Will Be Gone for 5 Weeks - What to Do About the Mail?

[CoolRich59]

Another seasonal rental question.

We will be renting a condo in FL for the month of March. We will be taking our time for the drive down ( 2 or 3 days - no more "death march" 20-hour drives! ) and doing the same coming back.

So, I'm unsure what to do about our mail. I don't really want to pay to have it forwarded because, apart from bills, it's mostly junk mail. On the other hand, I don't want to miss something that might be important.

The USPS site isn't very helpful so I'm wondering what others do about mail and/or are there other options I might choose?

 

[Gumby]

We always have the post office hold our mail, but, IIRC, 30 days is the max. Can you arrange for them to hold it for the first 30 days, with pickup at the post office upon return specified and have a trusted friend or neighbor take the next 5-6 day's worth in? Or have the neighbor hold the first 6 days and start the post office hold after that.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Aside from the primary question, do you subscribe to the USPS informed delivery service? Even when not traveling, it's nice to get a daily email with images of the snail mail you're set to receive that day. Well, most of it anyway.

 

[REWahoo]

We have great neighbors who pick up our mail for us when we take extended trips - and we do the same for them.

 

[RetireAge50]

We do what Gumby just said. Works great.

 

[CoolRich59]

We always have the post office hold our mail, but, IIRC, 30 days is the max.

Yes, 30 days is the max. So, I need to make other arrangements.

Can you arrange for them to hold it for the first 30 days, with pickup at the post office upon return specified and have a trusted friend or neighbor take the next 5-6 day's worth in? Or have the neighbor hold the first 6 days and start the post office hold after that.

We could, but none of our friends or family are close by, and I don't want to inconvenience anyone to go out of their way to pick up our mail.

I'm wondering if I could have the mail held and then have one of my sons stop by the post office once a week to pick it up and let us know if there's anything that looks important.

The USPS website is not very helpful, so I'll probably drive to my local office and see if that's doable.

 

[CoolRich59]

Aside from the primary question, do you subscribe to the USPS informed delivery service? Even when not traveling, it's nice to get a daily email with images of the snail mail you're set to receive that day. Well, most of it anyway.

I saw this service, but it did not interest me. Most of our mail these days seems like it's bills and junk mail. But, if there was something important, getting an image of the item without the ability to get my hands on it wouldn't do me any good.

 

[harley]

I'm wondering if I could have the mail held and then have one of my sons stop by the post office once a week to pick it up and let us know if there's anything that looks important.

You could absolutely do this. I do mail holds all the time, and never once have been asked for ID. Depending on what's more convenient for your son, you could hold the mail for a month, have it delivered to your house, and have the son pick it up there. Or the PO. Either will work. I think there's a form you can use to allow someone else to pick up your mail, but I've never had to use it.

Also, you have a period of up to 10 days after the hold to pick up the mail. If you're only going to be gone for 5 weeks, just let it sit until you get back.

The USPS website is not very helpful, so I'll probably drive to my local office and see if that's doable.

Personally, I'd never deal with this stuff at the local branches. I almost always get what I want via the website, and whenever I've brought the humans in to the mix is when something gets messed up. JMO.

 

[brett]

We moved everything possible to email. A kind neighbour removes the junk mail and keeps the odd bit of actual mail for us.

 

[RetireAge50]

I would let the mail be delivered the first week and then start the hold for the last 30 days. I would be ok with this because all important stuff for me is paperless.

 

[CoolRich59]

You could absolutely do this. I do mail holds all the time, and never once have been asked for ID. Depending on what's more convenient for your son, you could hold the mail for a month, have it delivered to your house, and have the son pick it up there. Or the PO. Either will work. I think there's a form you can use to allow someone else to pick up your mail, but I've never had to use it.

Thanks. I think some version of this will work for me.

Personally, I'd never deal with this stuff at the local branches. I almost always get what I want via the website, and whenever I've brought the humans in to the mix is when something gets messed up. JMO.

Oh, I know what you mean. The folks at my local office are nice, but ...

 

[harley]

I know you said you weren't interested, but IMO it would be worth it to set up Informed Delivery. That way, while you're gone you'll know if anything important (small chance, I know) comes in. Then when you're back, you can just turn off the notification. I like it because I got a jury summons once, and being gone for over a month almost made me late responding. That and incoming credit card replacements. But the odds are you'll see it's all junk.

 

[CoolRich59]

I would let the mail be delivered the first week and then start the hold for the last 30 days. I would be ok with this because all important stuff for me is paperless.

I'm realizing that what's really driving this concern is old-school "paranoia" about missing or forgetting something.

My mortgage payment set up to be is sent automatically each month. All my insurance coverages are paid in full through May. Most of our monthly bills we receive and pay electronically. For those few bills we still get by mail, I plan on simply scheduling payment of an estimated amount on the usual due date and adding a "cushion" of 5% extra to make sure I don't underpay.

The chance of an unexpected bill or other item showing up that needs immediate attention is close to nil. But, if I can't worry about this then I have to think of something else to worry about.

 

[CoolRich59]

I know you said you weren't interested, but IMO it would be worth it to set up Informed Delivery. That way, while you're gone you'll know if anything important (small chance, I know) comes in. Then when you're back, you can just turn off the notification. I like it because I got a jury summons once, and being gone for over a month almost made me late responding. That and incoming credit card replacements. But the odds are you'll see it's all junk.

Good point. (And just when I was starting to convince myself I was getting worried over nothing! )

 

[OldShooter]

Our local UPS Store offers mail holding and forwarding. These are independent franchises so I'd guess that your local version would be happy to work out whatever arrangements make sense for you, including selective forwarding of non-junk.

 

[Lewis Clark]

I would let the mail be delivered the first week and then start the hold for the last 30 days. I would be ok with this because all important stuff for me is paperless.

Might not be a good idea to let a pile of mail sit in the mailbox, even for a few days. That's a sure sign the homeowner is away.

 

[Ronstar]

We used to leave for 3 months in the winter. I set up hold mail at USPS for a month. A month is the maximum hold time - at least in Illinois. Had a friend pick up the held mail after the first month. Then I’d do another hold for month 2. Then have friend pick up after month 2. Then do hold for month 3. And I’d pick up the held mail for month 3.

Well the USPS didn’t like this arrangement, so last year we went with a mail forwarding to the nearby UPS store. It worked great. USPS didn’t forward any junk mail, so there wasn’t much mail forwarded. Can’t remember the cost though.

 

[nwsteve]

Personally, I'd never deal with this stuff at the local branches. I almost always get what I want via the website, and whenever I've brought the humans in to the mix is when something gets messed up. JMO.

We usually do two 4-5 weeks trips a year. I learned the hard way, using the online hold is the way to go. After returning from one trip, I found none our mail had been held--we had a slot that drops into a box in garage and the box inside was overflowing. After a face to face chat with the local PO Supervisor, he pretty much told me that putting their yellow card in the mail was a 50-50 chance getting to right place.

 

[Grey-son]

We travel during the summer, sometimes for 3+ months at a time. We use traveling mailbox (https://travelingmailbox.com). You setup your account and have your mail forwarded to them. You can see your mail online and select what you want done ( forward, hold, delete, etc.). If we get a letter or check that we need, we can select it and they will forward it. When we return, we have all extra mail sent to us and then cancel the service.

 

[rk911]

Another seasonal rental question.

We will be renting a condo in FL for the month of March. We will be taking our time for the drive down ( 2 or 3 days - no more "death march" 20-hour drives! ) and doing the same coming back.

So, I'm unsure what to do about our mail. I don't really want to pay to have it forwarded because, apart from bills, it's mostly junk mail. On the other hand, I don't want to miss something that might be important.

The USPS site isn't very helpful so I'm wondering what others do about mail and/or are there other options I might choose?

option 1: post office temporary change of address form. online form takes effect in 48-hrs; paper version takes two weeks. free. post

option 2: a neighbor or friend picks up your mail at your house and alerts you to anything important.

other options cost $.

 

[Clone]

We have friends who stop over to the house once a week or every other week. They accumulate mail into a flat rate box. We had them send a box down after about 3 weeks. Our mailbox is a lock box in a community cluster, and it will probably hold 2 weeks worth of normal mail.

 

[Sunset]

Yes, 30 days is the max. So, I need to make other arrangements.

.... none of our friends or family are close by, and I don't want to inconvenience anyone to go out of their way to pick up our mail.

I'm wondering if I could have the mail held and then have one of my sons stop by the post office once a week to pick it up and let us know if there's anything that looks important.

The USPS website is not very helpful, so I'll probably drive to my local office and see if that's doable.

Distance does not matter, just redirect your mail to your son's house for the time you will be away.

We redirect our mail to a relatives place, and then go pick it up when we get back.

Like Harley said get Informed Delivery, it's 1 email each day, shows a photo of your mail, so you will know if you get something important like a new credit card, jury duty, tax bill, etc.

 

[Scuba]

We use a service called virtualpostmail.com. They do a great job. You forward your mail to them and they send a daily email showing envelopes. You decide what you want them to scan vs shred vs send physically to you. It’s very reasonable and IMO far more reliable than USPS.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I know you said you weren't interested, but IMO it would be worth it to set up Informed Delivery.

Its worth noting that I set this up for a prior residence, and after we moved for the LONGEST time I got scans of the new resident's mail. Huge security issue. So I feel like I want to be signed up for informed delivery just to "claim" my address so no one else can. It was a HUGE pain to UNsign up from and they didn't seem to have a good plan at the USPS as apparently it never occurred to them that ppl would move. Same software engineer as oes used the the recent Iowa Causcuses I presume...

 

[Bir48die]

We are so lucky (so far) to have a mail person deliver to our house with a mail slot in the door. And, a major city! Probably just jinxed this program. So, it just piles up and when we open the door we know there's a ton on the floor. On the other hand our fish wrap (paper) cannot get their heads around the "stop" that we schedule for vacation. So, we have thought about putting up a sign on the yard saying "we're on vacation"!