Royal Mail operates the market leading NCOA (National Change of Address) file, based on consumers who have moved home and have paid Royal Mail to register their new address.
Absolute Contacts uses Experian's Absolute Movers file to identify goneaways.
Residency at the new address is verified against the edited Electoral Roll and Experian's own data sources.
"There is a value in knowing those who have left an address, but being able to maintain or regain contact is clearly a huge added bonus," said Sophie Sail, head of product management at Experian's marketing services division.
It estimated that about half the 3.25 million Britons who move house each year do not register their new details on Royal Mail's file and it is this gap that Experian is hoping to exploit.
"The NCOA file is not the total population of movers. It is a paid-for service that consumers have to subscribe to," said Sail. "Royal Mail statistics suggest that around 50 per cent of home movers subscribe for redirection but not all of those will go forward to have their data shared with third parties."
Royal Mail said it welcomed the arrival of "any new file that results in better targeting".
Richard Roche, Royal Mail head of media markets, said the two files differed in their core data. "The problem with using the edited Roll is there is an ever-decreasing number of names available to use," he said.
Roche added that the profile of Royal Mail's NCOA file is ABC1 and C2.
"These are the people who are most valuable to the market," he said.
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