. Here are some of the advantages of using Personator Move that are not available through NCOA:

Non-NCOA Moves

The USPS limits its move capabilities only to people who file an NCOA Form with the Post Office. Personator Move is not limited to this, as it is able to provide Moves for even those people who do not file an NCOA form with the USPS.

10 Year Detection

Another limitation of NCOA moves is that it can only move a person who has filed an NCOA form in the last 4 years. Personator Move on the other hand can give you the latest address for a person who has moved within the last 10 years.

Chained Moves

If a person has moved 3 times within the last 4 years, NCOA will only be able to give you the most recent move based on the last previous address. Personator Move on the other hand has the ability to chain all of that person’s moves and provide you with the latest address, regardless of which of the 3 previous addresses you enter.

Comprehensiveness

Personator boasts an estimated 400 million move records in the Database. Which is a much much larger coverage compared to NCOA.

Maxiumum Length Response

What is the Maximum Length Response that we can Expect to Receive for Each Field in Personator?

The Web Service Response, in general, does not have a maximum length for each Response Field. This is to avoid any form of truncation when returning information from our data. We do however have recommended values which you can set for defining field lengths in your table.

RESPONSE FIELD	LENGTH
MD_NameFull	256
MD_CompanyName	128
MD_Results	100
MD_EmailAddress	75
MD_PlaceName	60
MD_CBSATitle	55
MD_CBSADivisionTitle	55
MD_AddressExtras	50
MD_AddressLine2	50
MD_AddressLine1	50
MD_DomainName	50
MD_AddressStreetName	40
MD_NameLast2	35
MD_NameFirst2	35
MD_NameFirst	35
MD_City	35
MD_CBSALevel	35
MD_NameLast	35
MD_CBSADivisionLevel	35
MD_AddressTypeCode	31
MD_PhoneNumber	30
MD_StateName	25
MD_CountyName	25
MD_CountryName	25
MD_MailboxName	25
MD_NamePrefix	20
MD_NameSuffix	20
MD_NamePrefix2	20
MD_AddressRouteService	20
MD_Suite	20
MD_Salutation	20
MD_NameMiddle2	20
MD_NameMiddle	20
MD_AddressLockBox	20
MD_NameSuffix2	20
MD_AddressDeliveryInstallation	20
MD_State	15
MD_PrivateMailBox	15
MD_UrbanizationName	15
MD_PhoneExtension	14
MD_CityAbbreviation	13
MD_Latitude	12
MD_Longitude	12
MD_DeliveryPointCheckDigit	11
MD_AddressKey	11
MD_CountryCode	10
MD_AddressPrivateMailboxName	10
MD_AddressPrivateMailboxRange	10
MD_AddressSuiteName	10
MD_TopLevelDomain	10
MD_PostalCode	10
MD_AddressStreetSuffix	10
MD_AddressSuiteNumber	10
MD_PlaceCode	7
MD_UTC	6
MD_CensusTract	6
MD_AddressPreDirection	5
MD_CBSADivisionCode	5
MD_CBSACode	5
MD_AddressPostDirection	5
MD_CountyFIPS	5
MD_PhoneSuffix	4
MD_AddressHouseNumber	4
MD_CensusBlock	4
MD_CarrierRoute	4
MD_Plus4	4
MD_PhonePrefix	3
MD_AreaCode	3
MD_NewAreaCode	3
MD_DeliveryPointCode	2
MD_CongressionalDistrict	2
MD_Gender	1
MD_DeliveryIndicator	1
MD_Gender2	1