Mail Forwarding

[azranger]

Has anyone tried Earth Class Mail? www.earthclassmail.com

[richfaa]

I am assuming that you are not a full timer and have a permanent address somewhere. We, in general,are 6 months in Ohio at a stick home and 6 months in Florida. We use the the postal service for a temporary change of address. When you clearly understand how that works and fill out the papwerwork correctly..it works perfectly and it is free.

[Waynem]

When we were on our trip to NE, I used the USPS forwarding service for $11 a week. Every Wednesday they would put it in a priority mailer and send it to the address I provided. I would receive it on Friday. As previously stated, it worked flawlessly.

[richfaa]

We do not use the USP service that Wayne used. That service is even better. Since we are in one place for a long time we use the normal temporary change of address service. The secret is understanding how to do the paperwork.

[steves]

You can do a temp address change online at the USPS website:

https://moversguide.usps.com/icoa/flow.do?_flowExecutionKey=_c919D3A8E-7A5A-1FB9-2AD4-47A3C6995641_k2B2B8C2B-8F7F-BE27-F2FE-2C7466AA70C1

I used this method last year and had no problems.

[gkbutler]

We full time, but split our year between Illinois and Florida. We use the temporary change of address and have had no problems at all.

[azranger]

Thanks for the info on USPS forwarding services.
Rich: Yes, we are long-timers but do not plan be in one place for more than a week or two at a time.
Earth Class Mail is a service that receives your mail, scans it so you can view it on-line and then if you request it, you can have it forwarded to you where ever you are currently located. The fee is $9.95 a month. I was just wondering if anyone had used it or know anything about how well it works.

[richfaa]

azranger.... We have not heard of that service.FYI here is what we do.. First we use on line bill paying and paperless billing to pay bills therefore we do not have to rely on the mail to get our bills. We pay ALL of our bills on line including property taxes. we eliminated most all of our magazine subscriptions .For the ones we kept we call them and ask them to withhold mailing to our home address till notified. Our intent was to reduce the mail we NEED to get and that has worked very well for the last 29 months. For short stays the USPS would not work well unless you used the method Wayne used and it is more expensive than the earthmail method....if it works. You can stil do a lot of what you need to do on line and not worry about the mail for the important thngs.

[mail2us]

Every MOC member that travels, fulltime, parttime or just goes away for a temporary time, has different mail forwarding, and holding needs. The earthclass idea sounds innovative and a neat idea of getting your mail. Azranger has found a service to fit his need and as a retired postal employee, we recognized long ago that USPS is not the only game in town. The USPS Premium Forwarding Service is fee based yet the postal service still provides the traditional free forwarding service. We locate to stick homes between two states, fall and spring. Prior to leaving one place, I notify all magazines and even bill generated mail of my new address, all done on line or thru 1-800 numbers. So, when I'm gone, mail forwarding by USPS is minimized and potential delay or loss of mail is also reduced. Know too that usps.com provides customers the ability to enter Hold Mail orders, Free! You can file a change of address online for $1.00. That change order is received online right at the post office where you get your mail before you move. Another effort to avoid loss or delay of a change. Remember that if you get a water or electric bill for your home, it can be mailed to another address. Most have a Service Address and a Billing Address as alternatives. Magazines usually run 30-60 days behind on changing addresses when you notify them, so you can actually change those before you even leave one address, cause they won't change "overnight". Each of us has our unique requirements and there are many choices out there. Dennis[8D]


PS: An afterthought on your personal mail being opened, scanned and sent to you. Any company that performs such a service has access to alot of information and knowing that, is that company bonded to assure no invasion of privacy or identity theft potential. Dennis

[stiles watson]

We live in a small town and have developed a friendly relationship with the postmaster. We leave a deposit with him and call him when we will be at a campground long enough to receive the forwarded mail. He forwards first class only and tosses the rest in a box. When we get home again, we pick up all the other un-forwarded mail. I don't think this would work in a larger city at all.

For what they are doing, if they are diligent to do it thoroughly and correctly, Earth Class Mail sounds very reasonable in pricing. Like Rich, we have gone as nearly paperless as possible. About the only magazines we get any more are Highways, Escapees and other RV related stuff that are catalogs disguised as magazines. So getting mail once every two or three weeks is not a problem for us.

[Driftwoodgal]

We are using the USPS to have our mail forwarded to us while we are working Hurricane Ike. As Rich has posted earlier, you can have all of your first class mail forwarded to you free for up to a year. This is a temporary change of address. It will send all of your first class mail only for the stated time. It will send magazines for about three months. There isn't any cost to you, but it does take a week to ten days to start.

Be sure you check the box that includes everyone in the household. I first just checked my name, and we only got my mail. [:0] Most of our mail has Bob's name listed first. We are now getting all of our first class mail. The junk mail stays at home, and we get what we really need.

The campground will return our mail to Driftwood when we leave, by tearing off the yellow forwarding strip.

Colleen

[mail2us]

You are correct Colleen on USPS temp forwarding, with the magazines or 2nd class mail being forwarded for 60 days only. After 60 days that forwarding stop on any magazines. Most magazines have web sites and you can simply change those addresses to your temp address and change them back as you wish. Dennis

[exav8tr]

Our mail is sent to our forwarder in Alaska. When we are somewhere for awhile, we will call the forwarder and ask for our mail. This is a fee based service. We pay an annual fee for a box and then each forward is based on the weight of the mail package. Probably a litle more costly but it works for us. Since we are fulltiming we do all our banking and financial matters on line.