USPS Premium Forwarding Service

Has anyone used the USPS Premium Forwarding Service? My wife and I are going to begin traveling 5 or 6 months of the year. Because we still have a sticks and bricks home, we are not ready to change our permanent address to the Escapees address in Livingston, or anywhere else for that matter, we are are looking at alternatives. I found the following information at the USPS web site and was wondering if anyone has used this service and, if so, was it a workable solution. I realize that it is expensive but it is a possible solution to my mail problem. It is important to note that we receive 10 to 20 very important mail pieces weekly.

Premium Forwarding Service®

Taking a long vacation? Or an out-of-town assignment? Make sure you don’t miss any bills or other important mail. For a weekly fee, we’ll hold your mail, package it up, and reship it to you each week by Priority Mail®.

Here's how Premium Forwarding Service (PFS®) works...

Pay $15.00 to enroll in the service and $17.00 for each week you have your mail reshipped.
Most mail is bundled and sent to you every Wednesday via Priority Mail, our 2- to 3-day service. Any Express Mail® is automatically rerouted directly to you.
Priority Mail items are reshipped right away or included in your weekly shipment as long as their delivery wouldn't be delayed.
First-Class Mail® mail pieces that don't fit in the weekly shipment are rerouted separately at no extra cost.
PFS is a temporary service that can be used from 15 days up to 1 year.

Some packages will arrive at the temporary address with postage due...

Standard Mail® pieces are included in a weekly shipment if they fit. Otherwise, they’re shipped postage due at the 1 lb Parcel Select Non presort price.
Standard Post™, Bound Printed Matter, Media Mail®, and Library Mail pieces aren’t included in Premium Forwarding Service shipments. They are shipped postage due with the service originally used to send them.

To sign up, go to PFS Online® or stop by your local Post Office with 2 forms of ID and evidence of residence at the primary address.

If you sign up online, you pay for the service with a credit card. The $15.00 enrollment fee must be paid when you sign up, but weekly installment fees of $17.00 are processed as recurring payments. Your first recurring payment is processed on the start date and, thereafter, recurring payments are processed each Wednesday until your requested end date. The PFS Online option is not currently available for PO Box™ addresses. Please note that you may only make changes to a PFS Online order if your initial request was submitted online.

Sami"s Slave

15 Replies

LakeN
Explorer
Jun 18, 2013
rjsurfer wrote:
Jim Shoe wrote:
First thing I did was set up any bills on autopay, so I don't even get those when I'm not on the road. I can access my bank account on line to check. The remaining mail isn't critical, but may be important. I put my mail on hold at the post office, but they'll only hold it for 30 days. I filled out an authorization form to allow a friend to pick up my mail once a month and open anything that looks important. That hasn't happened yet. :)

Are you sure about the USPS not holding mail longer than one month? I seem to remember a fw years back when we went cross country they held it much longer than that. I think we just had to fill out 2 forms in advance?

thanks

ron W.
Yes, The USPS card that you fill out states they can only hold a maximum of 30 days. Anyone know if you can do a 30 day hold, have someone get your mail a few days, then do another 30 day hold?
rjsurfer
Explorer
Jun 03, 2013
Jim Shoe wrote:
First thing I did was set up any bills on autopay, so I don't even get those when I'm not on the road. I can access my bank account on line to check. The remaining mail isn't critical, but may be important. I put my mail on hold at the post office, but they'll only hold it for 30 days. I filled out an authorization form to allow a friend to pick up my mail once a month and open anything that looks important. That hasn't happened yet. :)

Are you sure about the USPS not holding mail longer than one month? I seem to remember a fw years back when we went cross country they held it much longer than that. I think we just had to fill out 2 forms in advance?

thanks

ron W.
justlou
Explorer
Jun 02, 2013
Have used the USPS Premium Forwarding Service for the past six years and have never had a problem. Mail is not processed at some remote location, It is held at your local Post Office and mailed to you in a bulk package once a week. Only once did we request our mail be sent to a location other than the one we indicated and it only took a phone call to make it happen. I wouldn't recommend it if you are going to be moving frequently, but for a stationary location it works well.
Clay_L
Explorer
Jun 02, 2013
You can do a temporary forwarding to a mail forwarding service for six months. Since we transitioned from full time to snow birding last year that is what we did. It worked fine.
Jim_Shoe
Explorer
Jun 02, 2013
First thing I did was set up any bills on autopay, so I don't even get those when I'm not on the road. I can access my bank account on line to check. The remaining mail isn't critical, but may be important. I put my mail on hold at the post office, but they'll only hold it for 30 days. I filled out an authorization form to allow a friend to pick up my mail once a month and open anything that looks important. That hasn't happened yet. :)
scroller95969
Explorer
Jun 02, 2013
We used this to have our mail forwarded to our daughter when we were gone for 7 weeks last summer. Expensive but it worked fine. When we are only going to be gone less than a month we just put a hold on our mail. We do this about 20 times a year.
Dutch_12078
Explorer II
Jun 02, 2013
Escapees also handles mail forwarding for "longtimers", as well as fulltimers. If you're planning to use their forwarding service when you go fulltime, it wouldn't hurt to establish a relationship ahead of time. All it takes is a temporary forwarding order to the Post Office that can be renewed online while you're traveling.
The_Texan
Explorer
Jun 02, 2013
gdheinrich wrote:
Per the USPS web site, they will forward you mail to the address provided. This address can be changed weekly and only needs to be submitted to them via the web by midnight Monday for the mail to be forwarded to the new address the next day.

Making Changes to Your PFS Online Service

PFS orders ship weekly on Wednesdays. If you need to change your PFS Online order, please note these important deadlines…

Cancel or change the start date no later than 11:59 pm (CST) on the day before the start date.
Change the option for either Individual or Household forwarding by 11:59 pm (CST) on the day before the start date.
Extend or stop PFS by 11:59 pm (CST) on the Monday before the last Wednesday ship date you are requesting.
Shorten PFS by 11:59 pm (CST) on the Monday of the week prior to the last Wednesday ship date you are requesting.
As I said, been there done that and if you actually believe that, I do have some ocean front property in AZ for sale......Just make sure you have the correct DIRECT phone number to your post master before you leave...:B
Janss
Explorer II
Jun 02, 2013
Do you know any neighbors who might collect and forward your mail for a fee? I pay my neighbor to do that and leave her several large postage paid priority envelopes. Then I call or email her with an address every now and then.
gdheinrich
Explorer
Jun 02, 2013
sdianel wrote:
another option is www.myrvmail.com in Crestview FL. They have different plans depending on the level of service you want. Their best service scans your mail and you can read it online on a secure site and they will either forward or shred the original. Basic service forwards mail on your schedule to the address you provide and you can update the address online.

This option wouldn't work. It would require that we forward our mail or change our mailing address to their address and they would then forward to where we are. This would require two forwardings or an address change to do what I am trying to accomplish.

I don't want to permanently change my address.