Mail?

[BatDude]

We plan to be on the road for 5-6 weeks starting mid January. First for a bat project along the Lower Colorado River between AZ and CA for 3-3.5 weeks. After that we plan to travel a bit and visit some of the SW states and national parks. All below the freeze line if possible. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Those of us tropically adapted do not do so well in Michigan.

Our biggest concern now is mail. What do most full & part timers who are away from home more than a week do about mail?

When we lived and worked in Central America we established on-line banking for our U.S. accounts. So banking is not an issue as everything (well most except some research project funds) are direct deposit and bills are all auto-pay from our accounts).

Mail is our one big concern.

Any suggestions welcomed.

Bat Dude

[Ron F]

Dude,
There are several mail forwarding services around, Escapees RV Club , https://www.myrvmail.com/ , and I think UPS stores also have mail services. You have your mail forwarded to the mail service, they hold it until you contact them from time to time to have them forward your mail to General Delivery at a PO near where you're staying.

Or, you could have a family member provide the same forwarding service at a lower cost (perhaps).

It's helpful to select a forwarding service near the area where you'll be, because you'll have a shorter delay between when you ask to have mail forwarded and when you can pick it up at the PO. Here's a link to the USPS locations ( http://www.uspspostoffices.com/ ). Be sure to check the services for your pickup location. Not all POs provide General Delivery.

Larger packages, not delivered by the USPS, can be sent to many UPS or FEDEX "brick and mortar" locations. They'll hold a package for pickup for a small fee.



Ron

[C&G in FL]

You didn't day, but are you full timing, or is there a "Bat Cave" somewhere? If your banking is done online and all bills are auto pay, then the bulk of your mail is probably junk mail. Do you really care if Smith Motors has a "deal you cannot pass up" or Bed, Bath, and Beyond sends you a $5 off coupon?

Family and friends can contact you by cell phone. And you didn't say how you are receiving mail now. At an aforementioned bat cave? At a PO box? When I go away for an extended period, I have a neighbor's 11 year old son feed/water the 3 now tamed feral cats (all from the same litter and abandoned by the mother 5 years ago) that live in our yard and shelter on our back porch. He also picks up the mail, most of which is junk, and puts it in a box on the back porch. All you need to do is find someone you trust to collect it, whether from your mailbox or PO box. They can even call you if they see an envelope or package they may think is important. It shouldn't be a problem as long as it doesn't pile up somewhere.


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[mary and bob]

My local postmaster said there would be a delay in just starting to forward the mail. Since we spend the winter mostly in one location we have our mail on hold at the post office. An authorized relative picks it up about once a week, sorts out the important stuff, shoves it into a priority envelope that I have bought and affixed stamps on, and sends it to us addressed "general delivery" to the post office near where we stay. If we move locations we could use general delivery to that post office. All our banking and bill pay is done online except our monthly fuel bill. For that bill I made some copies of a previous statement and just mail in one every month as it is always the same amount. Any purchases we make online get shipped to the campground we stay at.

[Carl Pa]

We have the local PO hold our mail. Go to PO, tell them to put a stop on your mail till you pick up and tell them resume your mail. No fee. Carl

[mary and bob]

The Post Office has a form to fill out to have your mail held, it is a yellow card on which you put in your name, address, and when to start holding your mail. It states on there that they will hold mail a minimum of 3 days and a maximum of 30 days. We are out for 3 months in the winter so we need to have someone pick it up regularly. We live in a small town and I went to school with our mail carrier so she is very accommodating to our frequent holds for short trips.

[Larry,C]

When we are on the road I just remove the false bottom in the mail box and collect my junk mail until we get home. I tried having the USPS help us but they screwed it up and we came home to a stuffed mailbox.

Hey Dude,
Sounds like your agenda is similar to ours. Will you be attending the Southwest Scamp Camp? If so we will see you there or maybe somewhere else on the road.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by BatDude

We plan to be on the road for 5-6 weeks starting mid January. First for a bat project along the Lower Colorado River between AZ and CA for 3-3.5 weeks. After that we plan to travel a bit and visit some of the SW states and national parks. All below the freeze line if possible. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Those of us tropically adapted do not do so well in Michigan.

Our biggest concern now is mail. What do most full & part timers who are away from home more than a week do about mail?

When we lived and worked in Central America we established on-line banking for our U.S. accounts. So banking is not an issue as everything (well most except some research project funds) are direct deposit and bills are all auto-pay from our accounts).

Mail is our one big concern.

Any suggestions welcomed.

Bat Dude

For between 3 and 30 days I have the USPS hold my mail. There's an onling form you can fill out. For longer periods there's a form for mail forwarding that has a check box for "temporary". A temporary forwarding can be done for over 30 days up to 6 months. It can be renewed for another 6 months.
We forward what little mail we get to our daughter. Every couple of months we have her package it up and send it to General Delivery where we happen to be.
The only problem with the temporary forwarding is magazines. They'll only forward them for 2 months and inform the magazine the you've moved.
USPS also has a for pay system that's I think is pretty expensive. You can find out about it all on their website.

[Jon Vermilye]

About the only thing I use mail for is bills.

I've set up on line bill notification & paying for all but a few accounts that won't do it. Either my son or a friend takes a photo of any other important mail & emails it to me. Worked for a 305 day trip.

[BatDude]

Tnx all for the many replies.

As I noted I was planning to be on the road for 5-6 weeks and now my wife suggests more like 2.5-3 months or until the snow is gone in Mich. LOL.

We will not be in one place for very long. I am aware of USPS mail forwarding and mail hold. All can be done on-line so that may be the option with having it held then forwarded from time to time.

The only thing we are concerned about is the electric and gas bill that varies depending on use. We are working on setting that up as auto-pay as well. If we can get that completed then not too much to worry about.

As we have lived outside of the country for the past 25 years and only been here 2 years we are not on many junk mail lists.

The good thing about USPS mail forwarding is they do not forward junk mail.

Thanks especially to Ron_F for the two links to RV mail forwarding services. Very helpful.

Not likely gonna be full timers in a 16' Scamp, no place for any of the stuff I need for work, like computers, fast broadband internet etc.

Who knows. if we like this we may up size to a 19' 5th wheel Scamp then maybe full timing becomes an option?

Oh we do not have TV (did not have it for 25 year in the jungle) so will not need it on the road, nor a smart phone. Only Verizon wireless home/base phone that will work on the road.

I am getting a Verizon mobile hotspot for email and limited data transfer.

Still on the steep end of the fiberglass learning curve and appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions.

Cheers

[Byron Kinnaman]

Before you decide what you're going to do, I strongly suggest you go to your local post office, the one that uses your zip code. Talk to them about your plan. The sooner you do that the better.

[Ron F]

Originally Posted by BatDude

Tnx all for the many replies.

The only thing we are concerned about is the electric and gas bill that varies depending on use. We are working on setting that up as auto-pay as well. If we can get that completed then not too much to worry about.

If you can afford to do it, you can estimate your gas/electric bills for the length of time that you'll be on the road and send that amount before you leave. They'll be happy, you'll have peace of mind and if you send them too much, they'll just apply the overage to your bill after you return.

Ron

[C&G in FL]

Also, if you cannot set up autopay for that particular vendor, perhaps they can send your bill electronically. I do not have autopay on anything because I do not want to give anyone free reign to access my accounts, other than the IRS, and I can't keep them out! However, I check my email when on the road and if I get a bill, I pay it on line. Works fine.


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[Byron Kinnaman]

For bills that you don't or can't set auto pay, or don't want to, there's other options. First off you know or should know when those bills are due. It's not that hard to set up a computer system to keep track of when they're due. Most places have an on-line system that you can check for exact amount, if not a simple phone call answers the question.
We have at least one bill that was on automatic pay, they screwed up and didn't take their due for 3 months. I figured that if they had such poor control that they could go one way they could go the other. Now they're on send bill and I'll pay, except sometimes it'll be a couple months before I see the actual paper bill. A call and a credit card take care of it.

[Byron Kinnaman]

The process started several years before I started traveling for extended periods. We were getting mail stolen from our mail box. I was concerned about identity theft and we worked on getting all bills on line. It was an easy transition from paperless billing to either auto pay or paying on line. Which made the transition to no mail pretty easy.

[Jon Vermilye]

A bit more on my 305 days on the road -

I'd love to be able to get all my bills on line, but there always seems to be a couple of organizations that won't send bills as email or even provide a way to check the amount at their website, etc.

For me, our local hospital & school taxes are examples. The hospital is especially annoying - they insist on a separate account for each bill, making it a pain to use on line banking to send them a check since you have to make a new account for each bill.

I spent a night in an Emergency Room during the trip (including an ambulance ride to get there) and all the bills went to my home address - nothing available on line. Most was covered by insurance, however I'm still trying to straighten out the hospital copays almost a year later.

One concern I had was getting a new insurance card while on the road since it is issued every 6 months & I was away from my local agent longer than that. I have Allstate auto insurance, and was able to go to an Allstate office in Yuma & have them print out the card.

I do my taxes on line, and was able to get a physical W2 at a Social Security office while on the road (they do not make it available on line).

[lijMichael]

(snipped) The hospital is especially annoying - they insist on a separate account for each bill, making it a pain to use on line banking to send them a check since you have to make a new account for each bill. (/snipped)

I have ran i to this problem when my mother was living with us and I had to handle her affairs. (Alzheimer's) What I ended up doing is putting her name in the place for account number. I now do that for some of my medical bills that are from large corporate entities. Only one problem so far and when confronted with the fact that their software was creating a new account number each time they accepted the name instead.


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[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by lijMichael

(snipped) The hospital is especially annoying - they insist on a separate account for each bill, making it a pain to use on line banking to send them a check since you have to make a new account for each bill. (/snipped)

I have ran i to this problem when my mother was living with us and I had to handle her affairs. (Alzheimer's) What I ended up doing is putting her name in the place for account number. I now do that for some of my medical bills that are from large corporate entities. Only one problem so far and when confronted with the fact that their software was creating a new account number each time they accepted the name instead.


Sent from my LG-V410 using Fiberglass RV mobile app

This is another one where you know you're going to have to pay something. What I did and would do again, wait 60 days then call. I think we've done this twice. The first time at 60 days they had not even sent us a bill. So we waited another 60 days, but were home by that time.

Since we have our mail forwarded to our daughter she can call if there's something that looks like it needs attention. We her open it and read it to us.

There's always a way, you just have to put on your thinking cap and figure out what works best for you.

[Timber Wolf]

I am not on the road all that long at a time but setting everyting I could up on auto-pay and/or e-mail notification was the best thing I ever did to simplify my monthly business. My home and cell phone auto-bill my credit card. That de-couples those bills from my bank accounts and gives me a few weeks "float" to pay. I pay the CC in full every month so there are no interest charges.

My daughter's school tutition and the water bill come out of a seperate bank account I set up for just such things. My employer will divide and send my paycheck to up to four different accounts. So I have enough direct deposited to that account to pay those bills (plus a little) and the account is free since I have money automatically deposited to it. Once a month I get an e-statement I review. Easy-peezy, lemon squeezy as my daughter would say.

I have no monthly or ongoing bills that I have to write a check for anymore. The only bills not set up on auto-pay are the lights (electric, or "hydro" for our Northern friends) and my credit card. And I pay those on line. My mail box is just for junk and magazines.

[FTTRV]

Originally Posted by BatDude

We plan to be on the road for 5-6 weeks starting mid January. First for a bat project along the Lower Colorado River between AZ and CA for 3-3.5 weeks. After that we plan to travel a bit and visit some of the SW states and national parks. All below the freeze line if possible. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Those of us tropically adapted do not do so well in Michigan.

Our biggest concern now is mail. What do most full & part timers who are away from home more than a week do about mail?

When we lived and worked in Central America we established on-line banking for our U.S. accounts. So banking is not an issue as everything (well most except some research project funds) are direct deposit and bills are all auto-pay from our accounts).

Mail is our one big concern.

Any suggestions welcomed.

Bat Dude

Join the Escapees RV Club for $29.99 then sign up for the mail program.
Chuck