Mail Forwarding for the Serious RVer
If you’re a consistent traveler or arranging a several-month trip, you might want to get a professional mail forwarding service and work with all the time. This seems a bit strange, given that you’ll have to permanently change your mailing address for to the address of the mail forwarding service. Which means you won’t get mail sent straight to your home any longer (except junk mail).
Usually it takes a couple of months to get every person informed on your new address; however the benefits are worth it. As soon as you’ve got all your bills, correspondence, along with paper mail coming to the new mail forwarding address, life becomes extremely hassle free. No matter where you are, it is possible to simply call, email, or log into the website of your mail service get them to package all your entire mail to be delivered to you as a single package. Put simply, it is possible to deal with the mail on your schedule.
Just in case you’re ready to make the switch, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Choose the right mail forwarding service.
Whenever you are trying to find a new mail forwarding service, most people would advise you to just use any UPS Store. That is really a bad idea. Imagine if that small shop in the strip mall is out of business? It has happened to friends and other full timers, and they’ve had the hassle of moving the whole thing to another address.
As an alternative, try to find a reputable mail forwarding specialist that has a succession plan in place just in case the owners retire or the company has to move. Additionally, try to find a service which will give you exceptional personal attention by means of phone and email.
Keep it professional.
Although it can be tempting to request a friend to pick up your mail at home and forward it to you, be careful. There are a lot of stories where the friend happens to be “too busy” and important mails are delayed.
Check the fine print.
Just like USPS Mail Forwarding, several services have limits on the things they will forward, there are special complaints from subscribers who paid for the lowest priced mail forwarding service and discovered later that their magazines were getting tossed away.
Know your options.
Ensure the service you make use of will forward your magazines and give you the option to have them throw out junk mail. Ensure that if you receive a surprising 10-lb paperweight in the mail, they’ll inform you before shipping it at your cost. That way you are getting all you want, and not paying to forward stuff you don’t want.
Get a permanent solution.
It is possible to file temporary forwarding orders; however as soon as you experience the comfort of professional and permanent mail forwarding, you will likely become addicted.
Reduce your volume of mail.
Most people used to get a giant pack of mail monthly from their mail forwarding service. It would usually run about four inches thick. Then they’d pay out a full day sitting in their Airstream, sorting through all the paper, having to pay bills by check, licking envelopes, and shredding sensitive information.
Go paperless.
Get every single credit card, utility; bank, as well as other recurring relationship to send you an e-bill. Get all your small recurring bills (cell phone, etc) billed automatically to your credit or debit card, to trim down the quantity of bills you get. Save the e-bills on your pc as PDFs in order to refer to them whenever you want to. Make use of online banking to facilitate your bill paying. It’s usually free and convenient to use.
Just say no.
Reducing the number of mail includes easy techniques such as asking to be removed from mailing lists and terminating needless accounts. Preferably you should just get several important pieces of mail weekly, so you can spend almost all of your time taking pleasure in the travel experience.
Consider state of residence.
You don’t need to select a mail forwarding service in your home state. It’s absolutely legal to have your mailing address anywhere you want. However, in case you are going out full time, this is definitely an opportunity to review your state of residency.
Get a physical street address, not a PO Box.
Or else, you might have trouble with banks and drivers licenses later on, thanks to some remaining provisions of the Patriot Act. An address similar to 411 Walnut St #4468 is fine.
In some instances you are going to be required to give a “real” physical address also. In Arizona, it is legal to have your Motor Vehicle Registrar home address on file different from your driver’s license address.
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