snowbird mail forwarding - anyone else have the USPS refuse to keep doing it?

[badgerSt]

Hi All. Long time reader, first time poster.

Two years ago we bought a house in another state, with the intention of being there for the summers each year. For the first year we just used the USPS 'temporary change of address' to forward the (very occasional) mail from there to our 9-months-a-year address.

Recently, the post office has refused to do this any more. At the end of this past summer we filed another temp change of address and and got a letter from the USPS saying they'd shortened the duration because the total time (apparently forever) cannot exceed 12 months.

We waited till the shortened duration had passed and tried filing a new temp change of address. I got a letter in the mail again saying it cannot exceed 12 months and that they'd just be converting it from forwarding into return to sender.

What are we doing wrong? We've tried filing this both online and in person. Search on these forums and other places on the web makes it sound like most snowbirds are just doing USPS temp change of address, year after year. I really don't want to pay 15$/wk for the 'premium forwarding' so they can send 1 letter a month to me for 9 months a year.

 

[Senator]

Permanently change your address to the 9-month address. Then use USPS Premium Mail Forwarding to the 3-month address. It works great.

 

[Tom52]

Not sure that I totally understand you situation but I just arranged with the USPS to hold my mail for the next week while traveling and then do a change of address to our Florida rental where we will be for 2 months. At the same time we filled out another hold request starting about two weeks before we leave Florida. That should allow enough time for any in transit mail to arrive before we leave Florida. When we expect to arrive back home in early April the held mail will automatically start arriving. That is if all goes well. People at local post office said they do this for numerous local snowbirds every year. There is no premium mail forwarding charges involved.

 

[Sunset]

When I read the rules at:
https://moversguide.usps.com/icoa/mailforwarding/temporary-moves?execution=e2s1&state=tmp

It seems at worst you have to wait 45 days between forwarding's (now maybe that is business days).

Now way it's 12 months in total time, otherwise after people move 3 times, they could never forward again

OP - if you are 9 months in 1 place, then that is where you should be sending your mail.

I find the forward thing is better than nothing, but the labels they stick on envelops are sometimes poor and I feel the mail has a risk of being "lost".

 

[stargazer08]

My folks had issues trying to get mail forwarded from IL to FL while they snowbird. It would never get there or the FL post office would send it back.

They are lucky enough to have me live across the street from them in IL. The post office forwards their mail to me and I then send it to them. We have been doing this for 5+ years now.

 

[calmloki]

...
OP - if you are 9 months in 1 place, then that is where you should be sending your mail.

I find the forward thing is better than nothing, but the labels they stick on envelops are sometimes poor and I feel the mail has a risk of being "lost".

Regarding the forwarding labels - the mail order pharmacy for Kaiser Permanente in Oregon ships in kyvek envelopes and doesn't ship to out of state addresses. No problem: mail forwarding. Problem: the forwarding tags HATE kyvek. Several times I tracked heart meds to within about 100 miles of me in SoCal only to have them reverse course and return to Portland. Exciting. Now I fill prescriptions with a KP mail order pharmacy here in SoCal when we are here. No problems.

Tax time can be exciting: Several financial institutions have "do not forward" instructions; customer service is pretty much just guessing if you ask if 1099s or other forms are mailed in "do not forward" form. We tried changing address with some banks to our SoCal address for the times we were down here and discovered California gets real excited when interest statements are sent direct mail to a California address, as they pretty much insist that proves you live here and they want their tax money. Now we try real hard to get our tax statements online. Much easier than fighting with tax Dobermans.

 

[Danmar]

This is an issue for us as we have 3 places where mail is delivered. We dont stay in one place for more than a few weeks at a time so dont even try to forward mail. Have tried to suppress mail to the extent we can (paperless bills, property taxes, investment accts, etc). I guess the only mail we haven’t been able to suppress are insurance premium notices. Paper mail seems so much less important than it was a decade ago.

 

[mpeirce]

Tax time can be exciting: Several financial institutions have "do not forward" instructions; customer service is pretty much just guessing if you ask if 1099s or other forms are mailed in "do not forward" form.

Every one of my financial institutions make all the tax forms downloadable. It's easy and there are absolutely no USPS mail issues.

 

[Senator]

Tax time can be exciting: Several financial institutions have "do not forward" instructions; customer service is pretty much just guessing if you ask if 1099s or other forms are mailed in "do not forward" form.

That is where the premium mail forwarding service comes in handy. The local USPS just puts your mail in a box, and ships it 1x a week to your destination. No one get notified about new addresses, and mail is not really forwarded, it is boxed and sent. Any "Do Not Forward" mail still gets sent, along with magazines and junk mail. Everything goes.

You can change the destination address if you want and need to.

At the end of your travels, you can stop the forwarding and revert to a hold.

UPS and FedEx are on their own...

 

[Scuba]

Every one of my financial institutions make all the tax forms downloadable. It's easy and there are absolutely no USPS mail issues.

Agreed. We used a service called virtualpostmail.com when we were away for 3 months. They scan all envelopes received daily and if you want them to, they can forward items to you or open your mail and scan the contents for you.

Most of our important correspondence is electronic, but we did receive a wedding invitation, some insurance documents, and a property tax bill. I don’t know if this idea will help you as you do have to forward your mail to the company.

 

[kcowan]

I guess the only mail we haven’t been able to suppress are insurance premium notices. Paper mail seems so much less important than it was a decade ago.

TDDI Corporate Action Notices are the only snail mail that we get that is important. We know when the insurance is due and contact them. CRA also likes to send mail even though we have been signed up for MyAccount for many years. All my responses go to them that way.

 

[ceciledian]

We've used temp forwarding for the past 5 years. The biggest problem we've had is with our primary post office failing at forwarding, some years worse than others. If the usual carrier goes on vacation the temp apparently does not know (or care) about the forwarding so mail goes in the box. We have a neighbor check weekly.

 

[audreyh1]

Hi All. Long time reader, first time poster.

Two years ago we bought a house in another state, with the intention of being there for the summers each year. For the first year we just used the USPS 'temporary change of address' to forward the (very occasional) mail from there to our 9-months-a-year address.

Recently, the post office has refused to do this any more. At the end of this past summer we filed another temp change of address and and got a letter from the USPS saying they'd shortened the duration because the total time (apparently forever) cannot exceed 12 months.

We waited till the shortened duration had passed and tried filing a new temp change of address. I got a letter in the mail again saying it cannot exceed 12 months and that they'd just be converting it from forwarding into return to sender.

What are we doing wrong? We've tried filing this both online and in person. Search on these forums and other places on the web makes it sound like most snowbirds are just doing USPS temp change of address, year after year. I really don't want to pay 15$/wk for the 'premium forwarding' so they can send 1 letter a month to me for 9 months a year.

Hmmm - we used a private mail forwarding service when RVing. Escapees out of Livingston TX. I kept the service even when we moved to a house. And I do temporary change of address to them when we travel for more than a month. I can call them to have my accumulated mail sent anywhere, or I can have them hold it for longer than the post office will hold it.

I try to get all important documents electronically if at all possible.

 

[Danmar]

TDDI Corporate Action Notices are the only snail mail that we get that is important. We know when the insurance is due and contact them. CRA also likes to send mail even though we have been signed up for MyAccount for many years. All my responses go to them that way.

“My Account” at CRA works great. All mail from them has stopped. I know when insurance is due except for the autos in Arizona. Putting them on and off insurance means the dates keep changing. But if I’m not there it means the insurance is “off” so doesn’t matter much. Haven’t had a Corp action notice for years, if ever. Sometimes one of our property managers will take a picture of something they think is important and ask if we want them to forward it. It’s never important.

Frankly, I could pretty much do without mail service. This would force the Insurance co’s to adapt. 95% of our mail goes right into the garbage. Another 4% is stuff that could be important (mailer has disguised their intent) but isn’t and soon is in the garbage as well. 1% are insurance premium notices and the accompanying insurance certificates.

 

[Fermion]

Get a small mailbox at a UPS store. Make everything you can paperless and then all other stuff put the UPS store address as your mailing address and leave your home as your official permanent address.

Cost for a small box is around $100 to $150 a year and they will store your mail up and send it all to you for around $10 in shipping. We do this about every two months, just to make sure we don't get a jury summons or something (which I would have to figure out a way to get out of if we are across the country)

 

[googily]

And don't forget to also sign up for USPS Informed Delivery, where you get e-mails with scans of the envelopes of your 1st Class mail. A great way to know what's coming--and to be sure that it gets to you.

 

[Scuba]

We've used temp forwarding for the past 5 years. The biggest problem we've had is with our primary post office failing at forwarding, some years worse than others. If the usual carrier goes on vacation the temp apparently does not know (or care) about the forwarding so mail goes in the box. We have a neighbor check weekly.

We did that too. The transition took a few weeks longer than it should have but it did eventually work.

 

[Senator]

And don't forget to also sign up for USPS Informed Delivery, where you get e-mails with scans of the envelopes of your 1st Class mail. A great way to know what's coming--and to be sure that it gets to you.

I just signed up. I did not even know that feature was available. For free. And you do not even need a forwarding order in effect, from what I see.

What is Informed Delivery®?

Informed Delivery is a free and optional notification service that gives residential consumers the ability to digitally preview their letter-sized mailpieces and manage their packages scheduled to arrive soon. Informed Delivery makes mail more convenient by allowing users to view what is coming to their mailbox whenever, wherever – even while traveling – on a computer, tablet, or mobile device.

To automate the sortation and delivery of mail, the United States Postal Service® (USPS) digitally images the front of letter-sized mailpieces that run through automation equipment. USPS is now using those images to provide digital notifications to users in advance of the delivery of physical mail.

Informed Delivery benefits the entire household, ensuring that everyone has visibility into mail and package delivery each day. Informed Delivery allows users to take action before important items reach their mailbox, while offering mailers an unprecedented opportunity to engage users through synchronized direct mail and digital marketing campaigns.

 

[FIREmenow]

What is Informed Delivery®?

"......while offering mailers an unprecedented opportunity to engage users through synchronized direct mail and digital marketing campaigns."

In other words they're selling your email address?

 

[Senator]

And don't forget to also sign up for USPS Informed Delivery, where you get e-mails with scans of the envelopes of your 1st Class mail. A great way to know what's coming--and to be sure that it gets to you.

I just signed up. I did not even know that feature was available. For free. And you do not even need a forwarding order in effect, from what I see.

What is Informed Delivery®?

Informed Delivery is a free and optional notification service that gives residential consumers the ability to digitally preview their letter-sized mailpieces and manage their packages scheduled to arrive soon. Informed Delivery makes mail more convenient by allowing users to view what is coming to their mailbox whenever, wherever – even while traveling – on a computer, tablet, or mobile device.

To automate the sortation and delivery of mail, the United States Postal Service® (USPS) digitally images the front of letter-sized mailpieces that run through automation equipment. USPS is now using those images to provide digital notifications to users in advance of the delivery of physical mail.

Informed Delivery benefits the entire household, ensuring that everyone has visibility into mail and package delivery each day. Informed Delivery allows users to take action before important items reach their mailbox, while offering mailers an unprecedented opportunity to engage users through synchronized direct mail and digital marketing campaigns.

 

[REWahoo]

I just signed up. I did not even know that feature was available.

You missed out on this discussion of Informed Delivery last April: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/informed-delivery-a-free-new-usps-service-86401.html

 

[PatSea]

This looks like a valuable service as we snowbirds in Florida for about 7 weeks. I tried to sign up twice yesterday and was not successful. On the sign up page after I entered all my data it kept coming back asking me to reenter my passwords. But it showed that my passwords met the criteria. Anyone else have this problem. I would really like to get this setup. Thanks.

 

[googily]

This looks like a valuable service as we snowbirds in Florida for about 7 weeks. I tried to sign up twice yesterday and was not successful. On the sign up page after I entered all my data it kept coming back asking me to reenter my passwords. But it showed that my passwords met the criteria. Anyone else have this problem. I would really like to get this setup. Thanks.

Maybe you previously signed up at USPS.com for something? If there's a Forgot My Password link, enter your e-mail address and try that?

 

[Sunset]

In other words they're selling your email address?

So use a special email address, not your regular one.

 

[Amethyst]

A lot depends on your assigned PO. Ours is terrible (I believe they resent having to serve our community, because it was added-on to their service area when our little neighborhood PO closed). We went on vacation for a month, and I requested a 28-day hold. I got a receipt for the online transaction, so there couldn't be any misunderstanding at their end.
At the 3-week point, our neighbor emailed to let us know that the mailman had crammed a whole bunch of mail into our small box, mail had spilled onto the road, and the neighbor had collected all the mail in a box to hold in his garage. Neighbor wondered whether we had extended our vacation (and forgotten to extend the hold, although he didn't say that). When I explained our side, he said he had also had a lot of trouble with our PO mis-delivering their mail.