Traveling for Work and a Physical Address

[gknitz]

I am currently a resident of the state of Texas for over one year.

I have my car titled, car registration and car inspected in the state of Texas.

I have a current Texas drivers license.

I am moving out of my apartment the end of this month.

 

I am not an RVer yet but I work in the high tech industry on a contract by contract basis.

The contracts usually last from 3 months to 12 months and are located all over the continental United States. I have already turned down work because of the logistics of moving and address changes.

 

Changing my physical address for car registration, car insurance, drivers license (including taking the state drivers test(s) ), health insurance and all of the other IDs can be a real mess.

So, I am considering using a mail forwarding service (such as Escapees Mail Service) and the associated physical address.

 

Can you help me understand the issues associated with dealing with car and health insurance companies, banks and any loan issues such as buying a vehicle? Does your insurance rate go up? Does it change your credit worthiness?

 

Thank you for your help.

 

[Kirk W]

Welcome to the Escapee forums.

 

I think that you will find the Escapees a good way to go, particularly if you choose to buy an RV to use as your home, which sounds like a good answer for you. You will need to be careful about staying employed too long in the states that you work in as some do have requirements that you move your registrations and such to their states if you stay too long or are permanently employed. Texas would welcome you and is happy to allow the use of the address at Escapees for all purposes here, but being legally a Texas resident will not protect you from the laws of the state in which you work. If you could commute via the internet much of the time that would make it far less difficult to do. We can help you to keep your Texas domicile, but there is nothing that anyone can do to make it so you don't fall under the laws of states in which you spend time working. There isn't likely to be any problems in staying for 3 months to work, but in the longer contracts you may need to leave the state for periods of time to break the length of residence there.

 

As to getting loans, there are companies that will hesitate to loan you money but there are also some that make a business of serving the RV traveling public and the Escapees have allied with several of them as either endorsed businesses or as commercial members of the club. Alliant Credit Union is one that does finance things for credit worthy RV folks. Health insurance does not change if you live in an RV but they usually do require an address which meets the state standards for things like driving licenses as Texas does, but most states do not. By far the most often used stated for domicile by the RV community are Texas, South Dakota, and Florida and Escapees has the ability to provide you an address suitable for domicile in any of those. I suggest that you might find it helpful to read this article from the Escapee magazine on our website as it deals with understanding the domicile issue.

[gknitz]

Kirk, I was looking for more specifics.

For example,

A. you insure a class C vehicle on a physical location where you reside like a physical home

B. you insure a class C vehicle at a mail forwarding service where you are domiciled to an address.

Does the insurance company consider you a greater risk in case B and therefore charge you more money for the policy.

Typically lenders, insurance companies, etc., view instability as a higher risk.

I am trying to access the cost of changing the domicile for each move vs standardizing to one domicile address.

Has anyone performed this evaluation?

Thanks.

 

[Kirk W]

I can only speak for TX but suspect that the answer would be the same for SD or FL also. There is no increase in insurance premiums for the use of a mail service as your address and it is fully acceptable. What I suggest that you do is to contact your insurance agent or if not in TX contact one who is in TX and ask them if changing your address will effect the premium that you pay. There are sometimes adjustments to the premium based upon your address due to accident rates, as in most larger cities the rate is somewhat more than in a rural area of that same state, but Livingston is a rural area so that isn't likely to change much. As I remember, we saw no change in premium when we moved our insurance address from Ft. Worth to the Escapee mail service in Livingston and I know that it didn't change when a 3 years ago we moved our insurance address from the mail service to our present address in rural Smith Co. Texas. There has also been no change in our health insurance premiums based upon our address as all of them have been in TX.

 

There would be some savings in staying put in one location in that you usually have costs associated with moving vehicle registrations, driver's licenses, and such as well as the headache that it can be. The key to this is that you must use a state for domicile which does accept a mail service for a legal address and only a very few do this. Texas happens to be one of them so it is very easy to "move" to an address like the Escapees. We did all of that by mail and by phone both to the Escapees from Ft. Worth and then from Escapees to Smith Co. It was as simple as making an address change since driver's licenses are state issued and vehicle registrations are jointly by the county office from the state DOT. If you have already moved your other business associations, like banking and insurance agents to TX then it would be much less work to keep your domicile here, but you will need to be careful about the length of employment in the states that you spend time in.

[Solo18]

Insurance rates are always a factor of your domicile, wherever that is, so when you choose a domicile, make sure you find out how that particular location will affect both vehicle and health insurance rates. You also might want to check on vehicle license costs, along with such things as income tax. And make sure you check the locale in that state in case it varies by city or rural area.

 

I domicile in a state with a state income tax and a local city income tax, but my vehicle and health insurance rates are very low, and my motorhome license plate is ridiculously low.

[Technomadia]

Welcome! To answer your specific questions, you'll really need to do the math and investigation yourself. It's so dependent upon your individual factors (age, driving record, RV-type, taxation, etc.) that no one can give you a definitive answer on which will be more advantageous for you personally. Yes, many of us have done this evaluation - but for our own specific factors. Call some agents, research registration & taxation costs and evaluate the logistics of 'moving' based on the specific zip codes you're considering.

 

There's a lot of factors to consider when choosing where to call your state of domicile (heck, even the specific zip code).. and as Kirk mentions, when you physically work in one state for any length of time, that state might want to claim you as a resident. A lot comes down to are you working for a company locally or remotely?

 

We cover a lot of the considerations for domicile selection, particularly as a working aged RVer, in our article at www.techonomadia.com/domicile

 

- Cherie

[GlennWest]

We are in different fields but we travel all over this country full timing and I work full time. I have stayed on a job 12 months. This was in Louisiana and no problems. Common is weeks work but sometimes a month or two. I have never had a domicile issue. We are Texas residents. Ohio, Colorado, Wyoming, Virginia, Kentucky, Texas, NC, Alabama, West Virginia, Georgia.

[Fulltimer51]

I traveled all over the country checking up on Glenns work when I did gas leak survey for Heath Consultants. I would be in one state for a few weeks then in another, and so on. At the time I was a resident of New Mexico through a mail forwarding company in Deming and never lived there. I cant imagine re-registering vehicles several times a year.

[GlennWest]

Actually to set the record straight I don't rig weld pipe lines. Have nothing against it and have done just that but can't tow a 20k Teton and carry my welding rig on back of truck. Just can't be done. I make just as much money on shutdowns. Actually get paid double time for everything over 8 and all weekend. jfyi

[Fulltimer51]

OOps.

[griffinmike]

I am an IT contractor and have maintained a TX permanent address while working in other states,

escapees is good for a permanent TX address and any mail forwarding you may need. The only problem I had was the vehicle inspection, registration was done by mail, Inspection was done whenever I got back to TX, never a problem in TX or other states. I dont know how this will be handled in the future with the new inspection rules, call DPS, I am sure there will be exceptions as before for those that travel out of state. I keep a TX bank account with BOA which has branches all over the country.When I am going to be out of TX for 1 month or more I put in a postal change of address for the RV park where I will be staying and put in another for my TX address when I return. Great for not paying state income taxes in other states. Staying in the RV is like staying at home. I use verizon for phone service and a hotspot for internet. All my expenses are tax deductible including mileage and rv park rental.

[bobsallyh]

Wandering 1, we just self certified that we were out of state on our truck registration. Absolutely no problem. Had our new registration in the same time frame as we always have had.