Community Forums

coteyr · 12-02-2020, 01:05 AM

So we lived in Flordia, we return to FL often for doctor's appointments and such. It makes sense to keep our domicile in FL.

However, I have a question when it comes to addresses. We have a mailing address with traveling mailbox, but what do I do when we need to provide addresses for things like driver's licenses?

What we have been thinking about doing is renting a RV lot anually and using that, but that may be overkill. I can't really find clear guidance on this part.

Agesilaus · 12-02-2020, 08:12 AM

Depends on what county you are in, some county tax offices are more sympathetic to RVers than others. I know St Brendans Isle mail forwarding has a good relationship with the county that they are in and you can walk thru getting tags, license and voter registration in an afternoon from reports I've seen.
On the other hand I've seen reports of RVers being turned down at some other offices, think there was one around the Tampa Bay that was a problem.

So try calling you local office and see if they will accept your mailing address. If not then it would be a lot cheaper to switch mailers.

momdoc · 12-02-2020, 08:11 PM

I second the use of St. Brendan's Isle. We have been using them for over 5 years with no problems. We use them for our Driver's license, voter registration as well. They will walk you through the whole process. Very easy!

move on · 12-05-2020, 03:00 AM

One problem with Florida is that your RV insurance is going to be more than twice as expensive due to potential storm damage. You can get around this if you keep your RV someplace else most of the time.

8824rv · 12-06-2020, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by move on

One problem with Florida is that your RV insurance is going to be more than twice as expensive due to potential storm damage. You can get around this if you keep your RV someplace else most of the time.

Apparently a big part of Florida insurance rates is based on your county of "residence".
I checked with my carrier telling them I was considering a move to Florida and that insurance costs were an item that would influence our decision of where to live. I used our F350 to compare to what we currently pay in NC.
>In Hillsborough County (Tampa Bay area) and Dade County (Miami) the premium would almost triple.
>In Brevard County (Melbourne, Cocoa) not not as bad but......
>In Clay County (Green Cove Springs - St Brendan's Isle) there would be a slight, acceptable to me, increase.
The insurance rep told me that Florida and Geico classify Clay County as a rural area even though Jacksonville is nearby in Duval County.

RVGlen · 12-06-2020, 10:07 AM

For the past two years I've domiciled out of South Dakota. I'm changing my domicile to Florida for 2021 due to my pension's healthy insurance changing. My auto insurance increased by 56% and I setup my domicile with MyRV Mail. My RV insurance had a slight decrease in FL from SD.

St Brendan's Isle would have been a larger increase to my auto insurance by 94%. St Brendan's Isle wasn't the most affordable route for me so there may be better choices out there for you. MyRV Mail does not walk you through the process (at least not in my situation) like the South Dakota mail forwarding service I had. They have instructions on 'how to' on the internet same as the other mail forwarding services. I think Florida is more difficult to setup than South Dakota due to how they do their driver licenses and vehicle registration.

MyRV Mail is associated with PassPort America.

MRUSA14 · 12-06-2020, 10:12 AM

The insurance costs are greater in Florida, but on the other hand there is zero state income tax and annual registration for any RV costs less than $100 per year.

move on · 12-06-2020, 11:24 AM

I tow a trailer. The trailer insurance would have increased about 2 1/2 times in Florida compared to where I had it parked in the congested Northeast. This was because of a higher risk of storm damage in Florida.

As far as the tow vehicle goes, the insurance between New York and South Florida was about the same, but if you go to North Florida it is cheaper by several hundred dollars.

Jlo11111 · 12-06-2020, 03:29 PM

We chose MyRVmail (purchased thru Good Sam) out of Crestview florida as our domicile. Crestview is in Okaloosa county which has one of the lowest insurance rates in the state. We pay the same rate as we did when we were on SoCal, approx $1100 per year. We looked at St Brendan's, but insurance rates are much higher in the county that St Brendan's is in.

Filthy-Beast · 12-06-2020, 10:23 PM

I had our agent get quotes for Saint B, Bushnell and Crestview. Crestview won and we use MyRVMail.

coteyr · 12-07-2020, 12:07 AM

We're already used to the insurance, as we lived in Tampa FL. And again we are already residence of FL, as we used to live there in the traditional sense. But when banks and the state of Florida (license, tag, and insurance) start asking about our address, it doesn't seem like I can give them the mailing address.

move on · 12-07-2020, 04:58 AM

I, too, had a problem trying to change a credit card address. They changed the mailing addres OK but they wouldn't change the home address. They said it was not a valid address. I still have to use the old address zip code at the gas pump.This seems to be a problem with all the mail forwarding services. They get onto a list of non-residential addresses and some banks check against the list and reject the change.

Voting is another issue. Can you vote there when you don't really live there? I think this will become a greater issue now after the last election has highlighted problems with mail-in ballots.

Jlo11111 · 12-08-2020, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by move on

I, too, had a problem trying to change a credit card address. They changed the mailing addres OK but they wouldn't change the home address. They said it was not a valid address. I still have to use the old address zip code at the gas pump.This seems to be a problem with all the mail forwarding services. They get onto a list of non-residential addresses and some banks check against the list and reject the change.

Voting is another issue. Can you vote there when you don't really live there? I think this will become a greater issue now after the last election has highlighted problems with mail-in ballots.

Yes, you can vote. We used our mailing address to establish our domicile, register our vehicle, etc. The tax collector's office used that address to establish our voting address. A few months later, the voter registration office sent us letter saying this was not a valid voting address and they assigned us a valid address!

As far as banks not accepting the mailing address, this is simply to comply with the real ID act. The only bank that didn't accept our mailing address was USAA of all things! They said to just give them a physical address of a relative of a friend, so we did. All our correspondence still goes to the mailing address, they simply needed to check a box to say they complied with the real ID act