Mail forwarding

If you're only going to be traveling off and on the easiest thing for you to do is to have a family member or trusted neighbor/friend collect your mail daily from your mail box and separate it into junk, catalogs, and personal mail/bills. The junk/catalogs can wait until you return.

When you're at a RV park or public campground for a week or so, ask the person holding your mail to mail it to you either at the RV park, if they accept mail or at the local 'small-town' post office - definitely not a medium/big city.

You should first check with that post office to confirm that they will accept General Delivery. They always have for us. If so, have the person put all your mail in a Priority envelope or box and ship it to your name, c/o General Delivery, city, state, zip. It will reach you in 2-4 days. Typically, you can have this sent every 3 weeks or so and you'll be just fine with bills, etc.

Also, for more ease, set up all your bills via automatic pay through your checking acct or credit card and handle them that way then you don't have to worry about getting a bill on time.

You'll soon get the hang of it and it'll be a very easy thing to do - IF you have someone reliable to handle it this way.

Full-timers usually have a mail forwarding service, as we do, and that mail forwarding service is our permanent address. That's where all our mail goes. We haven't had any problems with the General Delivery method in 16 years! In fact, I'm going to request my mail right now via email and I'll receive it in 2 days Priority.

We also use MyRvMail. It was easy to set up, you can view your incoming mail on line and you can have items discarded or forwarded to the address of your choice as often or infrequently as you wish.

As a GS member, you get a discount on the price.

If you are going to be traveling and have someone who can go to the post office for you then the following is what we are doing
Set up an account with United Parcel Service.
We fill out 5 or 6 hold mail forms for the post office, each is good for 30 days.File the first one for the day before you leave On the form we print the name of the person picking up mail for us. (In our case son).
Son picks up mail on his day off and goes through it putting in the trash any obvious junk mail. When our monthly prescriptions are ready at the pharmacy he picks them up. He places all the items in a box.

He calls us and tells us he has a box to be sent.
Using my UPS account I figure out what town we will be in within the next week that has a UPS office.

We have the box sent there and held for pickup.
The package will be held at the office for 5 days for our pickup.
We are free to travel without worry about receiving mail.

We tried using Post Office forwarding service including the premium service and it did not work.

We us myrvmail.com. We have also use other services in the past. It is really about personal preference and how much access and services you want provided. There is a great article at DIYRV comparing RV mail forwarding services. Goes through pricing, featurs and vendors.

As a full timer, I use a professional mail service in FL that handles all of my mail as well as providing me with a physical address for domicile purposes, the latter of which you may not need. They cater to Cruisers, RVers (part time and full time), Traveling Nurses, Business Executives working overseas, and Merchant Marines. They provide an actual street address vs P.O. Box, important in receiving UPS and Fed Ex deliveries.You'd need to submit a change of address request at your local PO and complete Postal Form 1583 and have it notorized. With proper identification, you can then set up your service for mail forwarding.

Your mail service provider should be able to offer you different services, including basic forwarding, ie. everything is forwarded. Another option; bulk rate mail and catalogs are deleted, except those you specify. Of course "custom mail service" is available where the service will sort specific pieces of mail and scan items for your viewing online.

The basic service is relatively simple. You contact the service via email or by phone and have them forward your mail to a P.O. marked General Delivery and you pick it up. Not all post offices accept general delivery, so it's best to verify with the branch you are considering. I've found that small town post offices work best for me. In a city with a half dozen locations, it can get confusing at times. You should be able to suspend your service while not traveling.

I would imagine such service would be offered in Ohio. If not, you'll find services in Florida, Texas, or S.D. Good luck and enjoy your travels.

We use St. Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs, Florida. Works great.

Did you search this Forum for `mail forwarding'? If too many responses try searching only in the Full-time RVing section

If you have a sticks and bricks house and want to keep that address for your mail, you are limited. The Post Office will not gather and send your mail periodically to different addresses. Your best bet would be to hire an neighbor or friend to gather your mail and forward it at your direction.

Alternatively, you could rent a PMB (private mail box) at a UPS store and change your mailing address to that new PMB. Then call the store and direct them to send your mail. This does reflect on your credit history as a new address.

If you live fulltime in your RV, then mail forwarding services dedicated to this lifestyle work very well.