Forwarding Mail While Gone for the Winter

[x3 skier]

For the past few years, I have had my daughter send my mail via Priority Mail $7.35 (+ her time) a week while I’m away from my house over the winter.

I’m considering other a couple of other options, standard mail forwarding or the Post Office Service that ships first class mail once a week via Priority Mail. The first is free and the second costs $21.10 a week. Priority Mail or other mail service is not the most reliable operation in my winter area so forwarding or Priority or anything is hit or miss regarding promised delivery times.

If anyone has experience with either regular forwarding or the PO Service while away for an extended period, I’d appreciate your comments.

Thanks

 

[Beachclubmum]

My parents split time between 2 coasts. They do regular mail forwarding. The only thing that gets tricky is to allow for stopping the mail forwarding in time for the switch overlap.

 

[Passepartout]

We used the USPS forwarding service a few years ago while we refurbed my departed FIL's home for about 4 months. It worked OK, if a little spendy.

 

[andre10056]

There are a couple options for you if you're just going to be temporarily away.

First option, you might just get online and send "change addresses" to all your correspondents who send you "every month" mail: credit card companies, mortgage companies, utilities, etc., etc. And then change back to your permanent address about a week or so before you get back (so that anything sent to you thereafter will NOT be sent to your temporary address such that it arrives THERE after you leave). That way, you get your mail as soon as you possibly can.

Option two, which you can also do in addition to option one, I would fill out a "temporary change of address' at the post office. That's good for up to six months but can be renewed for up to one year total. That will result in your getting that mail with a little yellow "changed address" sticker placed somewhere on the face of the letter. But don't let it go for six months (or whatever your termination date is) and do nothing if you're still away because mail will be automatically delivered to your permanent address thereafter. So you might then get a ton of mail at your permanent address despite not being home.

That "temporary change of address" causes maybe a day or two delay as compared to something being sent directly to your new address (option 1). In fact, I've been told that the computer processing system can "read" addresses and is able to immediately re-direct it if there's a temporary change of address on file. So it won't even make it's way to your permanent address' post office, but will be redirected (including having the yellow sticker affixed) almost immediately after being sent.

The days of your mail arriving at your letter carrier's sorting station, the carrier physically having it in his hand, and then putting a line through your address and writing "temporary address on file", and then bringing your letters to an area for further processing, are over.

The worst option, in my opinion, is having the mail come all the way through to your permanent address (or its post office), having it accumulate for some period of time, at which point it's collected and bundled up and sent to you under separate cover. Time wasted, money spent. And all of that to delay your mail by sometimes more than a week. And there's even a greater risk of it getting lost.









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[TheTimeTraveler]

I suggest using the regular standard mail forwarding service. It is forwarded six days a week (not Sundays), and won't cost you a nickel. Yes, it's free!

The advantage of this service (advantage in my eyes) is that they won't forward any of the so called "junk mail". Yea!




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[Wyominguy]

On a related note you can sign up for USPS Informed Delivery to receive a daily email that displays all the pieces of mail you will receive later that day. I use this to keep track of important items I might be expecting. It is a free service. https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action

Neil

 

[slip]

On a related note you can sign up for USPS Informed Delivery to receive a daily email that displays all the pieces of mail you will receive later that day. I use this to keep track of important items I might be expecting. It is a free service. https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action

Neil

I started this when I relocated last year. My wife liked it so much she signed up for it also.

 

[pedro47]

Our USPS is the pits. We have placed our mail on hold for two (2) weeks many of times...Problems after Problems... Here are just some of our problems: The USPS never stop our mail for two (2) weeks. We are bless to have a good neighbor, who collected our mail for two weeks.
Problem #2. When we return from one two weeks vacation. We had no mail saved by the USPS in their building. They missed place our mail in their post office. They did found our mail after a one day search.
Problem #3. When we return from another two weeks vacation. We did not received any of our mail. We did received mail outside of mailing area for our ten (10) difference address in Virginia.

We have complaint verbally and in writing to the local post office manager, the regional P O Manager, our federal Congressional person and still this post office cannot keep their act together.

We now track our mail daily using the postal service app.
This is a great feature by the post office.

 

[andre10056]

pedro,

It's not just YOUR post office.

When I was 16 during the fall of my senior year in high school, I took a postal service exam in hopes of becoming a "casual carrier" ( a letter carrier during the summer). Although I didn't get any veterans credit (5 points) or disabled veterans credit (10 points), I somehow got the job, which I started the summer when I was 17.

Where was I assigned? To deliver mail in what was the worst housing project in Boston. No regular carrier wanted to go in there so it was "let the kid do it".
But no one messed with me, I felt like I was the most honored and respected person in the projects, because I delivered the checks.

But, even then, I thought that my fellow postal workers were not the most...how can I say...intelligente. Also, boracho many days.

When I got out of the Marine Corps some years later, my first full time job was again with the postal service. Again, as a whole, not the highest caliber people.

So there was nothing but mistakes being made. It was a mess. So...yes....problems are very much possible. For a two week trip, you may be better off not making any changes. With the post office, and I hate to say it, changes are sometimes a problem.

 

[geekette]

My folks had their mail forwarded to a Mail Boxes, etc. type place. It's easy to remove a forwarding order, and you can pick somewhere nearby. Not everything gets forwarded so it would make sense to have someone check your mailbox periodically regardless of what you do.

 

[WinniWoman]

Having just moved and getting ready to move again, I used the USPS mail forwarding service. The key was starting it 7-10 days before when I actually needed it to start (which was/is my move date). It worked very well last time, though I just had an issue yesterday where in Informed Delivery they showed an image of an envelope for me that I knew contained a 1099R and it was addressed to my old address and did not have a yellow forwarding sticker on it. So I never got it and when I called the Post Office they said they are assuming it might get sent back to a post office in another city/county just north of here and then find it's way back down to me via forwarding. SMH...

I thought maybe it would have just been delivered to my former address, but I called the people living there and they did not receive it either.

 

[rapmarks]

Seventeenth year of having mail forwarded from post office for six months at each house. . I get mail up to the day before I leave. I put the hold mail notice in a week before I leave for Florida mail and likewise for Wisconsin. Mail forwarding starts the day I leave and might take a week to get there. Occasionally a mistake is made, mainly by a substitute mail carrier . Florida is very used to doing this and very reliable.

 

[x3 skier]

Thanks for all the comments. I already have Informed delivery (very useful) and will use regular forwarding.

Thanks again.

 

[carl2591]

the RVers, cruisers and folks like travel nurses etc use mail forwarding place.. https://rvlivingnow.com/rv-mail-forwarding-services/