Which Mail Service

[GoPackGo]

I will be full timing starting 1 Jan 2014 so I need to pick a mail forwarding service pretty quick. I intend to retain my Florida residency, so I'm looking at either the service provided by Good Sam, which is really MyRVMail.com out of Crestview, or using St Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs.

I'd appreciate any comments about either of them, pro or con; also how does mail forwarding work out for you ? Do you just have your mail forwarded to general delivery at the local post office ? Seems like a lot of campgrounds will not accept mail. Do you actually get all your mail or does some of it get lost in transit ?

Do you use the basic cheaper plan or is it worth it to get the more expensive plan ? I also see that there are sometimes 'add-on' packages but don't know if they are of any value.

What about packages ? Does that work the same way ? Just have them sent to the local post office ?

Are there any other good choices in Florida besides the 2 I've named above ?

I guess I'm asking you how this mail forwarding process really works out. Any words of wisdom ?

Thanks very much.

Tim

[MTPockets1]

covetsthesun wrote:
So the best mail forwarding services are Good Sam, Escapee's and UPS stores... whether or not you are a FL resident?

I'm currently in FL and a sign goes in the yard tomorrow. So I'm on a real steep learning curve.

cts

I can't speak for Escapee service, but used UPS for two years and am on second year with the Good Sam service. Prefer Good Sam due to Internet capability. UPS was all e-mail and telephone.

[covetsthesun]

So the best mail forwarding services are Good Sam, Escapee's and UPS stores... whether or not you are a FL resident?

I'm currently in FL and a sign goes in the yard tomorrow. So I'm on a real steep learning curve.

cts

[hitchup]

We're down to once a month from every two weeks of mail forwarding. We have been using the same UPS Store in FL that has a physical street address since Jan 2005 before we went fulltime.

If I know something has arrived I can call them and get an early shipment. Otherwise, they have the current campground address or if the campground doesn't allow direct delivery - a local UPS Store address to receive them. Any boxes ordered from Amazon, etc are sent directly to the campground office. I have tracking #'s and can tell when pkgs have arrived.

[MTPockets1]

We full time and use the Good Same RVmail service and really like the ability to go on line to see what is in the box and forward when and where we want, all on line, and send it US Mail, or UPS. They will take your phone call too. If an urgent letter, they will scan it for you so you can see it right away for a $1.50 fee. This is our full time permanent/legal address and are very satisfied with it.

[BarbaraOK]

We also use Escapees ( 8 years) and usually use General Delivery - never call and ask if it is ok, just type in General Delivery in the Address line on the US Post Office website, then the city and ask for the zip code. If one comes up they accept GD at that post office, may not be the closest one to you as only one per city will accept GD.

Barb

[HappyKayakers]

2gypsies wrote:

tkcas01 wrote:

GoPackGo wrote:
tkcas01 - If you did not have your mail sent to general delivery, where did you have it sent to ?

all other times I had it sent directly to the rv park where I was staying - I've just not found it to be an issue. Regarding general delivery, my mail forwarding company warns that not all post offices will accept general delivery and you have to check with them first.

16+ years of full-timing and traveling constantly and have never found a P.O. that doesn't accept General Delivery. We never call to check.

I ran into that situation in Amarillo. When there are several POs in a city, not all of them accept general delivery mail. In my case, I checked with the closest one and they directed me to the proper PO, further away naturally.

[2gypsies1]

tkcas01 wrote:

GoPackGo wrote:
tkcas01 - If you did not have your mail sent to general delivery, where did you have it sent to ?

all other times I had it sent directly to the rv park where I was staying - I've just not found it to be an issue. Regarding general delivery, my mail forwarding company warns that not all post offices will accept general delivery and you have to check with them first.

16+ years of full-timing and traveling constantly and have never found a P.O. that doesn't accept General Delivery. We never call to check.

Escapees Mail Service

We've used Escapees Mail Service who gives us a street address is only $85/year and will ship the method we want (we do Priority), and how often we want - it could even be daily. We've had excellent service through them. Anyone can use this service...you don't have to have a domicile of Texas, but we do.

[HappyKayakers]

Another vote for SBI, going on 7 yrs fulltiming now. Never had anything lost although I will select priority mail instead of standard if there's something important in the package and I want the ability to track it.

Had a few campgrounds that wouldn't let me forward mail to them, mostly because they had to go into town to get their own mail. Never had a problem finding a local PO for general delivery.

[06ViewH]

We have used travelingmailbox.com for the last two years. They have a Florida address in Tallahassee, FL. We are not fulltimer's and probably will never be completely full time, but I love the ability to travel whenever we desire (about 4 months a year now and soon to be more). I have 5 businesses that I also send the mail to travelingmailbox.com - all get very little mail (rental properties).

We have a few monthly rental checks that get sent to our traveling mailbox. If I'm around a printer, then I just print the checks and use mobile deposit via our bank / iPhone. If I don't have a printer, then I email traveling mailbox and they will mail the check to my bank ($4.95 per deposit).

[tkcas01]

GoPackGo wrote:
tkcas01 - If you did not have your mail sent to general delivery, where did you have it sent to ?

all other times I had it sent directly to the rv park where I was staying - I've just not found it to be an issue. Regarding general delivery, my mail forwarding company warns that not all post offices will accept general delivery and you have to check with them first.

[accsys]

We have used SBI for six years now and have never had a problem. They handle our mail in an excellent manner. We also subscribe to the scan service and that way we only have our mail sent to us about once a month as we can have them scan contents of a potential important mail and see if we really need it sent to us. The scans are also PDF files so you can save them on your computer and use them as if they are the originals.

I don't see how anyone can beat their service if you want a FL residence!

As far as packages go, we usually have the company we order from ship it to a future campground or even General Delivery if you can specify how it is shipped. I have even had UPS deliver to a USPS GD address on occasion! We also have an Amazon Prime account so items we order form Amazon are shipped 2-day delivery and that has worked well. Our medicine is another story as it is shipped to SBI by Express Scripts (they don't like constantly changing addresses) and then SBI ships it to us when we ask them ship our mail.

[Executive45]

We also use SD for our mail. They will send it wherever you tell them to. Usually we have it sent to a local Post Office C/O General Delivery. If we are going to be at a campground that accepts mail delivery, we've had it sent there too. Depends on how long you're going to be in one spot. Since we move frequently, we've found the GD route more convenient for us..don't forget to change everything over, drivers license, voter reg, bank statements etc. ..Dennis

[sheff69]

We have used St, Brendan's in Green Cove Springs, FL, for the last 3 years.
Excellent service.
We got our residency for Florida with them, including our DLs and license plates for the truck and trailer. No problems.
Highly recommend them.
We got the service where they will scan the envelopes for us, post them on line, and if we really need to, they will open and scan the contents for us. We normally use their priority mail. They put it all in a box, and US mail it. It gets to us in 2-3 business days. We send it to a campground we are going to be at in about 2-3 days. We've never had any problems with lost mail or campgrounds refusing to accept mail for us, but we phone the campground first to make sure they'll accept it. With a reservation, nobody's refused yet.

Sheff

[GoPackGo]

Yes, whichever service I choose will be my residence address. That is why I do not want just a P.O box number.

tkcas01 - If you did not have your mail sent to general delivery, where did you have it sent to ?