Mail Forwarding

[rderito]

Hi. if I was to rent out my home and become a nomad. what would be the easiest way to get my mail. I would keep my residence at my home. there is no family member that can pick it up. 
if all my bills have my home address on them then how can you forward them ?
am I missing something here.
some of my bills I can go paperless but some I can't.

 

[MrNoodly]

Most bills have the option of using a billing address that's different than the actual address. Check with your bill senders. If so, then get a mail forwarding service, use it as your billing address, then have them forward the bills to wherever you happen to be.

For example, my bank, insurance company, Social Security and Verizon all use my mail forwarder as my mailing address, separate from my "residence" address. No problems.

 

[crofter]

Can anyone reccomend a mail forwarder in AZ?  So far I have had no success with mail forwarding.  -crofter

 

[Riverman]

The US post office will forward your mail right to you where ever you are for a fee. It's not real cheap, but you usually get what you pay for in the long run.

 

[crofter]

I checked into UPS store here and a box is about $30 per month before any forwarding charges. 

Someone brought up QuietTimes in Quartzsite AZ. Anyone have experience with their mail forwarding services?  -crofter

 

[WanderingRose]

The problem we found with mail forwarding is that first class mail is mechanically sorted from the junk mail, and not always accurately.

Early in retirement, we had a mail forwarding service thru UPS, also had it for a time forwarded to an adult child, while having the rest of it held by our mail person until we returned from a trip.

Consistently, first class mail ended up with the junk, and had that just been thrown out by the post office important items would have been lost. Savings bonds for the grands, bills, personal mail, etc.

If you are going to maintain a home base, my suggestion is to try to find someone who can pick up your mail once a week at your house, and send on to you important items, or use a forwarding service and collect held mail at your post office once a month and either leave it at your house or hold it for you until you return.

It’s a pain to then go thru, it, but you will be horrified at what you find in there.

 

[highdesertranger]

ok I am confused(not hard to do),

UPS = United Parcel Service
USPS = United States Postal Service

so who is doing the sorting UPS or USPS and where are we talking about having a forwarding service UPS or USPS?

highdesertranger

 

[WanderingRose]

UPS has a mail forwarding service, where your mail is forwarded to them and they send it on to you when you request and to the location of your choosing.

USPS forwards to your UPS mailbox, the sorting done mechanically and prone consistently to error, in our experience.

We also learned that 2-3 day Priority Mail from UPS of our mail could be 7-9 days in remote locations, while you waited around an area waiting for your mail to arrive.

If you can at all do it, the most reliable way to deal with mail from home base is to have a human look at it and either send on important items or take pictures of bills/important things and send them on to you.

Which is what my son does for me.

 

[B and C]

So you have two forwards, USPS forwards to UPS that forwarded to you. Why not get rid of the USPS link? Seems it would make things simpler and faster.

 

[WanderingRose]

You could, if you wanted UPS to be your permanent address.

I’m not sure that would work for all things.

 

[Malamute]

Ive had difficulties getting the mail from my normal PO Box to forward to me. Its often OK, but they also miss important things, and on one occasion, they did NOT send something very important that was postmarked in the same town as my PO Box a week before the forward expired, then didnt give me all my mail when I got back and went in to ask for it, resulting in legal difficulties because I never received the piece of mail in time.

Best seems to be have some real person check it and send it in a big envelope once in a while, or tell you whats there and you can pay man y things by phone, which is what I do most of the time anyway. I get mail, I often dont open it, just call them and pay by phone with credit card or bank e-check. The forwarding services seem to work OK for some people but Ive never tried them.

Keep in mind you can have mail forwarded or sent by a person as general delivery to any town you may be going through. They will hold it about 2 weeks, then send it back if you dont show up and get it. Just go the the window, tell them you have General Delivery mail you are expecting and they get it for you. The General Delivery also works if you are traveling through a state that prohibits firearms magazines over a certain capacity. Unload them, mail them to yourself G-D to some town outside the state you know you will be going through, and pick them up when back out of said state with restrictions. Please note you cant mail ammo or handguns as a normal person. This has come up several times with people traveling through California and their pistol may use regular magazines of more than 10 rds or whatever California allows.

 

[abnorm]

Can anyone reccomend a mail forwarder in AZ?  So far I have had no success with mail forwarding.  -crofter

BCM is in Quartzsite......operated out-of-a-house...Mom/Pop and staff….we used them for a season MAILBOX......but they also forward/residence 

https://bcmmailandship.com/