What do you do with your mail?

[iancal]

We were away for a six month stretch. We sold our home and travelled. Mail sent to our son.

 

Just about everything is on line. It was quite amazing to see how little important/relevant mail we actually rec'd during that time. Some of it had the appearance of being important/relevant but it was really junk mail tarted up to entice you to open it.

[SadieN]

Our local P.O. has advised that new policy bars holding for more than 30 days.

 

 

 

Until a few years ago, our mail was dropped in a slot through the front door - no problem at all. Now if we cannot arrange for a reliable neighbor to pick it up daily from our RFD mailbox as she checks out house, we file a change of address to my daughter's address and she holds it for us -- then re re-change upon return.

 

 

Friend's father did this. After he did the change back to his address it went completely south. Took them months to get it straightened out. FWIW they both are serviced by the same, large post office.

[Guest maddycat]

We have a cat sitter come in once a day to take care of our 2 cats. She also takes in the mail and makes sure that everything is OK in the house.

 

As others have said we have all of our regular bills paid either through automatic credit card payments or debits from our checking account.

[jocap]

We share the load with our neighbours, who also travel a lot. Although the post goes through a letter box in the door, we once returned from a longish cruise and had a very difficult time trying to open the door, due to the number of catalogues piled behind it.

They attend to our bird feeder; we feed their cats and hens.

Edited August 18, 2015 by jocap
old age

[CruisingAlong4Now]

I don't know of any bills that can't be paid online. Even our electric bill and propane accounts are online. Our auto insurance is semi-annual but can be checked online and paid online. Our home insurance is annual and can also be checked and paid online.

Most of our bills are paid automatically either from the checking account or charged to the credit card. Credit card is paid automatically. We set all of that up when we first started cruising.

 

Local bills are not online. Our water bill, my GP, my gardner, So now you know of some bills that are not online.

 

And I would never give any vendor company unfettered access to my checking account. :eek:

[Viv0828]

Certainly not all bills come online. But a relative or a trusted friend can email you the amount of the bill, or even a pic of the bill. Then you can use bill pay, available at most banks and credit unions, to pay it online.

Edited August 19, 2015 by Viv0828

[Hlitner]

It is a great question. When DW and I took 2 or 3 week trips it was no biggie as we simply had the Post Office hold our mail. Once we retired and starting taking 2 month trips (several a year) it was a different situation. The USPS will technically hold mail for only 30 days, although some post offices are more friendly and will agree to hold several months of mail (check with your own postmaster). Otherwise, you can simply rent a post office box (even the smallest one) and have your mail forwarded to that box. If the box gets full they still hold it (usually in a large box). You can also arrange to have your mail forwarded to a private mail box company (like Mailboxes).

 

As to bills, we had to make some changes. We now do nearly all of our banking online and most of our utility bills are set-up to automatically pay. Our Credit Union offers unlimited Bill Payer (with lots of options) so many other bills are set-up through the bill payor system. Before we take a long trip (of several months) I will review all the payments for that same time period for the past 2 years in order to spot items like an insurance payment. With those non-recurrent bills we have to sometimes work out the best option case by case be it Bill Payor, direct payment, etc. Having done long trips for the past 10 years we now find it all very routine. The key is doing most financial transactions online.

 

As to other mail (not related to financial transactions) we just have it all held and deal with it when we get home. At one time our mailman complained our mail was taking up too much of his space in the post office, so we authorized him to toss out 3rd and 4th class mail per his own judgement. After all, coming home to 50 catalogs from Viking River Cruises (who continue to send us 3 of everything despite our protests) is just a lot of garbage to pitch.

 

Hank

[NMLady]

. ... And I would never give any vendor company unfettered access to my checking account. :eek:

 

I do not know why you think it is unfettered access. They can only present their bill for payment. No other access. We have been doing this for several years with no problems. Only established businesses with regular bills.