Forwarding Mail/Snowbird

All our bills are paid by pre-authorized bank withdrawals or on-line, so we don't expect problems. Being Canadian we can't get a US postal box without a house deed (which we obviously don't carry with us!). We can't receive USPS mail here at the RV resort.

Our worry is unexpected "brown envelopes" for stuff like jury duty or the income tax folks, we ask our house checker (who receives our mail) to mail these to our daughter who scans and E-mails them to us. We started doing this after we received a letter from the tax folks during a previous winter reassessing our previous return. Turns out it was an error on their part but it cost us some interest money because we couldn't respond in a timely manner.

This is our 1st year using myrvmail.com. Great service and you can change your forwarding address easily as you move. Great folks to deal with. Just remember to file your USPS forwarding notice a week or so before you leave town.

This past summer we were gone for 4 months. We had our mail forwarded to my parents who live a couple minutes drive from our campground. Although most of our utilities send electronic statements, the local water company does not. After 2 months of not getting a water bill, I called the Post Office. They told me that I had to file a forwarding notice for any variation of my name. I told the phone rep. that I choose forward for whole house option. She said it didn't matter. The mail carrier was looking to forward mail for "Girardo", so if the second name on the address line isn't "Girardo", it won't be forwarded.

The local water company sends bills to "Girardo, Michael" not Michael Girardo. So they weren't forwarded. The kicker, my wife received a piece of junk mail addressed to her Maiden name. The mail carrier wrote on the letter "Girardo" and it got forwarded!

Not sure what we are going to do this year. We have used the Premium Hold Service from USPS on shorter trips, where they collect the mail for a week and then send it Priority Mail to an address that we specify. That worked great, but they charge $15 every time they send out the mail. Doing that for 4 months will be expensive.

As a free lance web developer, my customers send me checks for invoices, so I need my mail :)

-Michael

northshore wrote:
We found the USPS to be a pain, at the very least it wasn't user friendly. USPS we found to be dependent on who you talked to, one post office was easy to work with another wouldn't give the time of day. We finally went to "Americas MailBox" haven't looked back, easy to use and never a problem with getting your mail when you want and where you want. Look them up and check it out, we have been using them for about 6 years

USPS, Did it all on line. Very easy!

We found the USPS to be a pain, at the very least it wasn't user friendly. USPS we found to be dependent on who you talked to, one post office was easy to work with another wouldn't give the time of day. We finally went to "Americas MailBox" haven't looked back, easy to use and never a problem with getting your mail when you want and where you want. Look them up and check it out, we have been using them for about 6 years

Moved to Snowbirds forum from 5th Wheels.

"*laughing* Well I'm glad to know the problems I had with mail forwarding all came down to my inability to read and understand the instructions associated with the service. "

We had some problems the first year we used it .We asked questions. We went to a post office and asked the postmaster to help us fill out the paperwork. We initially filled out the forms exactly as instructed (so we thought) but after asking a few questions it turned out we did not fully understand the instructions.After that ......no problems since.

We also tried the post office and it didn't work. UPS gets good reviews. You can set up a PO Box with them to forward your mail to, and then have UPS forward it when you call them. We have found the UPS Stores to be very helpful for packages. We have our daughter forward our mail using prepaid USPS envelopes. We either have it forwarded to our actual location or to a post office that has hold mail (general delivery) services.

richfaa wrote:
USPS temp change of address been using it for 10 years and never a problem. One has to read and understand how to use the service .Once you understand how it works there will be no problem.

*laughing* Well I'm glad to know the problems I had with mail forwarding all came down to my inability to read and understand the instructions associated with the service.

2oldman wrote:
I can't imagine having to design a trip around the location of post offices.

+1