Mail forwarding for Half-Time RV'ers

[brunsje]

We are Florida residents and are ‘Half-time’ RV’ers - each year we typically take 4-6 month-long cross-country RV trip, a five week-long RV trip to the Keys, and a five week-long RV trip to the DC area.  Our trips are too long to take advantage of USPS Mail Hold (maximum 30-day holds).   In the past we have had a neighbor forward our mail, but no longer wish to do so.  Looking for recommendations on mail forwarding services.  We’ve reviewed USPS mail forwarding (it is expensive ($20 a week) and appears to be for someone who is temporarily moving to one location), and various mail services (Escapees, Traveling Mailbox, MyRVMail), which all require us to change our address to the mail service address.  Any recommendations?  Thank you.

[Bobi and Dick McKee]

We travel about like you.  We have our mail forwarded to a local business, Postal Connections.  It is about $80 for a six month box.  I call about once a month and they over night our mail to the park where we are staying at the time.  Costs about 8 bucks for the package of mail.  We have used them for about 6 years with no problems.

[Velos]

It is a paradigm shift to not receive mail every day but with the access to paperless statements, use of e-mail, Facetime/Skype, cell phones and texting we only order our mail once a month and occasionally have gone 6 weeks without mail.

We have been using the Escapees mail service for 18 years. Only had two delays and one was 9/11 the other my error not making sure I asked for priority mail forwarding in my email request.  Great percentage for 18 years.  When we knew we would need the service I started changing the mail with each individual that we wanted mail from ie; bank, insurance, credit cards,  family, friends etc a year in advance and didn't submit a change of address with the post office.  It got us use to the service ahead of time, no junk mail and we didn't miss any mail.

When our travels slowed a couple years ago we decided to keep with the mail service for the privacy, safety and security of not having daily mail delivered.  At this point we plan to continue with the mail service even after we stop traveling completely.

The least expensive Escapees service is $95 a year after the first year and you just maintain a postage balance with the Escapees and they will charge your credit card when you go below $25 so you never have to worry about running out of postage money.  The first year at $195 includes  your initial $50.00 postage deposit, $35.00 cancellation fee (required by the postal service to forward your mail for 6 mos after you close) and $15 enrollment fee. Our postage each year is about $100.  Your quote from the postal service of $20 a week for 6 mos is $280.00 and 2 5 week trips totaling $200.00 and you would have to stop and start it for each of your 3 annual trips.

The Escapees has domicile/mail service options for Texas, South Dakota and your home state of Florida 

 

 

 

 

[brunsje]

Thank you everyone for your valuable feedback!  

[LindaH]

We are now snowbirds who use the Escapees mail service.

When we get ready to head south for the winter, we put in a temporary change of address with the USPS to our Escapees address.  All mail gets forwarded there and we contact Escapees when we want our mail and have it sent to a General Delivery address where ever we are (we boondock, so aren't in an RV park to receive mail).

While we no longer have any magazine subscriptions, when we did, we had all our magazines sent to our Escapees address year around.  That eliminated the hassle of having to put in a change of address with each magazine twice a year (the USPS will only forward magazines for 2 months).

[Biker56]

I am a Florida residents and a Sunbird I travel North from the first of May until last of September every year.

For the last 18 years I have had a friend put all my mail in a Walmart plastic bag until I get back.
Only one time in those years did they sent me a letter and it was for Jury duty. That I sent a reply back too and told them I was out of state until Oct. That worked for them.

All the other mail sits in that bag until I get back.

I have all bills and bank account paperless and get text from them on any activity on my accounts.

[SWharton]

We part-timed for many years and use the Escapee address. You don;t need to change your address to Escapees. We just forwarded our mail to the Escapees address and emailed when and where we could receive mail. You can forward your USPS mail up to a year, 2 6 month increments.

We don;t get much physical mail but do get some.

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, SWharton said:

We just forwarded our mail to the Escapees address and emailed when and where we could receive mail.

That is what we do since we got a home=base again. 

[whj469]

We have gone to paperless for all of our bills and that lets us go without much mail. We spend the summer in the UP of MI and we got a Post Office Box there, $12 per year, and it is one mile from our place so it makes a nice daily walk to the PO. When we go south in early fall we forward the mail. We live on a small ranch in SE Texas and two of our four children and their families also live on the ranch so they will forward the few pieces of mail that we want. It is cheap. Good Luck

[SWharton]

I like getting my mail every few weeks. Never understood why the postal service feel they need to deliver mail every day to a residence. Storage and organization is probably the problem  but I feel that is resolvable.