Mail Service while Traveling

[Nancy & Bill]

Any suggestions for a good service to use for receiving US Mail while traveling? We always have had our mail held, but if we're on the road for 2-3 months, we would need to see our mail a little more often. Thanks for any input!

[Nancy & Bill]

Any suggestions for a good service to use for receiving US Mail while traveling? We always have had our mail held, but if we're on the road for 2-3 months, we would need to see our mail a little more often. Thanks for any input!

[LindaH]

This is a much easier item to handle for the fulltimer RVer than it is for someone with an S&B who only travels occasionally.

You have a few different options:

1. Have a friend/neighbor/relative pick up your mail daily and hold it for you. You'll then call them occasionally to find out what's waiting and have them forward to you only the items that you have to or want to see (you'll leave them several prepaid Priority Mail envelopes, of course).

2. If you're going to be in one place the entire time, you can sign up for the USPS's Premium Forwarding Service (PFS). They'll package up your mail and send it all to you once a week. This service is not free...costs somewhere around $11 per mailing.

3. Again, if you're going to be in one place the entire time, you can put in a forwarding request with the USPS and they'll forward each piece of mail separately. This service is free, but you have more chance of having stuff lost than with the PFS.

4. Obtain the services of a mail forwarder and have all your mail forwarded to them. You can then contact them when you're ready to receive your mail and have them send it to your current location.

#1 & #4 are really the only way to handle mail if you're moving from place to place. If you live in a small town and know your Postmaster personally, s/he may be willing to work with you on #2 and send you your package of mail when you call and give them your current location. However, don't count on this if you live in a large metropolitan area.

Be aware that the USPS is obligated to forward magazines for only 2 months...after that, they will be returned to the publisher. This really screws up your subscription!

Also, there are some things that can't be forward, such as new credit cards. So look at your credit cards' expiration dates. If any of them are due to expire during the time you'll be gone, contact the CC company and have them change the expiration date so you can have the new cards in hand before leaving on your trip.

[LindaH]

Another thing:

If you haven't already done so, arrange for paperless billings for all of your bills and for payments to be made either online (means you'll have to have Internet access when the bills are due to be paid) or have them automatically taken from your checking account. That will cut way back on the amount of mail you'll get or have to have.

[ParTheCourse]

We have ours held and purchase envelopes and postage, can't remember the cost but a couple of bucks for each one.

Then we have a designee(s), in our case a daughter and grandson, pick it up, sort out the junk and mail it to us.

Has worked well the past three years for us.


We talked to our postmaster who explained the procedure to us.

Hope this helps.


on edit: wow in the time it takes to respond, two others have, that's what I like about IRV2.

[GaryL]

We have found that FMCA does an outstanding job of forwarding our mail and it is simple to get signed up as well as cheap

[GaryL]

Forgot to mention you need to be a member, cost is about 35.00 yr. their number is 800-543-3522.

[read & learn]

The most important thing when having mail sent to you is MAKE SURE the campground/rv park will ACCEPT your MAIL

[Gary RVRoamer]

You can also have mail sent to you at a post office c/o General Delivery. If there are multiple post offices in a city, usually only one of them accepts General Delivery mail, so make sure you know which one. The Post Office Directory indicates which PO handles GD mail in an area.

[Fred and Bonnie]

If you go with a mail forwarding company, UPS Store, or others be sure your address conforms with USPS regulations. We have used the same address at a local UPS Store for several years. This yhear when we we were in the middle of our 6 month trip the USPS said the addresses didn't conform to the format in USPS Publication 28 and returned our mail, "Undeliverable as addressed", needless to say a real mess.

Fred

[Nancy & Bill]

Thanks for all the input everyone! What a great site! This was so helpful, I'm going to post another question! thanks again.