Mail Services on the Road

[PatLee]

I would appreciate recommendations for on-the-road mail services, OTHER than for Escapees or TravelingMailbox.
To the person who always provides us helpful links of past posts on redundant subjects: I did enter 'mail service' in the search box within various Airforums only to see the same links come up every time, most of them over a year old.
New input / updates needed.
Thanks.

[knunut]

When we started with Big trips (2007) we got a UPS Mail Box. Local UPS Store.
It has been the best thing ever for us. Even if we don't travel all mail, Amazon
etc. goes there.
Our UPS will forward or hold mail. We even give them a list of places we will be (That Accepts Pkgs.) before we leave. We can then call once a week and say ship to place # 4 on list . We have shipped winter clothing etc and they then hold for our return. Or you can authorize family member to pick up.
Our address looks like : John Doe
8080 Long St. PMB 180
Hometown, State 12345
PMB =Personal Mail Box or a # has worked.
So we can come and go as we want. They can fax or e-mail us as needed. That was only needed once. Chgo metro would cost about $300 year.
Hope this helps.

[PatLee]

knunut - thanks! There is a UPS store about 1/2 block from me so I'll go see them. Hopefully, they offer a monthly plan.

[Rich W]

+1 for the UPS Store mailbox. USPS will hold mail for only 30 days but will forward it for a year. We've used the UPS PMB address for things we wanted to be shipped directly there. We've called them to ask what's in the PMB, to forward stuff, etc. They have been very accommodating for everything, even holding large packages for months until we return. Rates are very reasonable and we chose the largest box they had.

We have also used the Amazon Locker service when we wanted something delivered where we happen to be, if the CG doesn't support mail delivery. Very handy for ordering repair parts.

You didn't ask, but we have all our bills set up as paperless and use e-check payment. We also have 2 different camera systems so we can monitor our house when traveling. We use 2 because 1 of them will periodically fail.

[devilsbox]

We use America's Mailbox in SD. Moseying our way there now to get our Domicile straightened out.

Larry

[Danecoyer]

I had great luck with these guys

https://www.myrvmail.com/

[drbob46923]

We have been using SBI Mail Service since summer of 2015 and have had a great experience. The basic mail service is very inexpensive. We pay for the premium service that allows us to view scanned images of incoming mail, this allows us to mark each piece of mail as hold, open and scan, shred, forward, and not mine. By choosing open and scan each page of the mail can be viewed the next day as a PDF and saved on your laptop. Junk mail is sorted out and shredded at no extra cost if you choose that option. The premium service is around $22/month if I remember correctly. It's the little extra's that add up. Once arriving home we just call and have the service put on hold till we leave home again, this makes it very affordable. sbimailservice.com

[Lily&Me]

Be aware that sorting and forwarding done by the US Postal Service is done by machine, and machines can make mistakes...items stick together, are misread, etc.

Forwarding services that use 2-3 day Priority Mail can also still mean a week to delivery for items to get to remote areas.

Maggie

[Edistobob]

Another endorsement of SBI. We have used them for years and have always had top notch accurate and responsive service.

[UnklJoe]

We have used America's Mailbox in Box Elder, SD, to establish our domicile residence as a full-time RV'ing couple. We availed ourselves of their services for getting SD car and AS registration and tags, help with getting our SD Driver Licenses, and used the on-site insurance broker to get auto- and RV insurance.

As with anything done remotely for the first time, there is generally a hitch or three. But, we worked through everything. The people at America's Mailbox were very helpful and have even tried to document each of the procedures and processes. As always, dealing with civil servants and government entities there is usually a hitch or two that complicates matters. We didn't have any rush need to get this done (we started the processes early enough) and everything got done when it needed to be done--even when one of their main personnel had a medical issue, everyone else chipped in to finish things up for us!

They have always sent our mail wherever we've asked them in a timely manner. While we have tried to stop all junk mail and catalogs (the DW gets hundreds of them per year!), but they seem to find our new address and use it no matter where we move or when and it starts up again. (I keep telling her if she wouldn't buy so much mail-order stuff this wouldn't happen, and so far the only thing that's worked is full-time RV-ing (we don't the room for things we used to!)).

The last thing I want to say is that South Dakotans are some of the nicest people you will ever meet--so having our domicile residence in SD was a no-brainer. Combine that with the fact we only have to spend one (1) night there every five years (in a hotel or campground), and there are no state income taxes or interest income taxes, and, well, the benefits of SD residency are pretty darn good. Auto insurance is reasonable, as well.

That's about it--if you're only looking for a local mail forwarding service, this may not be the right solution. But, if you're full-time RV'ing, I like this solution better than ones in Florida or Texas or Nevada (the latter where you have to spend 30 nights per year to have domicile residency to enjoy the tax benefits of Nevada residency).

[Bob Peahl]

We use St Brendans Isle when traveling for long periods of time. They will scan all incoming envelopes, email that to you and you decide whether to have it trashed, held or forwarded to you.

Our packaged items, mainly via Amazon, were sent to various destinations without involving St Brendans Isle.

I recommend this service to anyone traveling for more than a month at a time.

[oldenavy]

We have used both America’s Mailbox in SD and Good Sam in FL. Good Sam has much better website for checking your mail but America’s Mailbox works ok. Last year they had a problem with delays in the mail and refused to acknowledge it was their problem but that seems to have worked its way out. Both will also help you establish residency for full timers.

[PatLee]

drbob - I like the sound of SBI and am going to give them a try this season. You calling them "SBI" and another poster calling them "St. Brendan's Isle" was temporarily confusing. Thanks for rec!

[PatLee]

Hi all with update - based on input from this post, I decided to give SBI a try this time around.
Thanks for recs, stay safe.

[Fjord F-150]

Hello,

We will be full timing & mooch docking between Tallahasse FL and Clemson SC from July 2022 through May 2023 and need a mail service.

Has anyone tried ipostal1?
https://ipostal1.com/compare-plans.php

Any other services that are highly recommended?

Thanks

[oldenavy]

Originally Posted by Fjord F-150

Hello,

We will be full timing & mooch docking between Tallahasse FL and Clemson SC from July 2022 through May 2023 and need a mail service.

Has anyone tried ipostal1?
https://ipostal1.com/compare-plans.php

Any other services that are highly recommended?

Thanks

That’s the engine behind America’s Mailbox. When we check our mail, our login takes us to ipostal.

Have not tried them directly.