Recommendation for mail service while traveling

[Ron Anderson]

We are going to be away from our home about 3 months this summer and 5 months next summer in our RV.  We would like some recommendations on mail services while traveling.

[Bill Sprague]

Ron,

It says this is your post number one!  Welcome!


We've been a customer of "My Home Address" since 2003 when we were "full timers".  It is a delightful family owned and operated business.  They have done a flawless job handling our mail.  Their rates are very reasonable.  Many times we've needed some special attention with an unusual package (like prescription medicine) and they have provided it with a phone call.  Normally a simple email will take care of routine holds and forwards.  Forwards can be on demand to your next campground or on a regular schedule while you are at a home base or long term destination.

After we went to half timers and bought a condo we've continued with them.  We initiate a "Temporary Change of Address" with the local Post Office so any "condo mail" goes to our box at My Home Address where it waits.  When we are ready for it, we send an email with a campground address. 

Call, email or post if you have questions.

http://myhomeaddressinc.com/
mail@myhomeaddressinc.com
605.449.4499 or 888.494.4499

[Gerald Farris]

Ron,
We have used the Escapees RV Club mail forwarding service for 13 years, and the service has been flawless for us. Since their mail forwarding service is intended for fulltimers, I am not sure if it will suit your needs for a relatively short period of time, but it would be worth a phone call to see if they can fill your needs.

Gerald 

[Dick Simonis]

I've been fighting mail forwarding for years.  We also do summer trips 4-5 months and it's been a royal pain.  This year I'm going to get a box at the local UPS store.  They offer mail forwarding for many seasonal guests so hopefully it will work out well.  Might be something you would want to check out.

[BJ Sprague]

Ron -
Mail is a challenge for the part-time RV'er.  We spend many months each year in our motorhome - 13 years enjoying this lifestyle.  Here are the details of how we manage our mail.  Bill also provided some info in his post.

We use My Home Address, Inc.  It is located in Emery, South Dakota.  It's a mail forwarding service that also does vehicle licensing, insurance and SD residency related services.  It is located in Hanson County, which has low county fees for these additional services.

We have all of our important and financial mail sent to My Home Address.  When we are at home in our condo in Washington State, we have our mail sent once a week from our mailing service to the condo, with a scheduled weekly forwarding day.  We receive an email and tracking notice for each forwarding.  When we are travelling, we request that My Home Address hold our mail until we give them notification of the RV park where we will be staying.  (Even though most financial transactions are online, there is still important mail that we like to track.)

Some mail still goes to our condo, mostly less important things and magazines.  When we are traveling for more than a month, we have this mail sent by our local post office in Washington to My Home Address in South Dakota. (The confusing part for many is what we term as "forwarding" by our local post office doesn't work for most RV'ers.  What does work is a "temporary change of address" that can be done online.  This is a one time only and somewhat inflexible service that will forward your home mail to a named, unchangeable destination for a specified period of time.)
After the WA mail arrives at My Home Address, it is then batched with our more important SD mail and forwarded to us on the road.  (If you don't want your mail to go to an RV park, each town has one post office that is set up to receive general delivery. It sometimes takes more than one phone call to determine the location and address for a general delivery post office.)

Our mailing service will let us choose which classes of mail are forwarded.  When we are on the road we usually choose to forward only first class mail.

This system has worked well for us for many years.  It is inexpensive, reliable, and give us peace of mind that our mail is well taken care of.

[Stan Simpson]

We have used Dakota post (an FMCA member) a few times, with mixed results.

The service we used was their short term/90 days or less. We also put a temporary change of address in with the PO at home, to the address and PO Box assigned to us by Dakota Post. Since their are two of us, with different last names, we have to put in two change of addresses. The last two times, the Post Office..not Dakota Post, failed to put the box # at Dakota Post into their system for Becky only. Mine was fine. We kept copies of our submissions and they were exactly the same except for the name. Consequently, Becky's mail was over a month old when she finally received it because DP had no idea who she was (the contract was in my name) without a box # on the mail.

DP always sent our mail Priority Mail (an additional fee) however, sometimes it was late, and there was a time we had to stay at a campground an extra day because we were waiting for mail that should have arrived earlier. It created some problems with our itinerary.

Another potential problem is if you lose, or a credit card is compromised in some way. The bank will only send the new card to your home address, which will get forwarded to the mail forwarding service..or..not at all as some banks have an agreement with the PO that they cannot be forwarded.

When we were in Gillette a few years ago we had a month's worth of mail sent to the Fairgrounds, knowing we would be there 10 days, including the Beaver pre-FMCA rally. The forwarder sent it. But to the fairgrounds address. When the mail didn't arrive in a timely manner, I did some inquiries. According to the PO tracking it was delivered on the day we arrived. No one at FMCA had our mail. Finally I went to the Gillette PO and talked to the carrier who delivers there. He said he put my mail in the fairground's mail box out in front of the main office. No one there had it either. I finally found the mail, two days later, in a security office up on the second floor of the main exhibition hall. The mail forwarder just put my name and the address of the fairgrounds on the package/envelope. There was no mention of c/o FMCA as instructed.

Just some things to be aware of when choosing to do short term mail forwarding.