Mail Forwarding and Home Base

[cemmett]

OK, here are two more questions to help us narrow down some of our searching. What have been some of the pluses and minuses of mail forwarding services and how to choose a home base state/city? My guess is you already active full-timers have resolved a lot of these two issues. Thanks again for all your input. Our last inquiry yielded a lot of great info.

[2gypsies1]

Escapees gives you a real street address unique only to you. In 18 years of using them, we've never had any problems. They are very reasonable, also, compared to some others.

[soos]

GoPackGo wrote:
I chose Florida for my domicile because I expect to spend most winters there and I wanted to be able to prove that I spend more time in Florida then anywhere else if I was ever challenged in any way. Also, Florida is very retiree and fulltimers friendly.

I then chose St Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs for my mail forwarding provider. They are very knowledgeable about the 'domicile' process and provided all the needed paperwork I needed to fill out and send to the state of Florida, including a document that states your intent to declare Florida as your 'domicile state'.

I like their process for viewing incoming mail. They send me email whenever they receive 'hard-copy' mail for me. I log in to their site, view the mail envelope and tell them to trash it or put it in the 'forward to me stack'. At periodic intervals, I initiate a request to send all my accumulated mail to my current location.

As others stated, try to switch out of as much snail mail as possible before starting out. Set up all your bills so they can be paid using an on-line process. Decide on a bank or credit union first and set up an account. Get your credit cards. Then set up your new domicile and make address changes.

I would recommend NOT going with an address that just gives you a P.O. box number if you are a full timer. From what I've read on these forums it appears that some companies/organizations, etc. will not want to recognize a P.O. box as a legitimate address. If I'm wrong about this I'm sure someone will correct me.:B

Works for me.

Tim

You are correct about some people having issues opening accounts. Some of the mail forwarding services have that all figured out, some don't. Sometimes it depends on how you write it (hint: use the # sign, not PMB)

To the OP, there is a lot of info already on this forum about this. you've gotten some good answers here, but for more, do a search on Domicile.
Wills etc may have to be updated if you "move" to another state. TX requires specific wording in a health care proxy or they won't honor it.

We used UPS for a while, had major issues- our drivers licenses were revoked when MI figured out we were using a UPS address. Turns out it was pricy anyway. Excapees is half the cost.

[DayOff]

Florida worked out best for us for our home state. We use American Home Base in Pensacola for our mail forwarding and could not be happier with them they have been wonderful to deal with.

[GoPackGo]

I chose Florida for my domicile because I expect to spend most winters there and I wanted to be able to prove that I spend more time in Florida then anywhere else if I was ever challenged in any way. Also, Florida is very retiree and fulltimers friendly.

I then chose St Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs for my mail forwarding provider. They are very knowledgeable about the 'domicile' process and provided all the needed paperwork I needed to fill out and send to the state of Florida, including a document that states your intent to declare Florida as your 'domicile state'.

I like their process for viewing incoming mail. They send me email whenever they receive 'hard-copy' mail for me. I log in to their site, view the mail envelope and tell them to trash it or put it in the 'forward to me stack'. At periodic intervals, I initiate a request to send all my accumulated mail to my current location.

As others stated, try to switch out of as much snail mail as possible before starting out. Set up all your bills so they can be paid using an on-line process. Decide on a bank or credit union first and set up an account. Get your credit cards. Then set up your new domicile and make address changes.

I would recommend NOT going with an address that just gives you a P.O. box number if you are a full timer. From what I've read on these forums it appears that some companies/organizations, etc. will not want to recognize a P.O. box as a legitimate address. If I'm wrong about this I'm sure someone will correct me.:B

Works for me.

Tim

[Clay_L]

Itching2go wrote:
Any recommendations for someone who is not a full-timer, but needs a mail service as they plan to be on the road for several months at a stretch? That will be out situation next year after retiring in April. We won't need to establish a new 'home base', but will need to have access to our mail while on the road. Is there any one provider that is better than another, or for that matter, any provider that we should stay away from? Any thoughts, suggestions, whatever would be much appreciated.

A lot of folks use a UPS Store.There are quite a few of them around the country.
Just make sure you do a temporary forwarding not a permanent one. The temporary one is good for six months (or less if you want) and I think can be extended.We did that for two winters and it worked well.

[hitchup]

We started fulltiming in FL, so we went with FL.

Stationary and Living in the RV Park, we opened a UPS Store mailbox to collect our mail and packages. Once we went out on the road, the UPS Store did such a good job, we just stayed with it. So for 10 years, they've been forwarding our mail, first every 2 wks and now monthly.

Usually only junk mail comes now, since we've gone nearly paper-free. So we're closing it out when it expires in a few months and have changed our residence back to our previous state.

[C-Bears]

When we were starting fulltime we began investigating all the mail forwarding options. Several major issues came into play, especially if we went with an out-of-state company/address. Would we have problems with our health insurance if we had to change our mailing address. In our home state you have to have a physical address, not a P.O box address. Would vehicle insurance costs change, registration issues? We simply changed our address to our son's address. When we are on the road we leave him several pre-stamped padded envelopes so he can forward mail every couple of weeks. When we are back in our "home" area for part of the summer we just visit his home every week and pick up our mail. For us it just seemed so much easier than searching out a mail forwarding service.

[Old-Biscuit]

jrp wrote:

I used Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls, SD for many years.

X2 Great company

A company that was recently sold, changed the company name and will be moving you to a new address soon, if you haven't heard.
At least that's what my friends who use them were recently notified

From what I have heard/read they just outgrew old facility.
We have outgrown our leased facility at 3700 S Westport Ave with no opportunity to expand it. After extensive research, we have purchased a much larger facility here in Sioux Falls (Minnehaha County) with better access and more parking for our customers.

We have decided to change our name to DakotaPost to better represent what our company does and provide a more recognizable name.

Same company......

[TechWriter]

2gypsies wrote:
Full-timers mainly, but not solely, are domiciled in Texas, Florida or South Dakota. If you need to purchase medical insurance South Dakota has some problems on that. You need a good PPO plan to travel and full-time.

That's an understatement if you're not yet eligible for Medicare. Here's a quote from www.rverhealthinsurance.com:

"There are NO OPTIONS in South Dakota for ON EXCHANGE health insurance plans if you are a full-time RVer without a physical residence in SD!"

Back to OP's original qs . . . What have been some of the pluses and minuses of mail forwarding services and how to choose a home base state/city?

MAIL FORWARDING -- In my case, I first selected a WI-based mail forwarding service that is part of a franchise. Then I selected a local AZ-based service when we changed our domicile.

I looked at national mail services, but most had addresses in places where I didn't want to live.

CHOOSING A HOME BASE -- I assume you mean domicile. Most full-timers online recommend SD, TX, or FL mainly because these states have no state taxes.

SD is not a consideration for domicile if you are not yet enrolled in Medicare (see above).

I think there are other states worth considering, but you have to do your homework. For example, if you're considering a state that has state taxes, locate the pertinent state tax forms and plug in your income numbers.

[missourijan]

X2 on what Phil Crouch said. It's very important to set up online banking before you set up a domicile. We have used My Home Address in Emery, SD for 7 years and been very happy with them. Other posters have given good advice, everyone is different and each state has pros & cons. We didn't choose FL because we spend most of our time in the west, have only been there once. TX has that pesky yearly auto inspection and we don't pass through there every year either. SD was reasonable and works for us. BUT there is an issue with pre Medicare health insurance being available.

[2gypsies1]

We've used the Escapees RV Club for 18 years for our mail forwarding and they are great. They currently have a membership deal through October as part of their 35th year in business.

Full-timers mainly, but not solely, are domiciled in Texas, Florida or South Dakota. If you need to purchase medical insurance South Dakota has some problems on that. You need a good PPO plan to travel and full-time.

There is no one state to domicile that fits everyone. You need to do research on your tax issues, medical, registrations, etc. What may be good for one won't necessarily be good for you.

[06ViewH]

We are not retired but have used travelingmailbox.com for business and personal mail. Inexpensive and very reliable high tech system.

[phil_crouch]

cemmett wrote:
OK, here are two more questions to help us narrow down some of our searching. What have been some of the pluses and minuses of mail forwarding services and how to choose a home base state/city? My guess is you already active full-timers have resolved a lot of these two issues. Thanks again for all your input. Our last inquiry yielded a lot of great info.

Before you decide to find a mail forwarding service, first thing to do
is to get rid of most of your snail-mail... Start doing this couple months before you start fulltime...

Most can be handled online.. Banking, Insurance, even taxes can be handled online..

You will be surprised just how much less mail you really need when you fulltime..

[jrp]

I used Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls, SD for many years.

X2 Great company

A company that was recently sold, changed the company name and will be moving you to a new address soon, if you haven't heard.
At least that's what my friends who use them were recently notified