Financial Institutions not accepting Rainbow Drive address?

[TxCowboy]

Anyone having problems (or had one in the past) when their financial institutions are NOT accepting the Rainbow Drive, Livingston, TX address?

 

I'm getting the error code that the address format used by Escapees, as provided in their Mail Service brochure provided with our membership, is not USPS standardized and therefore these financial institutions are not accepting the address.

 

DW and I have tried every permutation we can think of with the XXX Rainbow Drive, #xxxx or PMB xxxx address and it still doesn't work.

 

Your thoughts and/or advice before I get on the phone with these banks?

 

*****************************************

 

EDIT ONE: Spoke with the Mail Service. In addition to the two formats provided in the Mail Service brochure in the membership packet, you can use anything that permits including your assigned box number in the address.

 

For example: Apartment (apt.), Unit, etc.

 

Still having difficulties with this approach. More to come....

 

EDIT TWO: According to the mail service, if the company/website/etc., won't accept the unit, apartment, PMB, etc., just use the street address. It will slow mail delivery because they (the mail service) has to hand sort those pieces of mail.

[Zulu]

Anyone having problems (or had one in the past) when their financial institutions are NOT accepting the Rainbow Drive, Livingston, TX address?

 

Sounds like you have run into Patriot Act bank laws. You should be able to use a next-of-kin address.

[TxCowboy]

I now how the "correct" answer and will amend my OP above...

[Zulu]

Spoke with the Mail Service. In addition to the two formats provided in the Mail Service brochure in the membership packet, you can use anything that permits including your assigned box number in the address.

 

For example: Apartment (apt.), Unit, etc.

 

Still having difficulties with this approach. More to come....

 

Ah, the old Making-Your-PMB-Look-Like-an-Apartment-Address trick!

[2gypsies]

I guess you just found out that using #0000 will work. We've never had an issue with Escapees address being accepted for any financial institutions including Vanguard and Fidelity.

[TxCowboy]

I guess you just found out that using #0000 will work. We've never had an issue with Escapees address being accepted for any financial institutions including Vanguard and Fidelity.

 

Using #0000 is the same as just using the street address, per Mail Services. Still requires hand sorting.

[Zulu]

I guess you just found out that using #0000 will work. We've never had an issue with Escapees address being accepted for any financial institutions including Vanguard and Fidelity.

Right. You can do this with any mail service address, nothing special about Escapees address.

[Jack Mayer]

So what did you do that the bank accepted? I can't figure that out from the posts....guess I'm slow this evening....

[Barbaraok]

Did you use something different than 77399 for the zip code? It usually is the zip code that triggers financial institutions to kick it out.

 

Barb

[TxCowboy]

So what did you do that the bank accepted? I can't figure that out from the posts....guess I'm slow this evening....

 

Just use the street address -- 210 Rainbow Drive. No box number.

[TxCowboy]

Did you use something different than 77399 for the zip code? It usually is the zip code that triggers financial institutions to kick it out.

 

Barb

 

Zip Code 77399 was used.

[Barbaraok]

What financial institution were you dealing with? Helps to identify them for others who may have the same problem. We've never had a problem with BOA or Vanguard or TIAA.

[ms60ocb]

Just use the street address -- 210 Rainbow Drive. No box number.

When I receive mail without my mail box # you can expect letters to be received up to a couple months late at Christmas Time.

Since your dealing with Financial institutions I would suggest using the On-Line option to monitor transactions.

 

Clay 2016 DRV MS 38PS3

[theeyres]

Also consider going paperless once you get the new account established. For some, like Vanguard, the mail flows like a river causing a lot of hand sorting by the mail service.

[Gannet]

I suspect what the OP is running into is what we hit recently, and OP correct me if I get this wrong. It's not that the address is being kicked out for "not a residential address" (Patriot Act), it's that the company's website is using a "validation filter" that *forces* the address into the format that they have in their database (probably from USPS) for that street address. We hit that recently with a credit card company associated with Fidelity. We could put in our Crestview (MyRVMail) address just fine but it would not accept any sort of #/PMB/Apt/Unit etc. For now the address is being hand-sorted at the mail service but we're going to try and get the card company to send us a paper form to fill out and/or get a human to update our record. My address is what I say it is, dammit, and I don't *care* what your database says.

[LindaH]

Gannet, on 13 May 2016 - 08:11 AM, said:

We hit that recently with a credit card company associated with Fidelity. ... For now the address is being hand-sorted at the mail service

 

Why not just go paperless so that the hand sorting won't be a problem? Of course, you'll still get new credit cards with updated expiration dates, but that will happen only every few years.

[sandsys]

 

Why not just go paperless so that the hand sorting won't be a problem? Of course, you'll still get new credit cards with updated expiration dates, but that will happen only every few years.

 

Plus every time it gets hacked. Which is a bigger problem since you have no warning when that is going to happen.

 

Linda Sand

[dougdogs]

With our forwarding system in WA, we had to use STE ###

 

STE seems to be an abbreviation for Suite that financial systems allow, and our forwarding company has no problems with calling our box a suite

[Raquel]

This is a "Patriot Act" issue and has nothing to do with how the box # is formatted.

 

We ran into this problem with opening bank accounts related to our investment accounts. While our Americas Mailbox address worked just fine for our investment accounts, it did not work for a "real" address for the bank accounts. We asked to talk to the manager of the "local" office. His parents had gone through something similar to us, when they had gone fulltime RVing.

 

Accourding to the "Patriot Act", one needs only to supply the address of someone who knows where we'll be at all times, or how to contact us. The flunky didn't know how to deal with us, but the manager did. All he had to do was to verify that our friends know us and that they were the true residents of the address we had given for them, AND that they were who they said they were. Problem solved. If I find the rule in the Patriot act, I will share it. Read it. It will help.

[Raquel]

This is a "Patriot Act" issue and has nothing to do with how the box # is formatted.

 

We ran into this problem with opening bank accounts related to our investment accounts. While our Americas Mailbox address worked just fine for our investment accounts, it did not work for a "real" address for the bank accounts. We asked to talk to the manager of the "local" office. His parents had gone through something similar to us, when they had gone fulltime RVing.

 

Accourding to the "Patriot Act", one needs only to supply the address of someone who knows where we'll be at all times, or how to contact us. The flunky didn't know how to deal with us, but the manager did. All he had to do was to verify that our friends know us and that they were the true residents of the address we had given for them, AND that they were who they said they were. Problem solved. If I find the rule in the Patriot act, I will share it. Read it. It will help.

 

Complying with the Patriot Act:

When you become a member of Americas Mailbox, you will be given a legal address that is good for all purposes, including being on your driver's license.

What you may run across with some credit cards (and also banks and brokerage firms) is this part of the Patriot Act:

CIP (Customer Identification Program) rule (31 C.F.R. 103.121 (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2010-title31-vol1/pdf/CFR-2010-title31-vol1-sec103-121.pdf)), which is the regulation implementing Section 326 of the USAPATRIOT Act that requires a financial institution to get the following customer information (bottom of page 480 from PDF above):

 

(1) Name;(2) Date of birth, for an individual;

(3) Address, which shall be:

(i) For an individual, a residential or business street address;

(ii) For an individual who does not have a residential or business street address, an Army Post Office (APO) or Fleet Post Office (FPO) box number, or the residential or business street address of next of kin or of another contact individual;

All PMB addresses in the country have been flagged as non-residential for purposes of this program.

However, you simply give them the "sticks and bricks" street address of any friend, relative or contact individual of your choice and you will have no more problems. You must STRESS that YOUR mailing address at Americas Mailbox is the ONLY way to contact you. No mail or correspondence will ever be sent to your contact individual.

[scouserl41]

It may be as simple as putting the mailbox number on the second line of the address box.

I had something similar and that fixed it.

BnB

[Kirk W]

With many situations the problem is the zip code because that zip is assigned to the Escapee mail service as the only user and so will show up as a business address.

[JRP]

Yes, its 2 separate issues. The address can be rejected because its labeled as a commercial, not residential in the master database; or it can simply be a format issue. I've had the same experience as scouserl41, the computer address entering system had been programmed not to allow the #xxxx on the same line as the street address, but accepted it when I moved it to a separate line in the address entry form. not always, just in a few specific cases

[Sehc]

"...how to contact us. The flunky didn't know how to deal with us, but the manager did. All he had to do was to verify that our..."

Classifying Employees as Flunky is an attitude that will insure you the best service you deserve.