Mail Forwarding Cost. Virtual Mail vs Priority Mail

JimR 1 wrote:

rk911 wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:

rk911 wrote:
not sure what you mean by virtual mail but if your forwarder allows you to pick and choose which mail they forward you might want to create an account with the US Post office and then sign up for their INFORMED DELIVERY SERVICE (free). you'll get a daily e-mail showing the front of the envelopes that have been processed for delivery that day.

USPS Informed Delivery

My understanding is that the Informed Delivery Service cannot be used for a commercial address such as a CMRA. Do you know of anyone that's able to use it with a CMRA account?

CMRA?

CMRA = Commercial Mail Receiving Agency

JimR

ok, well all i can tell you is our experience. we used America's Mailbox last winter. all of our mail was forwarded to them and all of that mail showed up on the daily USPS Informed Delivery e-nail. that's how i kept track of what should be in our weekly delivery of mail. but because most of our commercial mail had been switched to e-mail the amount of postal mail we received each week was small. it always fit in one of those small plastic envelopes. minimal cost.

So you are getting priority mail twice a month for $7.50 a mailing. It seems to me you have little to complain about. If you are concerned about the amount you could cut back on the frequency. Before I started out as a full timer, I worked on cutting out as much paper as possible and often went months before collecting my mail.

I have USPS Informed Delivery. As mentioned, it is far from perfect. I like it though. So I would be very happy with Virtual Mail. Sounds like it would be more complete.

I, as well, have slimmed down my paper mail. Many utilities, credit card companies, etc. offer paperless billing. We could be gone 3 or 4 months and get maybe two pieces of really important mail. Our neighbor collects our mail. She'll open, scan a letter, mail us a particular piece...as per our instruction. So with USPS Informed Delivery and neighbor...well, sounds like that's about what your Virtual Mail is. I'd say go for it. Can you go back to the other way if you don't like it?

rk911 wrote:

JimR 1 wrote:

rk911 wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:

rk911 wrote:
not sure what you mean by virtual mail but if your forwarder allows you to pick and choose which mail they forward you might want to create an account with the US Post office and then sign up for their INFORMED DELIVERY SERVICE (free). you'll get a daily e-mail showing the front of the envelopes that have been processed for delivery that day.

USPS Informed Delivery

My understanding is that the Informed Delivery Service cannot be used for a commercial address such as a CMRA. Do you know of anyone that's able to use it with a CMRA account?

CMRA?

CMRA = Commercial Mail Receiving Agency

JimR

ok, well all i can tell you is our experience. we used America's Mailbox last winter. all of our mail was forwarded to them and all of that mail showed up on the daily USPS Informed Delivery e-nail. that's how i kept track of what should be in our weekly delivery of mail. but because most of our commercial mail had been switched to e-mail the amount of postal mail we received each week was small. it always fit in one of those small plastic envelopes. minimal cost.

rk911

When you say forwarded to Americas Mailbox you are saying that the post office had a forwarding address and then forwarded your mail to Americas Mailbox? That would make sense but I have my mail sent to Dakota Post directly and do not think that the Informed Delivery would work but will check on that.

Thank You

JimR

JimK-NY wrote:
So you are getting priority mail twice a month for $7.50 a mailing. It seems to me you have little to complain about. If you are concerned about the amount you could cut back on the frequency. Before I started out as a full timer, I worked on cutting out as much paper as possible and often went months before collecting my mail.

I am not complaining I am just asking about Virtual Mail. Perhaps I worded thing the wrong way will edit.
Also the last cost was $8.15 per mailing

JimR

JimR 1 wrote:

rk911 wrote:

JimR 1 wrote:

rk911 wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:

rk911 wrote:
not sure what you mean by virtual mail but if your forwarder allows you to pick and choose which mail they forward you might want to create an account with the US Post office and then sign up for their INFORMED DELIVERY SERVICE (free). you'll get a daily e-mail showing the front of the envelopes that have been processed for delivery that day.

USPS Informed Delivery

My understanding is that the Informed Delivery Service cannot be used for a commercial address such as a CMRA. Do you know of anyone that's able to use it with a CMRA account?

CMRA?

CMRA = Commercial Mail Receiving Agency

JimR

ok, well all i can tell you is our experience. we used America's Mailbox last winter. all of our mail was forwarded to them and all of that mail showed up on the daily USPS Informed Delivery e-nail. that's how i kept track of what should be in our weekly delivery of mail. but because most of our commercial mail had been switched to e-mail the amount of postal mail we received each week was small. it always fit in one of those small plastic envelopes. minimal cost.

rk911

When you say forwarded to Americas Mailbox you are saying that the post office had a forwarding address and then forwarded your mail to Americas Mailbox? That would make sense but I have my mail sent to Dakota Post directly and do not think that the Informed Delivery would work but will check on that.

Thank You

JimR

that's riight, Jim. we are snowbirds, not full-timers. hope it works out for you.

Janss wrote:
I have USPS Informed Delivery. As mentioned, it is far from perfect. I like it though. So I would be very happy with Virtual Mail. Sounds like it would be more complete.

I, as well, have slimmed down my paper mail. Many utilities, credit card companies, etc. offer paperless billing. We could be gone 3 or 4 months and get maybe two pieces of really important mail. Our neighbor collects our mail. She'll open, scan a letter, mail us a particular piece...as per our instruction. So with USPS Informed Delivery and neighbor...well, sounds like that's about what your Virtual Mail is. I'd say go for it. Can you go back to the other way if you don't like it?

Janss

Your neighbor is your mail forwarding service using Virtual Mail as I understand the information from the many mail forwarding service around the country that offer this service.

I did cut back on all my mail and went to digital format billing and such. I am a full timer and have been using Dakota Post since 2004. The Informed Delivery Service with my Daughter may work.

Thank You For the reply

JimR

The majority of our 'mail' is medicine. We have found dealing with different addresses from our required pharmacy provider to be a major problem. Having a dedicated address in Livingston with Escapee's works for that.

Yes the costs of the individual mailings has gone up. I'm not thrilled about the increasing costs, but it is still much cheaper than UPS or FEDEX.

In the past year (2020) we have received physical first class mail from the two insurance companies (truck auto policy, and trailer full-timer policy), letters and checks related a claim on the trailer, license renewals on the truck and trailer (plates). Since I do those on-line in advance there is only one mailing for each with the stickers.

Since it was a major election year, we ordered absentee ballots on-line, had them delivered to Escapees and forwarded to us. (As Texas residents over 65, we don't need a reason to vote absentee. Been that way for years.)

Mail delivery has been spotty this year, but we got everything they sent to us. Sometimes priority mail took ten days to arrive.

I don't see an alternative for us. I can't get pills virtually.

The absentee ballots are of course something we need delivered each time, and Texas state elections tend to be in odd years for major statewide offices.

You need to look at each thing you received this year. Was any of it something you NEEDED to physically receive. That can help you with the costs. So far for us, scanning works out to be more expensive than receiving it physically.

PawPaw_n_gram


"You need to look at each thing you received this year. Was any of it something you NEEDED to physically receive. That can help you with the costs. So far for us, scanning works out to be more expensive than receiving it physically."

This is what I was looking for a comparison of the costs. I am assuming that for me the costs may be close for either service so will see probably after the first of the year. I had issues with my mail order RX as they would put me on auto refill and send it to BFE, this happened more than once so I just do the retail stores.

The thing with the scanning is I can wait till I see an important piece of mail then the order the send.

Thank You
JimR

dedmiston wrote:
I really like Informed Delivery, but it's very imperfect. We get things all the time that weren't included in their emails.

X2 plus they USPS loses forwarded packages frequently. They seem to evaporate even with a tracking number.