What mail-forwarding service?

[SnooMc]

TL;DR: Looking for the easiest, least frustrating mail-forwarding service that is ALSO good at helping with vehicle registrations.

We chose America's Mailbox, out of South Dakota, because it looked good at first glance (and because SD seemed most friendly to full-timers). Setting up and paying for the actual mail box was not even as easy as it should have been, but then we wanted to title/register a small cargo trailer (the tag was about to expire here in Colorado) and that was when it got annoying. The web site is convoluted when it comes to telling you what you need to send to them. They've had what we DID send for a month, and just today we got an email that we didn't send everything they need, despite my husband calling a month ago and confirming. Frustrating, and we're thinking to make a change, even though we've already paid for a year. We don't have much confidence that they'll be any better with the mail.

[SnooMc]

I'll answer part of my own question...apparently America's Mailbox is the only company that helps with vehicle registrations, so it looks like it's going to be faster to just make the trip up there and do it ourselves.

Since we've already paid for a year, we'll just hope they do a good job with the mail.

Mods, if we had the ability to delete our own posts, that would be great!

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

I was under the impression that you always need to handle your own registration. We registered at my parents house in FL, we have to be in FL every two years for a vin check. May be different in South Dakota — have you tried escapees? From what I recall, the best states to register in for full timers are Texas, Florida, and South Dakota all for tax, registration fees, and time requirements to come back to the state.

Best of luck

[n2916s]

I've lived in Florida most of my life and I've never needed a VIN check for a renewal. The Miami-Dade County Tax Collector sends me a bill, I pay it and they send me new stickers or, occasionally, a new plate. Maybe a county thing?

[Edistobob]

We have used St Brendan’s Isle in Florida for years and have always had fantastic customer service. I have not used them for vehicle registration, but they do provide this service according to their web pages. You might want to check into them. https://www.sbimailservice.com

[ghaynes755]

I've been with America's Mailbox about 5 years. They have done multiple registrations for existing and new vehicles over that time. The process is a bit convoluted but if you carefully follow their directions it should go pretty smoothly. I always fill in all of the forms and then send them an email with scans for final approval. Then send in the completed documents with the notarized power of attorney. They sometimes get behind if it is holidays or someone goes on vacation but always get it done.

I also use them for my insurance. Year in and out they beat every one else and I shop all of them I can find to check.

Sorry to hear you had some issues.

[SnooMc]

Thanks, everyone.
EdistoBob, I will look up St Brendan's.
GHaynes - they are really nice, but the website could certainly use some editing. We thought we had everything needed, and a call to them seemed to confirm it. It's just the cargo trailer though, so no big deal.

Once we get things set up, I'm sure it will all go more smoothly.

[DreamStreamr]

We’ve used escapees mail service twelve years. Faultless service in every way. Can’t recommend them highly enough.

[ChainStream]

FWIW, titling/registering vehicles by mail directly with Pennington County (SD) was far easier than dealing with America's Mailbox. Plus, the Pennington Country Treasurer's office will actually answer the phone when you call.

[JonDNC]

Originally Posted by Edistobob

We have used St Brendan’s Isle in Florida for years and have always had fantastic customer service. I have not used them for vehicle registration, but they do provide this service according to their web pages. You might want to check into them. https://www.sbimailservice.com

Ditto

[Rocinante]

Originally Posted by JonDNC

Ditto

Same here. We’re very satisfied with SBI’s mail service. They didn’t do it for us, but they provided information and moral support as we titled and registered our vehicles in FL and got our drivers’ licenses done. We would have had a much harder time getting that done without their support.

[ghaynes755]

ChainStream I would partially agree with your comment about AMB. There is more paperwork solely since they are acting as an agent and need power of attorney and other documents to do the work for you. None of that is needed if you work directly with Pennington County.



I have done some through AMB, some in person at the treasurer's office and a couple via mail/phone. Fastest was in person if you have the paper work. AMB was next quickest and slowest was via mail. Mail seemed to be the slowest since they process in order of reciept so overnight gets no priority and it can take several weeks for them to get to your package. Then they will call/email the amount owed and you need to send them a check which will take another week to 10 days.


So if you can find yourself in town they have the shortest waiting lines for registration that I have ever seen. Don't think I have ever waited more than 20 minutes.


And for SnooMc, they recently updated the website so a bit easier to get around.

[ChainStream]

Originally Posted by ghaynes755

ChainStream I would partially agree with your comment about AMB. There is more paperwork solely since they are acting as an agent and need power of attorney and other documents to do the work for you. None of that is needed if you work directly with Pennington County.



I have done some through AMB, some in person at the treasurer's office and a couple via mail/phone. Fastest was in person if you have the paper work. AMB was next quickest and slowest was via mail. Mail seemed to be the slowest since they process in order of reciept so overnight gets no priority and it can take several weeks for them to get to your package. Then they will call/email the amount owed and you need to send them a check which will take another week to 10 days.


So if you can find yourself in town they have the shortest waiting lines for registration that I have ever seen. Don't think I have ever waited more than 20 minutes.


And for SnooMc, they recently updated the website so a bit easier to get around.

Gary,

We, also, have registered all three ways. I did not penalize AMB for the extra paperwork required, but for their unwillingness to (A) answer the phone; (B) positively confirm we had submitted all necessary paperwork (They merely said "check the website"); and (C) display sufficient competence in coordinating our registration. (As a side note, having them check our mail for the new license plates and then send them to us required two separate "processes," for some reason.)

Given the option, of course we will register in person at Pennington County (which, BTW, we learned is the only county in SD that processes non-resident registrations).

If registering remotely, we will ALWAYS work directly with the county and skip AMB as the "middle-men." True, the initial processing with the county treasurer's office could take a couple weeks from the time they receive the package, but after that, they contact you either by phone or email to tell you what paperwork, if any, you are missing and to confirm what amount you owe, if not included with the application. From that point, you can phone or email that agent directly, and processing of your title/registration paperwork is nearly immediate. I phoned the treasurer's office before mailing in our paperwork to make sure I was sending everything they needed, find out approximately how much we would owe, and get a sense of how long mail submissions were taking. They were spot on across the board, and quite helpful...a far cry from my AMB experience. In the end, the "slow" by-mail process directly with the Pennington County went twice as fast as our experience with AMB.

My 2 cents' worth, based on personal experience, FWIW.

Cheers!

[kb0zke]

America's Mail Box is NOT the only mail service that will take care of vehicle registration for you. We've been with Your Best Address in Sioux Falls since 2013. They handled getting our Foretravel titled and registered in SD for us. We did the Jeep ourselves since we were there at the proper time. They have done the plates for both vehicles (the Jeep has since grown up to a Lincoln MKT) each year for us.


We do have to be back in SD this year to renew drivers licenses, so will do the vehicle registrations at the same time.

[devilsbox]

We've been using America's Mailbox for about a year with no problem except, well.... what's with the dum dum lolipops they include in every mailing to us?

Larry

[SnooMc]

When it came time to renew with them, we went ahead, because it was too much trouble to change all the addresses again.
If you visit them in person, they have candy and cookies in the office, so the lollies are probably an extension of that...?

[azflycaster]

When we are traveling for the summer (not this year) we forward our mail to Scan Mailboxes. They are a service located in Austin Texas that sends an email with a picture of every envelope that they receive. I can manage my mail online by having the service shred, forward or open and scan my mail. I have an app on my phone to help manage everything.

https://scanmailboxes.com/

[ghaynes755]

Americas Mailbox also scans, depending on the membership level, and for $1 will open and envelope and scan the contents for you. I've don't that a couple of times to get a check so that I can do an electronic deposit.