How To Hold or Deliver Mail to Vacation Address

Rianne

Rianne

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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We're new at living at a different address for an extended period of time. It's longer than 30 days but less than 3 months. Don't want to get a P.O. Box and mess up the mail coming to our address. Do we have to change our address for 3 months?

I know so many people do this all the time. I feel dumb asking the question. What do snowbirds do with their mail for a couple of months?
 
Rianne, I did this during the summer since I was traveling in Europe. Just went to the post office and filled in the form for forwarding my mail. On the form they ask if it is temporary, and if so, you can enter a date to end it. You may be able to do it online as well. Good luck!
 
Temporary change of address works very well if you have a different fixed address for a few months. You can set it up online too. I’d recommend that. Otherwise you’d need to look into some kind of mail service,
 
audreyh1 said:
Temporary change of address works very well if you have a different fixed address for a few months. You can set it up online too. I’d recommend that. Otherwise you’d need to look into some kind of mail service,
Click to expand...

We do this for our yearly trip to the mainland. The problem is that some companies do not allow their mail to be forwarded. Classic example is our bank. But we know that and have all our bank mail sent to a PO Box. Once a month, we have a friend shove all the box mail in an envelope and mail it to us.

This year, we got thrown for a loop. Turns out our medical group doesn't allow forwarding. SO, months into our trip, we got a nasty email from the medical group that they are about to turn us over to a collection agency. When I called, they threw HIPPA at us. I paid by CC over the phone, so no problem. Now we know.

Best to check if things will actually be forwarded.
 
We have worked very hard to minimize mail, and have paperless at every financial institution and utility and insurance company. So we get very little “real” mail, and we can track what is not forwarded by our informed delivery email updates.

We found that jury summons are not forwarded. Had to call from Spain about that one, ha ha.
 
Normally temporary forwarding of mail works well. Last year was a mess for our mail. I set it up online as I normally do. After two weeks of not getting any forwarded mail I started calling the post office at home. Two months later we finally got a large package with most, but not all of our expected mail. The only important things were some rent checks and property tax bills. We never did get one rent check and had to pester our rental management company to cut a new check. Fortunately, most financial transactions are paid online, and I was able to find my property tax bill online.
 
We do the temporary mail forwarding bit and, as with Koolau and Audreyh1, have the same sort of problems and work-arounds. Up in Oregon we've had some issues with temp or new delivery people putting mail in our house box even if we put signs inside it or try and seal it - last year I just removed the box from our front porch wall - Tada! no more problem. Got back, restarted normal delivery and remounted box. Easier than complaining and worked better too.
 
We are gone from Nov 1 till Mar 1 at 3 different places. I am too frugal for the USPS weekly forwarding fees. I have a trusted neighbor collect my mail. I use USPS Informed Delivery to see what is coming each day. I provide my neighbor some prepaid shipping envelopes, and when enough mail has accumulated, or important mail arrives, I have them send the stack to my current location.
Almost all financial documents come to me electronically, and I can see from the envelope picture (Informed Delivery) if something unusual is arriving...then I can visit the sender's website for more info...works for me for the last 7 years.
 
^^^^^
This made me curious, as I forgot what the fees for USPS Premium Forwarding were. $21.95 to enroll online in the program, and then $23.90/week. (Edited by OP)
 
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latexman said:
^^^^^
This made me curious, as I forgot what the fees for USPS Premium Forwarding were. $15 to enroll in the program, and then $15.25/week.
Click to expand...
It's showing more for me! I wonder why?
PFS-Residential has an enrollment fee and a weekly fee.

  • Enrollment fees (non-refundable)
    • $21.95 if you enroll online
    • $23.90 if you enroll at the Post Office
  • Weekly fees
    • $23.90 for each week of service whether you enrolled in person or online.
Click to expand...
 
You are right, I looked at an old Google Q&A that had old numbers. I'll edit my previous post. Thanks!
 
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I use temp fwding, up to six months, HOWEVER, if you expect renewal credit or debit card, my experience is that they are not fwdable. when I see that will happen during absence, change my address (w/cc company) to friend or relative, who will fwd it to me under cover (another envelope). change it back after receiving it

edit - also, change fwd to hold effective week or so before returning so you don't pass mail along the way home
 
drb391 said:
I use temp fwding, up to six months, HOWEVER, if you expect renewal credit or debit card, my experience is that they are not fwdable. when I see that will happen during absence, change my address (w/cc company) to friend or relative, who will fwd it to me under cover (another envelope). change it back after receiving it

edit - also, change fwd to hold effective week or so before returning so you don't pass mail along the way home
Click to expand...

Interesting. Our CC statements are forwarded but not bank statements (or, apparently some medical bills!)
 
Last year everything we got was forwardable. Credit Union, credit cards statements, mortgage payments, bills, etc.
 
latexman said:
I use USPS’s Premium Forwarding.

They hold your mail and every Wednesday send it to you via Priority Mail. We usually get our NC-to-FL parcel on Saturdays.

We manage it online.
Click to expand...

Does premium forwarding put those yellow stickers all over your mail or do they send it in one batch packaged priority mail?
 
We had no home after we sold our house and travelled overseas for seven months.

Prior to leaving we changed as much as possible to email. That was about 95 percent of the mail that we cared about.

For the rest we used our son's address. He culled it for us. There was very little that he kept other than one quarterly statement. He did not have to open the mail.

We were easily able to handle all of our financial affairs/normal banking remotely during this period.

We would never go back to snail mail again for anything unless it a cheque being sent to us or a legal requirement as it is for one quarterly mailing that we receive.

When we returned and rented a condo we carefully selected who we wanted to give our change of address to.

One huge benefit....the addressed junk mail that we previously got was cut by eighty percent or more.
 
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Rianne said:
Does premium forwarding put those yellow stickers all over your mail or do they send it in one batch packaged priority mail?
Click to expand...

No yellow stickers. They hold your mail, and on Wednesday's they stuff it into a Priority Mail bag, envelope, or box, whatever they think makes sense for that weeks mail, and send it to you.

The only issue we had last year was when our regular mail carrier took a week of vacation. The substitute put our mail in our box all week, but when the regular carrier came back, he immediately put all that mail in a Priority Mail bag and sent it to us. That was sub-standard, but there was no harm done, so . . . not a battle I engaged in. Our regular mail carrier called me and told us what was going on. He's a gem!
 
latexman said:
No yellow stickers. They hold your mail, and on Wednesday's they stuff it into a Priority Mail bag, envelope, or box, whatever they think makes sense for that weeks mail, and send it to you.

The only issue we had last year was when our regular mail carrier took a week of vacation. The substitute put our mail in our box all week, but when the regular carrier came back, he immediately put all that mail in a Priority Mail bag and sent it to us. That was sub-standard, but there was no harm done, so . . . not a battle I engaged in. Our regular mail carrier called me and told us what was going on. He's a gem!
Click to expand...

Good, thanks. I hate those yellow stickers.
 
I wish we could "opt out" of all mail....but alas, here is how we handle mail these days:

Convert everything to email delivery (best thing every invented in the last 20 years), auto pay and direct deposit.

Go online to USPS.com and sign up for their mail notification (I forget what they call it) but we get an email every morning with images of what's in the mail and what packages are coming in that day....we do that for both our primary and secondary residence. It's free.

When heading to the second home, we go to usps.com and fill out a temporary address forwarding request. You can add the beginning and ending date and if the ending date changes, you can update that. Just keep up with the confirmation.

Easy.

Mail has become such a non-issue for us now and wish we could totally eliminate it.
 
We have tried to minimize our mail, get many things online/email.

When we travel for more than 30 days, we do a temporary address change to a relative's house. I had to phone her this summer to open and read off a roll # for a tax school bill, so I could pay it via my bank. Cost is ~ $1.00 via CC when done online, (I think it's free at the post office).

We noticed a few mail pieces did make it to our mailbox, probably replacement workers. This is not an issue, as we have a locked mailbox.
 
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