Mail forwarding info for beginners.

[Dick Zeiter]

Soon to retire. Since I will no longer have people in the office that can UPS my mail and newspapers weekly, I will need to arrange for a friend or company to send the mail.

RE: the USPS portion of the process:
Will they sort out junk mail including catalogs & ads?
Will we receive non-auto deducted bills in a timely manner?
Will they forward packages such as pills and web orders?
Will they forward my Motorhome, FMCA and other magazines?

I plan to forward mail to a friend. The newspapers are a different  issue I need to resolve. I plan on trips of approximately 4 weeks.

Anything I should be aware of or limitations to the process?

 

[Seilerbird]

I used a mail forwarding service in Las Vegas for ten years. Mail Link:

https://www.maillinkplus.com/

The answers to your questions are yes, yes, yes, and yes.

 

[Lou Schneider]

Congratulations on your pending retirement, Dick!

You can set up mail forwarding on the USPS web site:

https://www.usps.com/manage/forward.htm

The call it a Change of Address, not forwarding, and will charge $1 to your credit card to verify it's really you making the request.

I suggest making the forwarding last longer than you expect to be away.  You'll get a return email containing the transaction number, you can use this to cancel the forwarding should you return home earlier than the expiration date.  Choose "I decided not to move" when asked for the reason.

Don't use the Premium Forwarding Service.  It's more expensive and not needed if you're only sending mail to a single address for the duration of your trip.

I use MailLink in Las Vegas, the same forwarding service used by Tom S above.  I file a Change of Address request with the Post Office for the 6 month maximum when I leave my home address, then cancel it when I return.  While I'm gone, USPS forwards to MailLink and they send me an email whenever a piece of mail arrives there.  I then go to their website, or call them, whenever I want to set up a mail delivery.

 

[Rene T]

As far as the newspaper, why not subscribe to the on-line version.

 

[shorts1]

Soon to retire. Since I will no longer have people in the office that can UPS my mail and newspapers weekly, I will need to arrange for a friend or company to send the mail.

RE: the USPS portion of the process:
Will they sort out junk mail including catalogs & ads?
Will we receive non-auto deducted bills in a timely manner?
Will they forward packages such as pills and web orders?
Will they forward my Motorhome, FMCA and other magazines?

I plan to forward mail to a friend. The newspapers are a different  issue I need to resolve. I plan on trips of approximately 4 weeks.

Anything I should be aware of or limitations to the process?

On the USPS portion:
They will only forward priority, first and second class mail. So junk mail (3rd class or bulk mail will not forward unless it is endorsed by sender with a address correction or forwarding endorsement) The bulk mail will be thrown away.
Most of your bills should be no problem as they are usually sent 1st class but be aware that some financial institutions or government offices use a ?do not forward? endorsement and the item may be returned to sender. If your address change is marked temporary and not permanent, they should forward it to you.
Yes, packages will forward.
Magazines are 2nd class mail and will only forward for 60 days.

HTH

 

[NY_Dutch]

The USPS does not forward "Do Not Forward" marked mail regardless of whether the forwarding order is temporary or permanent. Before we started using a remailing service permanently, we were caught a couple of times by updated credit cards that were returned instead of being forwarded, so the issuer canceled the cards even though our existing cards had not yet expired.

 

[Senator]

I have used the USPS premium mail service.  All mail goes into a box, and the box gets shipped.  Even "Do not forward" pieces, junk, magazines, eBay USPS shipments, and all mail for the address. 

They only deliver to one address, and it's $20 per week.  No need to bother a neighbor, and it's nearly 100% accurate.  No senders get notified of the address change, as you are not changing addresses, only forwarding.

Compliment it with the USPS Informed Delivery and you know what to expect.

Don't use the Premium Forwarding Service.  It's more expensive and not needed if you're only sending mail to a single address for the duration of your trip.

If you have multiple last names in the household, business mail, or just want the mailbox to be 100% empty, premium mail service is the way to go.  If you get mail from past residents at your address, the mail will still pile up for them and you may look like the home is vacant and invite bad people.

 

[ArdraF]

Re newspapers, just put a hold on it and tell them you'll call to restart it.  Ours has no problem doing it and even extends our subscription for the length of time it is paused.

We have our bills like utilities on automatic deduction from a checking account set up for that purpose.  A couple of other charges are paid automatically to a charge card which is then an automatic deduction from the checking account.  Another really useful thing is to have your charge card and bank accounts set up to notify you by email whenever there are certain types of deductions.  We tested it once by having me purchase something on a web site and Jerry getting a notification of the charge on his cell phone within a minute.

ArdraF

 

[NY_Dutch]

We subscribe to our hometown newspaper's digital edition so we can read it anywhere we are without any need for a dead tree print edition.