America's Mailbox or Escapee's

[RvNaut]

I am looking at setting up legal residence, registering new-to-me RV, etc etc.. I know of these two services, and added a thrid for an alternate service I haven't heard of... Poll away

 

[bullfrog]

I have only used Escapees usually seasonal work allows a PO Box to be obtained and used.

 

[Weight]

To use a PO Box (USPS) one must have a 'real' street address recognized by the USPS. I see the fewest complaints about Escapees Club than the others. I use my brother's street address for license, tags, banking, and insurance. And anything else that may not recognize a PO Box as residence.

 

[GoingMobile]

Americas Mailbox offers a way to have the address show as a street address which works for most everything. I also remember if you ask the Postmaster at most USPS Post Offices, there is a way to do that with most any PO Box. I believe it is the street address of the Post Office and use your 4 digits of the PO Box as the last 4 digits of its zip code. XXXXXX-XXXX

 

[Scott3569]

I voted other

Reason.. i have been investigating this also.. what i have found is this is not an easy thing to do if you do not have a permanent residence. 
Anything other than a permanent residence this country labels you as "homeless".  In fact i was just labeled that this morning.  

I am not homeless. And i don't believe any of us in this group feel that way..

But this country is set up to control how we live.. you need a physical address for everything in this country...

Can you set up an address with some of these places.. yes absolutely..

BUT.. make sure you understand what is needed to get out or change the address.  

It might be very easy to set up.. but if you ever need to change your address back to a residence.. you will find it is difficult.  

For some this may not matter..for others in may.. 

Just make sure you think ahead for the possibility of changing your address FROM one of these mailing services..

I would love to hear others view and knowledge of this also.

 

[Scott3569]

Americas Mailbox offers a way to have the address show as a street address which works for most everything. I also remember if you ask the Postmaster at most USPS Post Offices, there is a way to do that with most any PO Box. I believe it is the street address of the Post Office and use your 4 digits of the PO Box as the last 4 digits of its zip code. XXXXXX-XXXX

No doubt this is possible.  However, the post office is considered as a business, the same with mailbox America.  And there are things you can not do with this.. 

When i set something up.. i couldn't even donate plasma because my address showed it was a business in the system.  Gotta love the internet

 

[Ravella and X]

It might be very easy to set up.. but if you ever need to change your address back to a residence.. you will find it is difficult.  

For some this may not matter..for others in may.. 

Just make sure you think ahead for the possibility of changing your address FROM one of these mailing services..

I would love to hear others view and knowledge of this also.

If you discontinue using an address -- even a mail forwarding address, you are supposed to send notice to all of the companies you do business with and all of the people who would mail you stuff. That isn't hard, just boring admin work. The one thing you cannot do when changing your address from a mail forwarding address is use USPS temporary mail forwarding that people use when they change from one sticks and bricks address to another. That service is intended to give people extra time to notify folks of the change of address-- not replace that step.

To put it in positive terms, when changing from a mail forwarding address to another address, do the work of notifying everyone of the new address before discontinuing the service, and give companies time to update your address info.

 

[MrNoodly]

I started out with Americas Mailbox. They made the process of getting a driver license, registration, an address for a bank account and an insurance policy. But over the years, even though I only had mail forwarded every couple of months, they acted like they were doing me a huge, exceptional, inconvenient favor. No, they were just doing what I was paying for. And they started springing little extra charges on me.

When it came time to renew my SD driver license I had the choice of going all the way back to SD, or using the state's burdensome renewal-by-mail option. I chose a third option and accepted a former nomad's offer of using his place in Arizona as my domicile. I found a residential lease form online, filled in the info, printed it out, scribbled a signature on it, and took it and my passport to the DMV and got everything taken care of. Then I did the paperwork to divorce myself from Americas Mailbox, and I'm good to go until 2023. And the address on my DL doesn't say PMB (Postal Mail Box) after the address. Then I set up a very basic mail forwarding account with BCM Mail and Ship in Quartzsite and sent a change of address notice to the Postal Service. Some of the advantage of SD residency are no vehicle inspection, no income tax, and low insurance rates. Well, AZ only requires vehicle inspection for those in the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas, I don't make enough that I'm required to pay taxes, and my insurance is slightly less. And when I have to renew my DL in 2023 I'll probably be in AZ anyway.

 

[nature lover]

Are use a local postal and package service called Mail dock. I think it cost me about $65 a year gives me a street address and then if they forward mail to me they add A fee based upon the weight Of the package. So far so good. I have an extra case of a friend of mine who lives in Lebanon can pick up things for me there.

 

[RvNaut]

All of the hundreds of people here and only 5 people answered a poll...  come on people!! 

 

[jacqueg]

All of the hundreds of people here and only 5 people answered a poll...  come on people!! 

I suspect most people here don't use either service...

I sure don't, and never have.

Nor do I have SD residency, and probably never will.

But I suppose I could vote anyway...

 

[Freelander]

I use Escapees myself, they have a location in Livingston Texas, Florida, and South Dakota.

It was really simple, I made the appointment in Livingston, stayed at Rainbows End RV park, that is their main headquarters. I think lot rent was $370 a month plus electric. I only stayed 3 weeks. NOTE: there wifi is terrible so don't expect too much from it. They have a pool and 2 different laundry rooms, a place to weight your rig, a dump station if you're just passing through, and some spots for permanent RV's to use.

After I set up the account, I went to town got insurance for the Car and the RV (transferred my account from OK to TX using the same Company), got them inspected, went to the county building where I got my tags, registered to vote, (this is Polk County TX), got all that done the same day, then I made an appointment with DPS to transfers my CDL, that took about a week. Since I have a CDL I had to find an office that handles CDL's. And YES you will need to get an appointment at DPS.

NOTE: When tagging an RV in TX you have to provide proof of GVWR and a picture, TX has a special Non Commercial class of License for RV's.

Escapees also has a few RV parks around the county where you can get a discount if you stay.

I got the cheapest service I could get, I have to email them to have my mail forwarded to where I am at. I think it was $90 a year, plus I have to pay postage for the mail forwarding.

It was a very smooth operation. I hear Escapees has over 60,000 mail accounts, they have a huge building just for mail, they can handle UPS, FedEx, and Amazon deliveries.

 

[abnorm]

""they can handle UPS, FedEx, and Amazon deliveries""..............ONLY for in-person pickup at the Livingston TX location

I have Escapees Florida for my Domicile and Mail forwarding.... 

 

[Freelander]

""they can handle UPS, FedEx, and Amazon deliveries""..............ONLY for in-person pickup at the Livingston TX location

I have Escapees Florida for my Domicile and Mail forwarding.... 

I have had Escapees forward my Amazon packages to me. I normally have them sent to me in Houston, but they do forward those items.

 

[wayne49]

I only answered to demonstrate to you that not everyone has an opinion or point of view that would be useful to you.

You have to figure that out of the thousands of Forum members, maybe only 20% are active, and that may be overly optimistic.

I don't use a mail forwarder or a fake domicile.

Recently, I joined Escapees only for the Road Assistance.

 

[RvNaut]

...and your post? ?? Would be the same....