Full Timer Physical Address / Credit Card Dilemma

[Turtle-Ham]

Here's a touchy one (for us) that I'd like to hear about from full time RVers who 1) use a mail forwarding service, 2) have no physical property rented or owned, 3) don't use a family member's or friend's property for a maildrop.

We've been full timers for 7 years and had no problem getting our drivers licenses (with Veteran status on both), voter registrations, insurance, and the IRS has had no issues with us doing things this way.

But here is what's developing on our front: A year or so back, I set up a brokerage account through TDAmerica who later notied me that they now require me to provide hard copy proof of a utility bill in my name at a location that has a physical address I'm using for my accounts. Since I didn't submit such a bill (again, in my name), TDAmerica suspended my account.

I wasn't happy about that, but I took my money out of TDAmerica and cancelled my account.

But now Wells Fargo wants in on the action. If I don't provide them with a utility bill IN MY NAME in the near future, my account will first be suspended with their intention of killing off that account.

Since we do not own physical property, there's nothing for me to send unless I take over a utility payment at a "real" address and submit that "proof" to WF. In a short while, Wells Fargo says they will close my account. We have been with Wells Fargo for years, but that makes no difference to them; there would go a chunk of my credit line.

I'm annoyed at TDAmeritrade shutting us down, but this similar tactic by Wells Fargo will kill my credit card, which by itself isn't cool but it would also be listed as "closed by the financial institution". Plus if WF is doing this, we're concerned that our other card companies will do similarly.

Has anyone else had this happen?

Side note to the mods: We know there are several threads regarding mail forwarding for FTers like us, but this is a separate issue because of financial / credit ramifications.

[mhs4771]

We didn't have a problem exactly like yours but here's what we have done.
We use the GoodSam/PassPort America Mail Forwarding service in Crestview, FL.
We wintered in a Park that required us paying our own Electric that we provided our Crestview address for billing. This gave us an Electric Bill and Auto and RV Insurance all billed to Crestview along with Credit Card Bills to use the Crestview Address for legal things.

[Turtle-Ham]

Hi, thanks for your input.

Yeah, we've been doing similarly since 2017. Everything worked smoothly until the bank sent a letter stating that they had "determined" our address was not a residential address and that we'd have to submit the utility bill in our name for an actual residence, which as I said we don't have.

I'm fine with kicking this particular bank to the curb. But if they're pulling this, then the other banks may well start doing the same thing.

[TenOC]

I have been full time since 2006. My Residential address is 411 N 6th Street, Emery SD 57332. Sometimes I do list my mail box as Apartment XXXX.


My MAIL address is 411 N 6th Street, PMB XXXX, Emery, SD 57332.



Notice the only difference is removal of the PMB that is private mail box number.


NO Problems with banking, or credit cards, or IRS.

[Turtle-Ham]

We've been doing everything on line for years. The address in our banking profile is simply the street address with no PMB, #, Box, etc. added, so there's nothing that looks like a flag, at least not to us.

[Daryles]

Did they cite the new rule or regulation or law requiring this change?

[Turtle-Ham]

Wells Fargo (in this case) stated the following:

"A private mailbox is often associated with a commercial mail receiving service and does not represent the physical address where you reside. While the address for private mailbox may have a format similar to a physical address, it does not satisfy banking regulatory requirements."

No specific "regulation" is cited, and not surprisingly each person we've spoken with at any level at WF has been able to provide what regulation(s) apply.

Again, our profile includes only the street address itself and does not even hint at a PMB or anything else.

Assuming the WF statement above is actually valid, then our other banking institutions we've used for years "should" be bound to the same banking regulations, which would likely put the whammy on our other cards.

[TenOC]

31 CFR 1020.220(a)(2)(i)(A)(3). For an individual: a residential or business street address, or if the individual does not have such an address, an Army Post Office (APO) or Fleet Post Office (FPO) box number, or the
residential or business street address of next of kin or of another contact individual.


The ANOTHER CONTACT INDIVIDUAL can be the office manager of the mail forwarding service.


Or the Business street address.


But WF has been is so much trouble with bank regulators they may have their special rules. I have 5 different investment account and one for checking/credit card/bill pay with Fidelity with no problems.

[mhs4771]

I will add to my earlier post: We have two checking/savings accounts, three IRA accounts, and Edward James account, and four credit cards all using our mail forwarding address. Now I have run into some businesses online don't like to see our PMB number, so to get around that I list the street address/house number, then on a second line I list our box number as "Suite XXXX" and that seems to make them happy.

[KirkFess]

Check out Escapees club. They have been helping full timers navigate the legal process for 35 years. I am not a full timer, so I can’t provide specifics of how they do it now. But, my father used their system for 10 years from 94 to 04. I am sure they have a “work around” if one exists.

[Daryles]

TenOC
"an Army Post Office (APO) or Fleet Post Office (FPO) box number..." is OK.

So why is it OK for the Army or Navy but not for citizens...
Maybe the Soldiers , Sailors civil relief act?

I get it, they are trying to go after drug dealers, money laundering etc but you would think if you went into a branch office and presented "in person" your ID this would satisfy them.

[rohrmann]

When Wells Fargo sent us the letter, I provided them an address of property we own, but requested that any mail communication still be sent to our mail forwarding address in South Dakota, and they were good with that. So, you can use any address that you are remotely attached to, a child, grandkid, friend or whovrer, and you should be good. They never asked about a tax or utility bill, just was happy with a different address than the mail forwarding one.

[jmb98]

We ran into this earlier this year when we switched from our old credit union to a “new” bank. According to our banker, the questions have to do with the Patriot Act & a need to know where you are. We also don’t own property (other than our truck & trailer) as we are full-timers, so the bank initially set us up using our local AZ address, then using our SD PMB mailing address as our “mailing” address. It was a mess at first, especially after we added an investment account, but once I gave the banker a requested (by the investment group) copy of our park’s rental agreement, they were fine with it, since we stay in the same park & space every winter. Our “permanent” address with the bank is now our SD address, which we made sure we changed before we left AZ in April.

Hope your issues go more smoothly than ours.😊

[R.S.O'Donnell]

Our credit union that we’ve been with for almost 30 years did the same. They wanted to see something with a fixed address. I changed the address on most of our stuff to our son’s house but kept our PMB as our mailing address. Sent them a PDF of our Verizon bill and they were happy with it.