Community Forums

DLoy1324 · 10-09-2016, 05:25 PM

Greetings (almost) fellow RVers,

Retirement is on the horizon and with it comes a new-to-us RV and snow-birding. Going to be on the road for 4-6 months and wondering how to organize certain tasks while traveling;

Mail-was thinking of having neighbor collect mail and over-night on a weekly basis. Would let them know in advance by a couple of days then have mail sent to local pick-up, i.e. Kinkos (or maybe they are now Fed Ex stores). Other ideas?

Bills-pay on-line but how safe are CG Wi-Fi? Other options? Is smart phone safe for bill paying?

Home security-suggestions?

Utilities-What to leave on/disconnect/or cancel?

I am sure the list could go on and on. What am I forgetting and/or what other thoughts do you experienced RVers have?

I know you cannot plan for everything but hope to have the basics covered.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Dirk

jacwjames · 10-09-2016, 06:23 PM

If we will be gone for extended periods we put a stop on our mail at the post office. My wife has a friend that gets it once a month and drops off another stop on it, my wife fills out the authorization slip for her friend to submit.

If you don't live in cold weather you could opt to shut utilities off but there is usually a fee associated with that. You have to weigh the costs. At minimum if you have a water meter I would shut the water off there. Also notify the water department in writing that you will be gone. We were on a ~3 month trip, we notified the water department in person but no one made note of it. ~ 2 months into our trip the water department decided our meter was broke so they changed it and when we got back we had a bill that they calculated based on past consumption. I had to go down and complain to have the bill fixed.

I don't use any public internet to pay bills. We use a teathered connection to the phone or Mifi.

You might also want to notify your credit card providers that you are traveling.

LarrySharon · 10-09-2016, 07:00 PM

You can do the mail hold online as well. Worked well for us. You may want to put timers on a few lamps so as to look like you are home. Have them go off and on at different intervals so it looks like you are moving from room to room.