Getting your mail

[pamatloon]

My husband and I are planning a 6 month rv trip. We live in a rural area, have a P.O. Box and there are no commercial mail forwarding services here. Any suggestions on how to weekly have our mail (including my much loved magazines) forwarded to wherever we may be that week? Thanks!

[ellenw]

I'm deferring to someone who knows about mail service, but I'm replying to say I'm in awe of your upcoming trip! The planning for such a thing sounds like such fun, even if all it involves is "here's where we'll be - maybe - in a month or two."

[Bethers]

Moved to the general room. This didn't seem to be an interesting places topic. Although it is interesting.

First, you aren't talking about changing your mail service, or are you? There are mail forwarding companies all around that you can use - they don't have to be local. I use one in SD - changed my residency to them, however, anyone can use them.

That said - if you want to simply have your mail currently forwarded - is there anyone you know that can pick it up and do it for you - and you pay them (leave them money to do it). I'd be careful about the magazines, etc, though - as if you get lots of them, it could get costly. Also I wonder about you getting it weekly if you're traveling - or do you know where you'll be each week? You'd need to know it would arrive before you plan to head on down the road - and weekly - well, depending on where you are, it can take a week for mail to arrive sometimes. You can have mail forwarded to general delivery at any post office - but they won't hold it indefinitely. And I always call and confirm their mailing address for it before I do that. If there is more than one post office in a city and you don't do that, you may be having your mail sent to the wrong one!

I'm not trying to sound negative - just weekly and getting all your magazines - well, those 2 might be a tad difficult, unless you're planning on staying long periods of time in different places.

[rvgrammy1953]

Beth is right....weekly delivery of forwarded mail, especially magazines, maybe difficult....if not impossible....we've have lengthy experience with the US Postal Service as we've been full-timing for 8 yr...5 of those years, we camp hosted....while camp hosting, we did a temporary address change, using both "General Delivery" and purchasing a PO Box....works well for 1st class mail, but not for the magazines/catalogs...seems the post office has issues with forwarding them...they are considered 3rd class mail....then up til this yr., while traveling we have done the following.....had our mail forwarded to our son's address...purchased those "if it fits, it will ship" boxes" and he or his wife (at the time) send it to us...a couple of yrs. Ernie's Aunt & Uncle just picked our mail up at the PO Box, put it in a box and sent it to us.....But all this depends on your length of stay........Now, this year, like Beth, we are using a Mail Forwarding Service out of SD...for our normal mail stuff....they hold it until you call or e-mail an address where you want it sent to via UPS or FedEX or US Mail, which ever you prefer... our "PA important mail"..i.e...car and camper registration, etc., is still going to our PO Box...we have a great relationship with the Post Mistress and she sends us that stuff to the Mail Forwarding service, as needed, but this still requires a temp. change of address, too....check with your local Post Office or online.....

All these options have their issues, and if you are going to be moving every few days or weekly, you may want to see if a neighbor, relative, or friend would pick up the mail for you and send it via UPS or Fed EX when you land...

This has been our experience....hope it helps...

[Echo]

We have all our mail going to the sons address. This has saved us money as while we are on the phone he will let me know what all the mail is and I then make the decision to throw, keep or forward on to me. I to will end up using the mail, forward and address as Beth is doing but not quite yet.

You could stop at the post office and talk directly to them. Explain what you are doing and ask if they have any suggestions. If you have a family member you trust there in town it might just be easier to change your address at the post office to that family members address and go thru the mail over the phone with them as I do with my son.

You could also simply use your postal box and keep using it. But just leaving a key with a trusted person so that they can pick up the mail and forward it to a place where you know that you will be giving it time to arrive either just before you get there or while you are that town.

[kdmac]

When I spent six months in Quartzsite last winter (can you imagine?) I overheard a fella say he has his kids gather his mail put it into a packageand send it overnight via UPS...that way it comes right to their actual site at the RV park. The secret to it working is that you have a friend or family member put the mail in a box like any package and delivered like any regular UPS delivery.

When you use "General Delivery" at the Post Office they will start a 30 day count from your first piece of "general delivery mail" that you receive then when the 30 days is up you no longer can use general delivery service. I understand that is common but not all PO's do that. But, you don't sound like you will be any one place for that long, just a "heads up".

A funny thing happened when I ordered some items via catalog to an RV park on the Oregon coast where I spent my first winter; the manager is still getting catalogs from that outfit...which can't be too bad since it's a great catalog but I would check the "Don't send me catalogs" box next time I do that.