USPS PFS mail forwarding service - Montana Owners Club

richfaa · 01-20-2006, 03:09 AM

Had a conversation with the post office this Am about the USPS Premium Forwarding Service. It will forward EVEYTHING very quickly (so they say) I asked them.suppose I am in Mission Texas, how long would it take to get my mail/They said it would go out the same day it came into the local office and should get there in 2 days maybe even less??? The cost is 10.40 per month.How does that compare with other services in terms of both cost and efficiency.Sounds like it would work OK if you were in one spot for a period of time.

CountryGuy · 01-20-2006, 03:19 AM

Must be another service, I thought I understand it to be $10 each time they mail out, say, once a week?? Ok, I am confused.

We just went to a temporary mail forward. Works for a couple of months to get us past tax season, then I will change to a hold mail at my home PO till we get back in April.

Works for under 4 months, at least this year.

ON EDIT: They told Al the $10. IS once a week and they send everything, even the junk mail.

the old fashioned forward we are using does NOT forward the junk!

dsprik · 01-20-2006, 03:27 AM

I checked on this when USPS first announced this a couple months ago. My first impression was the they were WAY to high. Almost immediately discarded the idea. Maybe they realized they were not competitive and changed their pricing structure recently.

richfaa · 01-20-2006, 04:07 AM

You are correct.iT is 10.40 PER WEEK....way to high...

CRUZIN 2 · 01-20-2006, 04:13 AM

We have our mail forwarded daily with no junk mail at no cost. When we move, we send a card from the P. O. telling when to stop and where to send it next, if you know where you will be for a period of time. So far, it has been working.

Larry & LaVonne

dsprik · 01-20-2006, 04:26 AM

Are you related to the Postmaster, Larry?

I'm not to mine, and they would have a hard time with this, I believe.

Montana_4944 · 01-20-2006, 04:51 AM

We have UPS store they give us a pemenant address and it costs 10.00 a month plus what ever the cost to forward your mail is. They will go over the mail you have on the phone with you and throw out what you don't want. The most it usually takes to get our mail is 4 days. we have been mostly happy with them.

azstar · 01-20-2006, 05:45 AM

Hi All,
Glad this topic came up. We have been leaving for a couple of Mos. each summer and had a neighbor pick up our mail. He would send it maybe two times, to places we knew we would be.
Now, we downsized, built a new home, and will be on the road for about 5 mos. during the summers.
We've been trying to come up with ideas on how to handle the mail thing. If we use UPS, I guess we would have to notify every one that may send us mail, like the Utilities, City, County, State, Ins. Co. etc. that we have changed Address, to the UPS store. Then notify every one again when we return to change back to our Home. What a pain.
I think the USPS will only hold and forward for maybe a Month.
So, with great interest were watching this post for ideas.

Thanks & Happy Camping

Chuck and Carol · 01-20-2006, 06:02 AM

I was going to use the postal service when we go to New Mexico, but I just pulled up the USPS web site. No way. It's $10.00 to join, $10.40 per week so first week would be $20.40. The mail only once a week. Way way too much for this pocket book.

Carol

richfaa · 01-20-2006, 06:10 AM

First of all we went on line for all the bill paying that we could. That included , in our city, all the utilities. At this point the ONLY bill we have that we can not pay on line are the proptery taxes. That cuts down what we will receive in the mail .Communication with kids and other family members can be done and is done now by E mail and Video mail. We can also do ALL our banking online.All of the important stuff is online we will not have to rely on the mail to get it. Excluding the stuff that we can do online just about all the mail we get we can do without. In Ohio we can even renew our Plates by E mail.

c5racer · 01-20-2006, 06:38 AM

We have a fiend that works at the Post Office. We put our mail on hold and when we want it sent to us we call her and she puts it in a priority mail envelope and we get it in about 3 days. Cost is the price of the envelope, I think it's $4.20. Hurricane, UT is a small town, so maybe wouldn't work elsewhere.

315RLS · 01-20-2006, 06:46 AM

Not to sidetrack this thread but we just heard of this option to opt-out on receiving credit card offers in the mail. https://www.optoutprescreen.com. For us this accounts for at least half our usual junk postal mail and was the first time we'd heard of a method to reduce the juck mail. If others receive a lot of this as well and there are costs involved to have this forwarded, thought it might be of interest.

CountryGuy · 01-20-2006, 06:58 AM

For those who use forwarding of US Mail. They are not supposed to forward some mail, like our bank, puts on the envelope, DO NOT FORWARD. We had to go to the bank and file a temporary mailing address change. Then the bank is supposed to mail directly to us here in Texas.

For fulltimers or long timers, I don't think is this is the way to go. But for now it is working for us.

jpbcny · 01-20-2006, 07:21 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by 315RLS

Not to sidetrack this thread but we just heard of this option to opt-out on receiving credit card offers in the mail. https://www.optoutprescreen.com. For us this accounts for at least half our usual junk postal mail and was the first time we'd heard of a method to reduce the juck mail. If others receive a lot of this as well and there are costs involved to have this forwarded, thought it might be of interest.

Before you provide your personal information to ANY business, or individual, you should carefully read their Privacy Policy, and find out how they will use that information that is received from you. After reading the OptOutPrescreen.com FAQ section, and their Privacy Policy, it doesn't look like this will do much on cutting out Junk Mail, as this Opt-Out only pertains to "Pre-Screened" names provided by the compnaies that own OptOutPrescreen.com. Although they do give a link to The DMA (The Direct Marketing Association) which claims to provide a broader Opt-Out for Junk Mail.

Personally I wouldn't give anyone my Name, Address, Phone Number, or Email address unless it was a True Consumer Oriented, or Govermental Organization whose purpose is for expressly stopping ALL UNREQUESTED mailings, and calls.

Just guess I'm PARANOID
JP

Northstar · 01-20-2006, 08:42 AM

I just pay my daughter to forward my mail a few times a month. Works great for us. hOWEVER MAQYNOT WORK FOR EVERYONE

jrgwdenner · 01-20-2006, 09:40 AM

Hey, Northstar, we've got a wonderful daughter like you have. Our travels would be much more complicated if it wasn't for her. I think she thinks it's complicated the way it is!

Montana_4221 · 01-20-2006, 11:25 AM

As a postal employee working in customer service I have to say that I'm not real impressed with the Premium forwarding service either. I am glad that they are at least attempting to address the issue. As an RV'er who may fulltime someday it is a topic of interest to me.

As far as the postal service forwarding goes I would agree with Larry and Lavone and use the regular fowarding service. They will not forward standard mail unless it is endorsed for forwarding and of course we are required to follow endorsements on 1st class and other mail classes. Banks and many other institutions want their mail handled accordingly and pay for those services.

I would add that if you use the regular forwarding. Also I would reccomend that instead of a new forward each time you move use the form that cancels and changes your order( I think ps form 3546 is the one). That avoids having your mail forwarded around all over the country and you will receive it in a more timely manner.

You can also do a temporary change for up to one year.

Good luck I know mail for fulltimers can be a headache and I have personally seen it get really fouled up.

dsprik · 01-20-2006, 05:19 PM

And don't forget why some of us are forwarding our mail... has to match up with your "residency" requirements.

ols1932 · 01-20-2006, 06:16 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by serenity

Good luck I know mail for fulltimers can be a headache and I have personally seen it get really fouled up.

With a good mail service like Escapees, fulltimers have no problem. We ask for our mail to be sent out on Fridays and we have it by Tuesday. For over 5 years we have never had a problem.
Orv

CRUZIN 2 · 01-21-2006, 03:22 AM

serenity

I'm glad someone believes us, we've had our mail forwarded from the last of November with no cost. We have moved twice and so far it has worked out fine.

Larry & LaVonne

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