Community Forums

Smmast · 09-20-2016, 02:40 PM

Please excuse this silly question, but i am trying to imagine what it would be like to be a fulltimer. All i keep thinking about is where does the mail go? I know that seems silly, but i just wonder about the logistics of things like that. Thanks for your patience and i look forward to all your answers and wisdom. ~ a newbie

Rook · 09-20-2016, 02:52 PM

My Mail goes to my PERMANENT mailing address. You set that up wherever you want it to be. The Mail Forwarder sends you your mail on any frequency you wish. Mail Forwarders....costs vary.....check it out on the Internet! Rook

DJBSDB · 09-20-2016, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smmast

Please excuse this silly question, but i am trying to imagine what it would be like to be a fulltimer. All i keep thinking about is where does the mail go? I know that seems silly, but i just wonder about the logistics of things like that. Thanks for your patience and i look forward to all your answers and wisdom. ~ a newbie

We also have all our mail go to our permanent address, which has been a post office box since retirement 13 yrs ago. There are numerous services out there including the post office. Ours is a family membet that sorts and sends our mail to where ever we are. We full timed for 5 years, then started 6 months Florida, 6 months back Alabama, and else where.

bsirby · 09-20-2016, 04:08 PM

We use our daughters address for mail, vehicle registration, etc. She knows what is important and what is not. She is a signer on our accounts, so she can take care of anything unusual that comes up. We get all our bills online and pay them online. We have been full time for 5 years and it works great for us.

waroland · 09-20-2016, 04:17 PM

We use our hometown UPS store, gives a real address and they forward mail when requested to where ever we are.

jpharley · 09-20-2016, 04:33 PM

We use a mail forwarding service in Madison, SD-mydakotaaddress. Terri is awesome to deal with. She helps you set up your domicile and you choose the type of service that you want. We can get our mail anytime on our plan and if we ask, she will open and scan it and send it to us via email. When we want our mail, we usually have it sent via General Delivery wherever we are. Be careful though as not all Post Offices accept general delivery mail. We usually call to confirm that they accept it. We find very few campgrounds that will accept postal mail. State, local, and national campgrounds certainly will not but some private parks will. We are not comfortable with how some of these places handle mail so we would rather have it sent via General Delivery. By the way, Terri at mydakotaaddress will even register new vehicles for you. The only thing you really need to go to SD is for a driver's license. We have been full timing for 8 years and how do we get our mail is the number one question we are asked.

SpaceNorman · 09-20-2016, 05:09 PM

We "went green" on all the predictable stuff (bills, statements, etc.) - which cut out a good chunk of the mail that mattered. Now I simply go out and access my accounts via the internet.

We have the remainder of the mail sent to one of our adult children. They screen everything. They scrap anything/everything that's junk mail ... anything that might be meaningful - they scan and send as a PDF attachment. The 2-3 things we receive each year for which the original document actually matters - we talk about and decide how to handle on a case by case basis. Possible outcomes are to forward it ... or simply hold it for us until we pass thru again.

RV Vagabond · 09-20-2016, 10:26 PM

Before becoming a fulltime traveler, phase out receiving paper mail, taking care of business online. For things you can't, best to use a relative's address and tell them what to look for and what to throw away.

Old-Biscuit · 09-20-2016, 10:52 PM

When we went Full Time we picked our 'domicile state' and set up an account with a Mail Forwarding Service.
This service provided us with our 'legal' address ---used for Drivers Licenses, Vehicle Registrations, Voting Registrations, Insurance (Vehicle & Medical), Credit Card Accounts, Banking Accounts, etc etc etc PLUS they received & held any 'snail mail' sent to us.

We had very little snail mail........most repetitive items were handled via on-line statements/billing etc
When we wanted mail forwarded to us we contacted our Mail Service via E-mail, gave them an address to send it too (CG address if they accepted visitors mail, Local Post Office via General Delivery if they accepted Gen/Del or even a UPS Store if needed). Mail would be bundled, packaged and sent via USPS Priority Mail---3 day service. Never had an issue getting the mail.

When we set up the service we just made out 'Change of Address' forms for all mail---just like you would do when you move

adamfolger · 09-21-2016, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bsirby

We use our daughters address for mail, vehicle registration, etc. She knows what is important and what is not. She is a signer on our accounts, so she can take care of anything unusual that comes up. We get all our bills online and pay them online. We have been full time for 5 years and it works great for us.

X2 almost verbatim. I will add that you need a legal address for all major purchases that you might want to finance. Finance companies don't loan money to people who are foot loose and fancy free. Gypsies have no credit...

There are no silly questions on this forum. Answering questions is what we do...

momdoc · 09-21-2016, 05:43 AM

I used to tell my patients the only silly question is one you already know the answer to.

We use a mail service in Florida that give us a PMB (personal Mailbox). We use this for our vehicle registration, voter registration, global entry application, and even took out a loan recently for our toad vehicle using this address. They will open and scan any mail we want, trash what we want and forward on what ever we want to friends or somewhere we will be. Not a problem at all. We also do 95% of our "business" on line so we only get a 6-8 things a year that we actually need.

momdoc

cwk · 09-21-2016, 05:54 AM

Smmast,

Welcome to the forums. As others have stated, there are a variety of ways to handle mail, permanent address, etc. They have already mentioned some good ways. One mail service in Florida is St. Brendan Isles. They can also provide a permanent address for legal purposes as well (driver's license, registrations, bank accounts, etc.). See their website for lots of good info.

Also, if you have not found it yet, there is a sub-forum called "Full-Timers" (look under the "Forums" menu) that may be able to answer many more of your questions about full-timing. Enjoy!

twogypsies · 09-21-2016, 11:07 AM

Your question isn't silly but I still had to smile..... When full-timing and meeting someone along the travels, one of the first things they usually ask is "How do you get your mail"? So you're not alone there.

When we began full-timing in 1995 we had no computers, no internet, no telephone. They weren't popular then as they are now. We had never heard of paying your bills by 'AutoPay'. We had to wait for our mail to reach us so we requested it to be sent to us by our mail forwarding service wherever we were on a weekly basis. Most of the time it was c/o 'General Delivery' at the nearest small-town post office (never a big city one). The process worked very well.

Nowadays with 'AutoPay' for bills and the fact that you can do almost everything online a person really doesn't get much mail anymore. Junk mail can be eliminated if, when you buy things or get magazine subscriptions, you tell them not to put your name on any kind of mailing list. It really works.