I hear a lot about various mail forwarding services, but I can't find much information about where people get their mail forwarded TO when they are traveling around. Right now we're at a seasonal campground and I have a PO box nearby - what do I do when we're away from the PO box for weeks or months at a time? The campground we're at now doesn't accept USPS delivery for residents - is that typical?I see that some services will forward UPS and FedEx packages as well - how and where do you receive them? What if you're in Canada?I'm new to this forum and new to full-timing (obviously). Thanks so much for your help and patience!

It will depend on the CG, as some will accept packages....though you will want to ask them, and if they agree, let them know that you will be there to accept it.If I was going to be in a particular place for a week or so, I would have the mail boxed up and sent FedEx, so that I got it in a day or so....and that would be that.Forwarding probably isn't what you really want....at least not on a daily basis. The private mailbox companies will often hold your mail for a specified time, and then ship it to you. Of course, you will probably pay for this.You can do the same thing with friends or family....getting some pre-paid mailers for them to put your mail (less the junk mail), and ship it to you.

Thank you. When you say "...ship it to you" what exactly do you mean? Have it shipped to the campground? What if the campground does not accept shipments?

If the campground won't accept mail for you, you have 2 choices. General Delivery at the nearest PO that accepts it (not all do) would be the best choice. The places I've been, some of the POs also had time limits for general delivery. In that case I would have to rent a PO box and tell my mail forwarding service to forward mail to that box.My service forwards based on what and when I tell them. For instance, if I had a PO box at a seasonal location but went to visit my kids for a month, I'd notify the service if I wanted my mail shipped to a different location once. They don't care where they ship it as long as you're paying for it.

We have used the Escapees RV Club in Livingston, Texas for the past 17 years as our address. They give you a 'real' address, not a P.O. box. That is the address we use for all business/personal correspondence. All mail goes to them. If we are traveling and want our mail, we email/call them about 4 days prior to our arrival date. We tell them to ship it c/o our name, General Delivery, City, State. They package it up for the requested day we tell them to ship it and it's shipped Priority Mail to the P.O. General Delivery and it arrives in 3-4 days, sometimes 2 days. When we arrive we go to the P.O. to pick it up. If we know that a campground would accept mail, then we have it sent there. If we're visiting family, we have it sent to their house. We've even used this system in Alaska. However, it takes a LOT longer if you have it sent to Canada because it has to go through customs. We don't have mail sent to Canada.You should always choose a small P.O. for general delivery not a major main P.O. because problems can arise using the big P.O. If a city has more than 2 P.O. this is really important. Just choose a suburb of that big city and you'll be just fine.If we stay in one spot for a month or two, we would do the same thing - General Delivery to the local P.O. We usually just request our mail every 3 weeks or so as most bill paying is done automatically online. We do get some favorite magazines, personal mail from family/friends, etc.We have found that the P.O. will hold General Delivery for you for 30 days. It's a very easy process and we have never had a problem getting our mail in 17 years.Good luck!

I'm usually on the move every couple weeks or so. My mail goes to a box at the UPS Store back home. They will accept USPS, FedEx, UPS or anything else. I periodically email them to forward whatever is there to General Delivery at a nearby PO or to a UPS Customer Center.

Where do you forward mail to? | Good Sam Community

19 Replies

doxiemom11
Explorer II
Jul 23, 2013
You can use the mail forwarding service to handle your mail from any state. You do not have to establish residency if you do not want to. We are currently residents of Michigan, but use a FL mail forwarding service. Residency/domicile and having your mail handled at two different things that any mail forwarding service can help with. One or Both - your choice.
hitchup
Explorer
Jul 23, 2013
We've had UPS and FedX deliver boxes or our monthly mail directly to our RV site. Last location, I received so many pkgs, they UPS truck would honk and wave as he was driving by.

When we're on the move, we contact our mailforwarder and have them hold it until we have a new location.
RoadXYZ
Explorer II
Jul 22, 2013
ljr wrote:
I'm usually on the move every couple weeks or so. My mail goes to a box at the UPS Store back home. They will accept USPS, FedEx, UPS or anything else. I periodically email them to forward whatever is there to General Delivery at a nearby PO or to a UPS Customer Center.

Likewise for us ... at first we had our mail sent to a "family post office box", but that costs more in money as well as stress on nerves when family doesn't send your mail when asked.

We like the "mail requests" done by us when we want it to be sent - a simple email and we get our mail about 2-4 days later.

We are in the Northwest therefore Escapees doesn't work for us.

Enjoy your travels and stay safe out there.
gatorcq
Explorer
Jul 22, 2013
As you have read, the first item is choosing a state for Domicile. The 2 main ones are Texas or South Dakota. Some have chosen Texas as they have said they are with SKP's. We chose SD, with a legal address in Rapid City. Next as a mailing address not a domicile address, all of our mail goes to Susan's daughter, she opens reads and discusses it with her. What is important, she will scan and email to us. Otherwise she holds it until we ask her to send it to us.
phil_crouch
Explorer
Jul 19, 2013
We had our mail go to my daughter's home.. she would send it to us if we wanted it.. She also had our permission to open it.. If something needed our attention, she would call us or email us... Jury duty was one, that we took
care of with a phone call..
The junk mail that we received was placed in the recycle bin at her home..

Another thing we did, was to Downsize our snail mail, by getting most of it online.. Most business places will now prefer that you use the internet over
sending snail mail.. We ended up with less mail and they saved a few bucks on
mailing costs...
Mremdal33
Explorer
Jul 19, 2013
We just have our mail forwarding service send our mail to a nearby fedex office location. They are everywhere and usually closeby.

You can also choose a RV mail forwarding service that scans your mail and makes it available for you online. So unless it is a package you never need a delivery. But it does take a higher end mail forwarding service.
Mfar1234
Explorer
Jul 19, 2013
As a few have already said === Escapees and Good Sams have a great process that solves it all.

I've had good luck w/ Escapees

$100 a year is cheap asprin
restlesswind
Explorer
Jul 19, 2013
As others have said,General Delivery works well.(We have had one "glitch" in 7 years full time traveling.Just make sure that the PO you want to use does accept
General Delivery mail. We have had UPS and FedEx deliver to our space in RV parks and campgrounds.The park office does not get involved and the drivers are used to delivering to the RV Parks and many campgrounds/state parks (You do need to include a space number in your delivery address,and check with the camp host if you are in a regular campground.
You will probably find that you do not get a lot of mail,being as the "last class" mail goes into the round file (trash) at the mail forwarding office.

We use "My Dakota Address" in Madison SD for our mail forwarding, Terri takes good care of her customers!(When using FedEx or UPS we have delivery directly to the RV park or campground)
Welcome to a whole new world,on the road !
doxiemom11
Explorer II
Jul 19, 2013
Where we are this summer, there is no address, the campground is on a forest road and there are no residences. We had the first shipment go to general delivery in the small town 5 miles away. I was advised I could only do that for 30 days. I have now had the next 2 deliveries sent c/o my daughter who lives 1 1/2 hrs away, and will have any further deliveries sent to her also. Hey, gives me a good reason to take the day off and go visit the grandkids. Have to get my mail.
Roads_Less_Trav
Explorer II
Jul 19, 2013
We are Escapees but we use Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls South Dakota for our mail forwarding.

We always have our mail sent to General Delivery, and it works really well, especially in smaller post offices, as has been said already.

If we purchase things mail order, we have Alternative Resources re-box the item or we have it shipped to General Delivery if the vendor will do that. Or we have the item shipped to a friend or relative in an area where we are heading.