Mail Forwarding?

[beanboy]

Greetings, we'll be going on an extended (8 mo's) road trip this summer and I'm curious how other RV'ers have handled having their mail forwarding. We live in Florida and we'll be traveling out west then up to Alaska then east to Maine before we head back south next fall. Any suggestions? Thank you!

[holstein13]

rockhillmanor wrote:
And with mail forwarding services you have to 'change' your address on EVERYTHING, bank statements, utilities, credit cards, etc. Only to have to 'change it back' when the OP returns.

I just looked this up and can't find any support for your statement. You can forward your mail to a mail forwarding service exactly the same as you would forward your mail to a winter address. If the OP knows this is temporary, then forwarding to a private mail box sounds like the perfect solution.

What you can't do with a mail forwarding service such as SBI is you can't forward the mail from them to a new address. i.e. once you've made the mail forwarding service your permanent address, you can't use the USPS to forward to a new address. You would then have to "'change' your address on EVERYTHING."

The USPS will forward your first class mail for one year to the new or temporary address -- 60 days for periodicals. When the OP returns, he can simply cancel the forwarding.

[SEMO_Mike]

We spent this past January in Florida. We did the mail forwarding at the USPS. All the mail started arriving a week late, I can understand that. What I can't understand is that they would not forward my W-2s, 1099s, and medical bills, none of which, to my knowledge was marked "Do not Forward" and all of which were the most important items to be forwarded. Very frustrating.

[holstein13]

rockhillmanor wrote:
I addressed that in my post.

And with mail forwarding services you have to 'change' your address on EVERYTHING, bank statements, utilities, credit cards, etc. Only to have to 'change it back' when the OP returns.

The OP is NOT a Full Time RV'er, he is only going on a long vacation retaining his home and home address.

That's a great point, but I'd say that even if I ever go back to living in a sticks and bricks, I'll still have all my mail delivered to St. Brenden's Isle. I think it's worth it for the elimination of junk mail, if nothing else.

But there are other benefits to St. Brenden's Isle as well. They scan all your envelopes and you can have the contents scanned if needed right away. This has worked out spectacularly for me in the past two years because all my tax documents get scanned by them and then I save them to a dropbox folder and send it to my tax accountant every year without ever touching the paper or losing something.

I'm never going back to a traditional mail box no matter where I live. I never have to change my mailing address again.

[Dutch_12078]

Before we switched to a full-time mail forwarding service for all of our mail, we would have the USPS temporarily forward our mail to our daughter while we were traveling. One issue we ran into a few times, were updated credit cards being mailed to us in "Do Not Forward" envelopes that the USPS would then return to the sender. That usually resulted in the card being canceled with no notice to us until we tried to use the existing card that was still a month or so from its expiration date. Fortunately, we had other cards we could use, but it was still embarrassing when the first card was rejected. That doesn't happen when a commercial mail service, technically a "remailer" rather than a "forwarder", packages up your mail and sends it on to you of course.

[hotpepperkid]

Even though Im not a full timer I have a mail forwarding mail box and that is my mailing address for every thing. I just go check it most every day. I don't get much at the house except some adds and other junk mail

[obgraham]

IMHO, Post Office totally unreliable for forwarding/temporary holds.

We're on a 6 month post office forwarding plan right now. I think I'm getting about half my mail. Hopefully the important stuff. Magazines are a problem.
Next year I'll look into the UPS plan.

[joe_b_]

I use a private mail service here in town, as well as my home address for receiving mail. When we are going to be gone for several months, I put in a temporary mail forwarding with the USPS to send all my mail to my PMB address. They are a very service oriented business and will sort my first class from my junk mail. I pay most of my bills over the Internet, using my phone hot spot to connect.

Every couple of weeks, I will call my mail service and see what/ how much is there. They are also a UPS and Fed Ex agent so easy for them to repackage my mail and send it to me when we are going to be stopped for a few days. I keep a positive balance of cash in my PMB account for the costs for them to forward my mail, etc to me. Been using this business for about ten years and it works well for us.

The downside is that last time I did a temporary forwarding with the post office, they notified many of my senders of my "new" address, so mail I normally have come to my home address started being sent to my PMB address, . I keep the PMB address year around and swing by to check my box there about weekly, as that is where my magazines go, etc. other con is recently we decided to do a refinance of our home mortgage, and the loan company wanted to know why we had two mailing addresses on our credit reports. Just took a letter to explain it to them and they were fine with the information. Not sure why it was a concern to them but it was.

[rockhillmanor]

hotpepperkid wrote:

rockhillmanor wrote:
You do NOT need a mail forwarding service if you are just going on a long trip and it is NOT permanent.

The United States Post Office offers 'temporary' mail forwarding for FREE.

Go on line to the US Post Office site on line and click on mail forwarding. You can have your mail forwarded to a relatives house and then they can send it to you upon your phone call where you are at general delivery and/or read it to you, or scan it and send via email.

The mail forwarding is for 4 month increments and renewable for every 4 months thereafter right on line. And you 'maintain your home address' for when you get back.

AND the more important thing is you DO NOT have to 'call' each and every one of your accounts to change your home address for each and every one of your bills which you would have to do if you use a service. And then have to change the address again when you get back. :R

From your post you are not full time RV'ing without a physical address, you are taking a long trip and maintaining your home address.
So all you need is a temp forwarding of your mail.

https://www.usps.com/United States Postal Service
Be sure to click 'temporary' change of address.

Have a good trip! I always wanted to do Alaska and didn't get a chance to. Bring back lots pictures for us! :C

That may work fine if you stay in one place. But if you tend to move around you need a mail forwarding service other than the USPS

I addressed that in my post.

And with mail forwarding services you have to 'change' your address on EVERYTHING, bank statements, utilities, credit cards, etc. Only to have to 'change it back' when the OP returns.

The OP is NOT a Full Time RV'er, he is only going on a long vacation retaining his home and home address.

[Ed_Gee]

global2 wrote:
I heartily second the recommendation for St. Brendan's Isle. We have used them for 2 years
Amazing service.
IMHO, Post Office totally unreliable for forwarding/temporary holds.

I third this choice. St. Brendan's Isle provides excellent customer service for whatever you need for mail forwarding services.

[hotpepperkid]

rockhillmanor wrote:
You do NOT need a mail forwarding service if you are just going on a long trip and it is NOT permanent.

The United States Post Office offers 'temporary' mail forwarding for FREE.

Go on line to the US Post Office site on line and click on mail forwarding. You can have your mail forwarded to a relatives house and then they can send it to you upon your phone call where you are at general delivery and/or read it to you, or scan it and send via email.

The mail forwarding is for 4 month increments and renewable for every 4 months thereafter right on line. And you 'maintain your home address' for when you get back.

AND the more important thing is you DO NOT have to 'call' each and every one of your accounts to change your home address for each and every one of your bills which you would have to do if you use a service. And then have to change the address again when you get back. :R

From your post you are not full time RV'ing without a physical address, you are taking a long trip and maintaining your home address.
So all you need is a temp forwarding of your mail.

https://www.usps.com/United States Postal Service
Be sure to click 'temporary' change of address.

Have a good trip! I always wanted to do Alaska and didn't get a chance to. Bring back lots pictures for us! :C

That may work fine if you stay in one place. But if you tend to move around you need a mail forwarding service other than the USPS

[1492]

Moved from Technology Corner

[global2]

I heartily second the recommendation for St. Brendan's Isle. We have used them for 2 years
Amazing service.
IMHO, Post Office totally unreliable for forwarding/temporary holds.

[rockhillmanor]

You do NOT need a mail forwarding service if you are just going on a long trip and it is NOT permanent.

The United States Post Office offers 'temporary' mail forwarding for FREE.

Go on line to the US Post Office site on line and click on mail forwarding. You can have your mail forwarded to a relatives house and then they can send it to you upon your phone call where you are at general delivery and/or read it to you, or scan it and send via email.

The mail forwarding is for 4 month increments and renewable for every 4 months thereafter right on line. And you 'maintain your home address' for when you get back.

AND the more important thing is you DO NOT have to 'call' each and every one of your accounts to change your home address for each and every one of your bills which you would have to do if you use a service. And then have to change the address again when you get back. :R

From your post you are not full time RV'ing without a physical address, you are taking a long trip and maintaining your home address.
So all you need is a temp forwarding of your mail.

https://www.usps.com/United States Postal Service
Be sure to click 'temporary' change of address.

Have a good trip! I always wanted to do Alaska and didn't get a chance to. Bring back lots pictures for us! :C

[2oldman]

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