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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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We were gone for all of last yr, we used 'house-sitter/ tenants' and had everything on autopay. POA + designated account login / check writing granted to one of our adult kids.
Which worked great until 20 yrs with CC company and never an issue, BUT that CC company decided to change banks while we were gone. That created a mess for over 24 autopay accounts. Then our Credit Union of 40 yrs decided to change all web banking and acct access. CU internet banking really did not like us changing ISPs everyday while traveling. Of course all the emails/ banks / cc companies want to send you a txt to verify. But... we didn't have international Forwarding, and bought SIM cards in each country. (Get international roaming if possible...). And be sure to update your travel notifications on all CC every 60 days .... that was not easy since we had no clue where we were headed during the next 360 days.
We survived, but IT/CC / autopay ate a lot of free time (sometimes all night). We were managing 12 rentals in 3 states and 4 businesses + sold 2 commercial properties while gone. Kind of a complicated yr. IRS, and 20+ random insurance policies, utilities, property taxes, coming due when autopay bank dissolved... were greatest challenges.
Fortunately our adult kids helped by floating us funds and paying stuff when we no longer could access accounts on-line. (Locked out, cuz we moved destinations daily)
It's been a long time since I lived out of country, but I just got a private mailbox and we worked out a deal where they put all of my mail in an envelope and mailed it to me every so often.
I currently live in the states, but I pay for a separate private mailbox at a local business that offers PMBs and other shipping/copying, etc., services. I use it as a separate address so that they can sign for packages and keep them safe for me.
Can't you just get a private mailbox? Arrange whatever deal with them you want?
Any private mailbox service does not have to forward your mail if you close your box with them. Maybe that's part of the confusion you have regarding using them? So, what you do, is you keep paying them to forward your mail to you after you close your box, until you're sure you won't be receiving any mail there anymore.
Having a separate private mailbox doesn't mean you have permanently changed any address. My PMB service would never know if I moved from my actual residence or not.
Your problem is that you haven't gone electronic. All my banking, credit card and brokerage accounts are electronic in my US and Danish accounts. All need is a computer when I am not at home to do everything.
Your problem is that you haven't gone electronic. All my banking, credit card and brokerage accounts are electronic in my US and Danish accounts. All need is a computer when I am not at home to do everything.
We HAVE gone electronic but there are always a few unexpected items that need attention. In the past 6 months, we had a jury duty notice (with a very short time frame for a response); my ex-employer changed my health insurance carrier (a LOT of paperwork, needed new cards etc.); a letter from IRS (again, with a deadline); an old bill from a hospital for treatment that occurred several months prior to bill.
There are also a few things we can't go electronic on....our State mails car registration renewals (you can pay online, but only after you get the snail mail and enter data in that letter to their online payment portal). Same with our local real estate property taxes...they are required by local law to mail bills (again, we can pay the bill online, but not without the data in our billing statement). Also, as an earlier poster who went abroad for an extended period noted, their bank changed cc's and it created a lot of issues.
It's been a long time since I lived out of country, but I just got a private mailbox and we worked out a deal where they put all of my mail in an envelope and mailed it to me every so often.
I currently live in the states, but I pay for a separate private mailbox at a local business that offers PMBs and other shipping/copying, etc., services. I use it as a separate address so that they can sign for packages and keep them safe for me.
Can't you just get a private mailbox? Arrange whatever deal with them you want?
Any private mailbox service does not have to forward your mail if you close your box with them. Maybe that's part of the confusion you have regarding using them? So, what you do, is you keep paying them to forward your mail to you after you close your box, until you're sure you won't be receiving any mail there anymore.
Having a separate private mailbox doesn't mean you have permanently changed any address. My PMB service would never know if I moved from my actual residence or not.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding PMBs and CRMAs??
I've read USPS and UPS (which is a CMRA) sites. Both sites say if I forward my mail from USPS to a CMRA (such as UPS) that I can NEVER make a COA (change of address) FROM a CMRA with USPS. That it's a ONE WAY street...I can change/fwd from USPS to UPS PMB, but cannot change or forward from a PMB to USPS.
I just want my mail forwarded to the PMB for 5 months when I'm gone; after I return to the US, I want my mail to go to my home again. This seems to be the rub.
I've read USPS and UPS (which is a CMRA) sites. Both sites say if I forward my mail from USPS to a CMRA (such as UPS) that I can NEVER make a COA (change of address) FROM a CMRA with USPS. That it's a ONE WAY street...I can change/fwd from USPS to UPS PMB, but cannot change or forward from a PMB to USPS.
I just want my mail forwarded to the PMB for 5 months when I'm gone; after I return to the US, I want my mail to go to my home again. This seems to be the rub.
What you need to do is file a temporary up to a year, not permanent change of address to the private mailbox store, be it the UPS store or a local competitor. At the top of the form there is a space for the date you want the forward order to end. Since the change is temporary the service won't sell the CMRA address to people and you should continue to use your home and not the CMRA/PMB address, which should be used on the address block not apt, room or suite as your address and when it expires the mail will resume delivery to your home address. Now if you make a permanent change of address and use the CMRA as a return address when you try to move somewhere else mail won't be forwarded from a business because the postal service will not forward mail for individuals from a business address since its carriers can't be expected to recognize the potentially thousands of names needing to be forwarded.
Using a temporary change for a permanent move is also used as a strategy to cut down on advertising mail since the new address is not sold back to the advertiser and they will have to acquire that information elsewhere.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hertfordshire
I don't know if this is official policy, but I've noticed that when I've been gone for a a week or two, and my mailbox fills up, all of the unaddressed inserts have been removed, and the first class mail and catalogs/magazines left behind.
When the mailbox fills up, they bound it all up and send it to the local post station, and leave a notice in the box that the mail needs to be picked up. Not sure how long it's held.
You may want to consider contracting a property management company to respond on an "as-needed" basis if there are any problems (repairs to be made, etc), but hiring a personal assistant/concierge type to collect and report on mail and check on the condition of the house. It might be more cost efficient.
Definitely not official it was your local carrier breaking the rules, and leaving himself open to charges of theft of mail from the Inspector General of "stealing mail", knowing that most receivers don't care about official policy. Which would be to leave a notice and start returning mail to sender after ten days if you don't go to the post office to pick up your mail, including market ads.
What you need to do is file a temporary up to a year, not permanent change of address to the private mailbox store, be it the UPS store or a local competitor. At the top of the form there is a space for the date you want the forward order to end. Since the change is temporary the service won't sell the CMRA address to people and you should continue to use your home and not the CMRA/PMB address, which should be used on the address block not apt, room or suite as your address and when it expires the mail will resume delivery to your home address. Now if you make a permanent change of address and use the CMRA as a return address when you try to move somewhere else mail won't be forwarded from a business because the postal service will not forward mail for individuals from a business address since its carriers can't be expected to recognize the potentially thousands of names needing to be forwarded.
This trip opportunity came up earlier this month and I avoided going in person to my local PO due to Xmas rush (parking lot has been full!). I will get over there next week and talk to their personnel about my options and report back.
We live overseas but maintain a United States address.
There are lots of services that give you a virtual address and scan in anything that arrives, we use PostScanMail. They automatically scan in the envelope then you decide to shred or have contents scanned in, they can also forward mail so I've had some things forwarded to parents' house to pick up when back in US.
The only pain is you have to change the mailing address with whoever sends stuff that you care to get.
This. That's what we did when we lived part time in mexico.
Or ask your accountant or CPA if someone in his/her office can do it.
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