Mail Hold--What do you do?

thank you all for your comments. I got some good ideas and will discuss them with the postmaster before we leave.

When we go on an extended trip, we go online to USPS and issue a temporary change of address specifying the start and end dates. We use a commercial mail forwarder. Has worked beautifully for us. When we want the mail sent to us, we just call them and they send it to us Priority mail. Even in Skagway, AK we got it in 3 days!!

Ed Headington

Not sure what we are going to do next year. Last year we went on a 6 week trip, same location, and used the Post Office's Premium Hold service. They hold the mail and forward the accumulated mail once a week using Priority Mail. We got all our mail within a week of it being mailed to us.

This year we went seasonal and decided the Premium Hold service was too expensive, last year it was like $85 to have them forward it 4 times. We decided to use a temporary forwarding address at the Post Office. We barely get any mail. Fortunately, I get all my client payments, but not much else.

The only bill we get mailed is our Water & Sewer bill, everything else is online. We never got our first water bill after arriving here. I called the Post Office and they explained that mail is forwarded to the person on the Mail Forwarding slip, in my case, Michael Girardo. I selected the option to include family. So basically anyone at my house with the last name Girardo should get forwarded. The water bill is mailed to Girardo, Michael. The PO told me I'd have to submit a request to forward mail for every variation of my name! That's ridiculous.

The kicker, my wife gets a MetLife Death Benefit statement from a previous employer once a quarter from before we were married 16 years ago. It is still addressed to her maiden name. Some how that got forwarded. The mail carrier actually wrote, Girardo on the envelope and it got forwarded. So the PO is smart enough to know my wife's maiden name and associate it with her married name, but they can't figure out that Michael Girardo and Girardo, Michael are the same person. We haven't received a water bill while we've been here. Should have received 3 of them by now.

I don't know if it is just our local PO. We know our carrier very well and she does a great job. I've always been happy with the PO before now. We go away a few times a year for a week or more at a time and never had any problem with them holding the mail. Sure hope I didn't get a jury summons. My wife did last year while we were away, but that was sent to us and she got out of it since we were away during the trial.

-Michael

2gypsies wrote:
Nowadays, why do you need your mail? Set up your bills with AutoPay and you never have to think about them.

We have been paperless and had everything on auto pay for years. But I sure am not going to toss all my mail. Not only could you miss a jury notice, but there are tons of other unexpected things you could miss that could cause you issues. If someone steals your identity your first clue may be something that comes in the mail. A doctor's office or health insurance provider makes a billing mistake and thinks you owe money, sends several notices with no answer, and then hands it over to collection.

I would do as someone else suggested, just have it forwarded to a local family member or friend in your home town area. They can monitor it for important items and save or discard the rest for you.

Wow-some of you are lucky to have such good mail service!
Here in the VA/metro area it's not so great.
I've tried putting our mail on hold and find it falling out our mailbox unto the front porch.
Tried change of address to deliver to our daughter and she received other people's mail.
Once we came home, we didn't have any mail delivered for 15 days. Went to our PO and they said they didn't know where our mail was.
No regular mailman/woman here, different one almost monthly.
While most bills are handled online, we still have some important items that will only come by mail.
It's a mess!

Do not rely on the postal system. When we moved we put in a change of address but the mail kept being delivered to our former address. I made several trips to the post office without much success.

travelzoo wrote:
Talk to your mail carrier not the Postmaster, the carrier may do it for you.

Ya gotta be kidding!..:R

Mail carrier delivers mail wherever and whenever he/she pleases,
whether it belongs "there" or not.

Postmaster doesn't change anything.

And - on regular mail carrier's day off, the subs are sub-par substitutes!

BTW - The "regulars" all want to bid on shorter/easier routes.

OP - get a box at a local *private* mail facility where you can talk to a person whose livelihood depends on *service* - forward your mail there - with a change of address!

Change it back after you return. (and keep the box for an extra month or so).

.

Have a wonderful neighbor that takes care of our mail. Send it to us in a priority box when we are someplace for a week. I pay her to do this and take care of our lawn. Wouldn't know what to do without this neighbor.

Our former postmaster would hold our mail as long as we want. One time we had 11 weeks of mail waiting for us. Our new "postmistress" says 30 day limit. BULL! Now when we go on extended excursions, our good hearted mail carrier delivers our mail directly to our neighbors house, without a formal change of address.

If only she would leave out the "junk mail". If I had my way only first class mail would be delivered to my address, even when we are home. No wonder why there is so much waste and landfill mountains! JUNK MAIL

2gypsies has the suggestion. That is essentially what we do EXCEPT, it gets a little harry around tax time and the IRS notifies you, by mail, of the audit, or the district or federal court sends you a notice for jury duty. We sometimes have a "mail box" store pick up our mail periodically, sort through and forward some of the first class and hold the rest. I have been caught by both the examples I ljsted. Always came out OK but made my heart skip a few beats when I was a no show for those two events.