Community Forums

smlranger · 09-25-2018, 06:09 AM

Since we travel in 3 month bursts, we have used a local UPS franchise store. We rent a mailbox at the store, do a temp address change so that our mail is forwarded to the UPS store. I call the store when we are ready to have him send mail to us. He tells me what is in the mail and I tell him what I want shipped to us and what he can trash.

He is now offering a mail scanning service but we have not tried that yet.

Gary.Jones · 09-25-2018, 06:24 AM

Like Chuck, my little local companies are the last to provide on-line billing or on-line notices that money is due. However, I have found that if I make a mental note that it is the end of the month and my bank is sending emails for all the bills that they are electronically paying through direct transfers, and I call the little companies on the phone, they will give me my balance over the phone and that solves the problem.

However, the easiest thing is simply to send them $100 or $200 or whatever is needed before we leave town and let the credit balance sit there and decrease each month until we get back.... those bills are usually small and routine so I can cover them with a small lump sum pre-payment. Simple

Gary

rlott2k · 09-25-2018, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobox

I wish our power and water companies would do that. They are so far behind times, I think they still use crank telephones. The power company is finally going to go to online billing this year...only a couple of month left, wonder if they'll make it.

We do forward any mail to our daughter who inspects for anything important .

brobox · 09-26-2018, 05:46 AM

I do as Gary on the utilities, but $100. covers about a 2 weeks of electricity in FL.

I do pay them 3 or 4 month in advance. Everything in FL is slower, my business bank just this year started the email bill reminders. My household bank still does not email reminders. But it all coming.

Another thing about mail forwarding is choosing one close to your home address. When I used my Mom 10 miles away, with forwarding delays I still encountered late payments. The online service has been the best I have ever used, but still a 4 day delay from the local Post Office to them, sometimes longer.

smlranger · 09-26-2018, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobox

I do as Gary on the utilities, but $100. covers about a 2 weeks of electricity in FL.

I do pay them 3 or 4 month in advance. Everything in FL is slower, my business bank just this year started the email bill reminders. My household bank still does not email reminders. But it all coming.

Another thing about mail forwarding is choosing one close to your home address. When I used my Mom 10 miles away, with forwarding delays I still encountered late payments. The online service has been the best I have ever used, but still a 4 day delay from the local Post Office to them, sometimes longer.

Agree that proximity to home is desirable. The independent UPS store that we use is 1/4 mile from our home and our mail carrier is their mail carrier, so it works pretty well.

brobox · 09-26-2018, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smlranger

Agree that proximity to home is desirable. The independent UPS store that we use is 1/4 mile from our home and our mail carrier is their mail carrier, so it works pretty well.

That is perfect! If they go to scanning the mail, that will be about as good as one can get.

smlranger · 09-26-2018, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brobox

That is perfect! If they go to scanning the mail, that will be about as good as one can get.

Actually that is a service that he has just begun to offer. I plan to check into that.

I pay about $9.00 per month for the mailbox rental. My only other cost at this time is the postage when he ships mail to us. I suspect the cost of his scanning service may be offset by reduced postage shipping mail to us (although my DW loves her magazines).

brobox · 09-26-2018, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smlranger

Actually that is a service that he has just begun to offer. I plan to check into that.

I pay about $9.00 per month for the mailbox rental. My only other cost at this time is the postage when he ships mail to us. I suspect the cost of his scanning service may be offset by reduced postage shipping mail to us (although my DW loves her magazines).

Do the scanning and you won't even need your mail unless there is a check, until you get home. More then 2/3 of my scanned mail I have shredded. I have a folder setup and save all my scanned mail into that, and a separate one for "Bills Paid". Those I print off when I get home for taxes. My handling of the mail is so much faster now.

zcaptain · 10-03-2018, 08:42 PM

We use Traveling Mailbox travelingmailbox.com to scan our mail when we're out of town. I've used several scanning services, from earthclassmail to others, and found this one to be best for our needs. After you setup an account, you can forward mail to the service until you return. Only first class mail is forwarded, so you won't get the flyers and other junk mail.

ezj&wings2fly · 02-16-2019, 02:15 PM

We have been full time for 2 years now. We have used travelingmailbox out of Los Angeles as CA is still our residence< We recently came across an issue that we are no longer able to vote as they traced the address and found it was a UPS store. I saw this same issue in FL recently. So without an actual home it appears we cannot vote. I am not happy about it.

hdgoldie · 02-16-2019, 04:22 PM

We use Good Sam's mail forwarding service with a Crestview, FL address when we were full time. No issues with voting registration - we registered when got our license and received a letter from the precinct telling us that, since they could not issue a voter registration without a physical address, they used the address of the city hall. Then they sent us an absentee ballot every election.