What about the mail?

[GRHooper]

So when you're gone frequently and don't stay in one place for long, what do you do about your mail? Do you have it held at the post office, forwarded someplace or are there other options?

[boylanag]

We have all of our mail sent to a box at a UPS store. Our address year round is the UPS store, so we show a street address and not a PO box. When we travel, we just call the UPS store whenever we want it sent to us and have the UPS send our collected mail to a place where we will be.

[8.1al]

If you have a home and are just gone frequently you can arrange with the Post Office to forward your mail. Many fulltimers use mail forwarding services. There are many good ones out there, we use the Escapees. For $90/year plus the postage they handle all our mail, we just call and tell them where to send it and for how long, works great.

[ols1932]

We are Escapees and use the Escapee Mail Service. We've been using it for almost 10 years now. As full timers, having no stick house anywhere, we became Escapees. This gave us a voting address in Texas, no state income tax and a great RV park to come home to. The mail service is outstanding. All employees are bonded and there is no danger of discontinuance of service.

Orv

[stiles watson]

If you live in a small town where the Postmaster is friendly. A chat about the best way to handle mail might be helpful. Ours just accumulates our mail and forwards to where we tell them. The non-first class mail is accumulated for us to pick up when we return.

[clutch]

Our mail is forwarded to our next door neighbor and they send it to us once a week. We talk to them often and we tell them what to hold and what to send.

The postoffice here will only hold mail for 6 weeks.

[richfaa]

For short road trips for one month or less we have the local P.O hold the mail. For our winter stray we have the P.O do a temp forward of the mail.. 5 years and not a problem.

[exav8tr]

We fulltiime and do as Boylanag does. Just call or email when we want our mail sent, provide a "General Delivery" address and in a few days we check the post office. We do this when ordering packages also. The only glitch is that UPS/FEDEX will NOT deliver to a Post Office, so if we order something, and they will ship UPS or FEDEX I have to give them a physical address. I usually ask the campground I will be at if they receive packages and all have said yes, so I give the campground adddress for these types of deliveries. My mail forwarder is in Alaska and it takes just a tad longer to get things, but in three years I usually get them in 4-5 days........Only one came after we left an area and it was returned and resent......

[CasaDelSol]

We are out for 5 months and have a PO Box that our son gets once a week and reads over the phone to us. I set up all my bills online so we don't get many bills at home except the occasional doctor or odd expense. If we needed anything he could Express Mail it to us where ever we are staying....haven't had the need yet.

[simonsrf]

quote:Originally posted by boylanag

We have all of our mail sent to a box at a UPS store. Our address year round is the UPS store, so we show a street address and not a PO box. When we travel, we just call the UPS store whenever we want it sent to us and have the UPS send our collected mail to a place where we will be.

For the past 4 years, we have done the exact same procedure, and we're happy with this service.

You can also have it sent to another UPS store...pretty easy, just look up the UPS store number.

[Champ_49]

I like the idea of the UPS store that gives you a physical address. In this case will FedEX deliver to that address also. I have some medications coming from the VA and they sometimes use FedEx?

Dave

[simonsrf]

quote:Originally posted by Champ_49

I like the idea of the UPS store that gives you a physical address. In this case will FedEX deliver to that address also. I have some medications coming from the VA and they sometimes use FedEx?

Dave

Absolutely!

[Champ_49]

Thank you Simon, appreciate it. Sounds like a great way to go. Will go to the UPS store tomorrow and get all the info.

Dave

[simonsrf]

quote:Originally posted by Champ_49

Thank you Simon, appreciate it. Sounds like a great way to go. Will go to the UPS store tomorrow and get all the info.

Dave

The service is not inexpensive, but well worth it. When we decided to be full timers, we changed our address 3 months before moving out of the stick house, then anything after that, that got forwarded, we knew to put in an address change....this was the best and least disruptive course for our mail. Good luck with the service, pretty sure you'll like the way it works.

Robbie

[Champ_49]

Ok now I am a little confused. Went to the UPS store and they told me $10.00 per mo. for the box and address and a one time fee of $20.00 setup fee. After that they would just forward my mail to where I wanted it sent. They mentioned nothing more that I would be paying. After seeing that its not inexpensive I think they did not tell me all the true cost. In fact I am now pretty sure that they will charge me for the mail forwarding. Am I wrong in thinking this?

Dave

[8.1al]

I would guess that they will charge you for the postage

[exav8tr]

Dave, I use a UPS store and they charge me: Annual fee for Box, $150. one time annual fee and postage each time they forward. Fortunately most of my stuff can be sent in a priority envelope.

[simonsrf]

quote:Originally posted by exav8tr

Dave, I use a UPS store and they charge me: Annual fee for Box, $150. one time annual fee and postage each time they forward. Fortunately most of my stuff can be sent in a priority envelope.

Dave, this is exactly the same for us. You will find that if you do most everything online, and unsubscribe from catalogs and magazines, the postage isn't too bad. We only get our mail about every 6 weeks or so, but it has taken planning to get it that way.