cost of mail forwarding, state vs state - Montana Owners Club

CountryGuy · 06-23-2005, 02:17 PM

Interested in the costs full timers pay to have mail forwarded. So, say, what do you pay if you are a registered Texas resident, and what do you pay if you are registered in South Dakota? All others who have data, from any state, please jump in!

adelmoll · 06-23-2005, 04:00 PM

We pay $240 per yr to have ours forwarded weekly plus $100 postage deposit. Rates are different for bi-weekly, monthly or on demand. They do an excellent job. Ours is with Alternative Resources in South Dakota.
Helen

stiles watson · 06-23-2005, 04:07 PM

Escapees has a fairly clear discussion of their services and rates on their website.

sreigle · 06-23-2005, 05:11 PM

This is from the Alternative Resources site at http://www.alternativeresources.net . Add tax to these prices. Plus we pay the postage via a $100 deposit. We have the weekly forwarding service and find that's plenty often enough. Originally we weren't sure we could do without daily mail but have adjusted just fine. We've used these folks for 27 months. They messed up one time and didn't ship the mail. Otherwise they've been perfect.

* Weekly mail forwarding $18.00 per month, $216.00 per year.
* Twice a month mail forwarding $16.00 per month, $192.00 per year.
* Monthly mail forwarding $14.00 per month, $168.00 per year.
* On Demand mail forwarding $20.00 per month, $240.00 per year

There is another service in South Dakota, in Emery I think. We looked at them, too. They were cheaper but at the time were a one-man operation and I was reluctant to rely on one person, who could get sick, die, etc. so went with the considerably larger Alternative Resources. I realize many are happy with the other folks, too.

Gypsy · 06-23-2005, 07:02 PM

I pay $75 per year as a member/owner at Hart Ranch Resort, Rapid City, SD. Postage deposit is a minimum of $50. I can request mail to be sent to me as often as I want, and customized services are available. This service is only available to members, however. But membership offers much more, including an actual street address (not just a PMB) and year-round stay at a very low cost. I like summers there, but it's nice in spring and fall and not too bad in the winter if you want a full-season location.
Sharon

Montana_2779 · 06-24-2005, 05:32 AM

We use one of those "shipping store" type places in Texas. Our small box is $10 a month when paid by the year. This place will forward for free. We just have to pick up the cost of packaging and postage. We LOVE the place, as the costs are low, they ship/receive with all carriers and we get a street address. If you look at my drivers liscence, I live in a 5"x6"x15" box.

Glenn and Lorraine · 06-24-2005, 11:53 AM

What cost? We have a PO box in Florida which costs around $50 a year. Each week our mail is picked up and we get a weekly phone call to go over what is there. If there is anything important, rarely is, it is forwarded to us immediately. All junk mail is tossed or held until we return in the fall. There is no cost to us for this service.

Oh I guess I should mention that the person providing this service is Lorraine's neice. She passes the post office at least once a week. This was the primary reason for picking Florida as our domicile. While in Florida we pick up our own mail. During the period of time, May to November, we are on the road we get mail forwarded to us 2 or 3 times.

mobilrvn · 06-25-2005, 06:22 AM

We have used the Escapees mail service for more than 11 years and have found it to be great and the most reasonable. It has the largest re-mail service in the US. As suggested, go to their website. You have to be a member, but there are many advantages to membership and it still is the cheapest, if you don't want to impose on friends and relatives. However, think that vehicle licenses are cheaper in SD.

patodonn · 06-25-2005, 06:50 AM

We use A.R. in Sioux Falls, SD, mainly to establish and keep SD as our State of Residence. Zero income taxes, among lowest insurancre rates in the US, no vehicular inspections required for registration or renewals, everything can be done by mail except the initial driver's license and 5yr license renewals. Worked fine for the past two years. If I had decided on Texas as a State of Residence, I would go with Escapees.

Best,

Montana_139 · 06-27-2005, 04:58 PM

We use My Home Address, Inc. in Emery, SD. The cost is $125 per year for weekly delivery plus the cost of postage. We must maintain a minimum balance of $25 in our account. They have done very well over the last 2 years. They have expanded and moved to a new facility in the last year.
I don't know why there was a concern expressed about a PMB address. We are registered in Emery, SD and vote in the national elections using our PMB. I cannot find a difference between a PMB and a street address.

Glenn

Gypsy · 06-28-2005, 03:18 AM

Glenn, the concern about registering in SD with a PMB, not a physical address, is because of this statement on the voter registration form:
"If residence address is a post office box, rural box, or general delivery, you must give the location of your residence:"

I've heard that some people use the address of the local campground, hotel or other business, but in any case it must be a physical address unless your voter registrar looked the other way.

Sharon

patodonn · 06-28-2005, 03:40 AM

Re SD registration, we used the address of the local "Jellystone" RV park with no problem. We stayed there and, just to be as "legal" as possible, at that time registered to vote. We left instructions to forward any mail to our Alt Resources address. All of that advice was from Alt Resources folks. It is a common situation there. It all worked fine during the last election cycle.

As an aside, there was a big "dust up" in Nevada a year or two ago with the Nev State registrar attempting to discount votes from RVers who were "illegally registered" at some RV Parks in the Pahrump area. The local favorite got beat, and they whined that it was the "illegally registered" RVers who voted against him/her along party lines. don't recall the outcome of that situation, and haven't heard anything along those lines since then.

Best regards,

Montana_139 · 06-28-2005, 06:33 PM

We were advised that since this was our only address that it was acceptable as a physical address. We made no attempt to deceive the local registrar.
Our ballots were only for national elections. We were not even offered the chance to vote for any local offices. I do not believe that the registrar needed to look the other way as everything was legal.

Glenn

sreigle · 06-29-2005, 03:18 PM

Glenn, it's as Sharon said. In Minnehaha County where we are registered they enforce that rule. The person who registered us there said some counties enforce it, others don't. I don't understand the concern, either. I guess they want to make sure they don't have more votes than there are real people in the county.

Montana_139 · 06-29-2005, 06:43 PM

Steve,

It appears that each county has different rules. Do they allow you to vote in local elections if you have a physical address?
Whether I stay at a local RV Campground to establish a physical address and then leave or just give a PMB, seems to be no different to me. I don't want to vote in any of the local elections because I have no information on any of the local candidates, but I am a citizen of the USA and I do know something about the national candidates. As a citizen I believe that I have a right to vote in the national elections.
I can understand local officials that complain if I vote in local elections. Unless I live there I don't believe that I have that right.
I hope that no one takes offense at this rant. I take voting very seriously.

Glenn

vickir · 06-30-2005, 10:50 AM

Glenn ... Steve and I also take voting very seriously, so much so we made the special trip to Sioux Falls to register and apply for the absentee ballot. We solved the local issues problem by "canceling each other out," i.e., on yes/no issues, one of us would vote yes, the other would vote no, and so on. That way, our votes had no impact on issues that did not directly affect us, but we were able to fulfill our civic duty by voting in the national election.

Montana_139 · 06-30-2005, 08:26 PM

Vicki,

Thanks for the response.

From your post it appears to me that the counties not only have different requirements for registration, but also different rules for issuing the ballots. We never see the ballot for local canditates or issues, so we don't have to cancel out each other's local vote. Maybe sometime in the future the voting rules will be the same everywhere.

Glenn

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