Long Cruises and Home Mail

[Cruise Raider]

Decided against a PO box. Put in a temporary change of address and my mail will go to my son's house. His wife will collect it and if anything looks "important" she will contact us. This should work well. We have other folks checking the house, feeding Bob (my insane cat), etc. and they will check the mailbox as well "just in case". My actual main worry is Bob as he seems to be developing mental issues. He's about 16 years old which is pretty old for a cat and I think he's getting "catmentia" (feline cognitive disorder).

 

I just have one thing to mention in case it may apply. I always use this story as a cautionary tale for unforeseen consequences. My mom was having trouble with getting her mail to us kids to help her pay her bills (I know, TMI ... but I have a point to make). We filled out a temporary change of address form for her mail to go directly to my brother's house. However, what we didn't know is that mail that is not to be forwarded was lost in a black hole. What we hadn't realized is that her pension checks and some other important letters that contained her social security number, medical benefits and such were not forwarded to the new address. To make things worse, we were to know which senders did not allow the mail for her to be forwarded and then contact them all personally with a signed document from my mom to make sure this was on the up and up. We created quite the mess as not only were they not forwarded, they were also not delivered to her. It was a mess of our own making as we couldn't foresee the consequences of such a simple action. So ... just a warning that if you receive any mail that doesn't allow forwarding, this temporary change of address may not be something you want to do. Maybe you already thought of that all ... but I thought I would mention it just in case.

[Thrak]

Holy crap! Thanks for the heads up. I "think" the only things that wouldn't forward are things such as proper tax bills, income tax refunds. etc. Those are covered. It's so very weird that there are so many details to deal with regarding mail It used to be simple. One would just speak with the mail delivery person and all was handled. These days nothing is easy. Many thanks for the warning. I'm hoping I don't need your advice but it is always (MUCH) better to have the advice even if it "may" not apply.

[julie3fan]

Magazines also don't get forwarded. And of course junk mail. 😊 So the actual volumn of mail could still be significant if there's a concern of someone seeing the uncollected mail and therefore figuring out you're not home.

[caribill]

Magazines also don't get forwarded. And of course junk mail. 😊 So the actual volumn of mail could still be significant if there's a concern of someone seeing the uncollected mail and therefore figuring out you're not home.

 

And sometimes the post office will notify the magazine publisher of the "new" address. Then your subscription will be changed permanently to that temporary address.

[GweninTX]

If you go in person to the PO they will usually hold your mail for 49 days. Ours has twice and is now. The postmaster has to ok the exception, but ours always does. He also has said that is much easier on them than forwarding. We go pick it up when we return and they have it in a big tub which we return. Easy peasy!!

 

 

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[Loonbeam]

In addition to neighbor I pay one of our vet techs to check in a few times, if there are any issues she can look at them and if needed take one right into the office.

 

Decided against a PO box. Put in a temporary change of address and my mail will go to my son's house. His wife will collect it and if anything looks "important" she will contact us. This should work well. We have other folks checking the house, feeding Bob (my insane cat), etc. and they will check the mailbox as well "just in case". My actual main worry is Bob as he seems to be developing mental issues. He's about 16 years old which is pretty old for a cat and I think he's getting "catmentia" (feline cognitive disorder).

[WpgCruise]

On a related note, many insurance policies are voided if someone is not checking the house on a regular basis, that includes actually going into the house to check there is no burst pipes. The frequency is dependant on your policy. If someone isn't checking your home and you have a burst pipe for example the insurance company may not pay.

[dickinson]

Besides some financial statements, property assessments and/or taxes that might not be forwarded check into jury duty notification. That too might not be forwarded.

[aussiehall1]

How do folks handle their mail delivery when taking a long cruise? Do you have it forwarded to a PO box and have someone pick it up periodically? Do you have a neighbor pick it up?

 

 

 

The Post Office says they will only hold my mail for 30 days and we have a home mailbox that is out at the street. Some "less than fine" folks have moved onto our nice little street and suddenly mail isn't safe. There have been instances of "missing mail".

 

 

 

I realize this isn't exactly a "cruise specific" question but, as we are booked for a 49 day cruise I'm wondering how folks handle this sort of thing.

 

 

 

I have the PO hold mine. If you go into the PO personally rather than online they will oblige. I live in Va and they've done it for me for an extended period. I'm envious!

 

 

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[Thrak]

The mailman came to my door today to make sure about our mail forward. He was just checking to be sure we understand it's temporary and also that, on his days off, some mail may still make it to our box and to be sure people were coming here. He's not a fan of our newest neighbors. Neither is anybody else on our street. There have been numerous complaints to the city about them. Their yard is full of junk and car parts. GAH!!! This was a very nice cul de sac with owner occupied homes but there is a rental on the corner. It's never been a problem in the past but the current people scream, yell, slam doors, curse loudly, etc. and the yard looks like a junk yard. The guy has (of course...) an ankle monitor. The mailman only delivers there once a week or so as there is usually an obstruction blocking the mailbox. He also said that there have been a number of mailbox thefts lately and they have been finding mail down in the creek area where it has been thrown away after getting whatever personal information they are after. Everybody else on the street is nice people who keep up their yards, wave and say "hello" to each other, stop to chat when driving or walking past, etc. We usually have a "block breakfast" once a year mid-block. Now we have the Manson Family next door. It's actually worrisome to go on vacation now.

 

If only we were allowed to just shoot them...

[Hlitner]

We take multiple long trips (usually about 2 months long) every year. Our local Post Office and Postman are terrific. They simply ask us for the yellow "hold mail" cards...one for each 30 days...and they do hold our mail in the Post Office. When we return we simply stop at the post office and get our mail.

 

If your post office will not hold your mail you do have a few other options. You can get a mail box at the post office (some folks will get the smallest least expensive box) and have all your mail forwarded to that box. Even if the box overflows...not a problem as they must hold the mail. Another option is to get a box at a nearby UPS Store (or some similar Mailboxes place) and have the Post Office forward all your mail to that place/box.

 

A few years ago our local Postal Carrier told me he got sick and tired of holding our mail when we were away....so he decided to retire so he too...could take long trips :). And he did!

 

Hank

[Iamcruzin]

The mailman came to my door today to make sure about our mail forward. He was just checking to be sure we understand it's temporary and also that, on his days off, some mail may still make it to our box and to be sure people were coming here. He's not a fan of our newest neighbors. Neither is anybody else on our street. There have been numerous complaints to the city about them. Their yard is full of junk and car parts. GAH!!! This was a very nice cul de sac with owner occupied homes but there is a rental on the corner. It's never been a problem in the past but the current people scream, yell, slam doors, curse loudly, etc. and the yard looks like a junk yard. The guy has (of course...) an ankle monitor. The mailman only delivers there once a week or so as there is usually an obstruction blocking the mailbox. He also said that there have been a number of mailbox thefts lately and they have been finding mail down in the creek area where it has been thrown away after getting whatever personal information they are after. Everybody else on the street is nice people who keep up their yards, wave and say "hello" to each other, stop to chat when driving or walking past, etc. We usually have a "block breakfast" once a year mid-block. Now we have the Manson Family next door. It's actually worrisome to go on vacation now.

 

If only we were allowed to just shoot them...

The highlighted statement above is what scares me. We get our neighbor's mail all of the time. Their address is 86 ours is 88. We received a package for 66 on our street a few weeks ago. Evidently my mailman needs glasses. As I said early in the thread I have gone paperless so I didn't have an issue. However, I purchased a car in April and was waiting for the first statement for payment. It never came. 15 days after it was due I finally got a statement with a late charge. The original statement has yet to show up but I bet one of my neighbors received it by mistake and never gave it to me. I set that account up as paperless so it won't happen again. So it really doesn't matter if you are living next door to the Cleavers or the Adam's family, mail still gets lost.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Iamcruzin

[Thrak]

We are almost completely paperless but I really need my wife to change a couple of things. She's the one with the primary access to a couple of financial places since she set them up. If it was up to me they would be paperless as well. The bad thing is the financial places have sensitive information in the mailings. I pay pretty much everything online but those dang financial statements keep coming as paper mail.

 

I did sign up for the visual reminder of mail every day so I can see what's coming and I do have people who will be visiting my house regularly to feed the cat, check for any mail that actually makes it to my box (mailman's day off), change lights, move my car around, etc.

 

The mailman told me today he would have been happy to hold my mail as long as I want but it would be between us and him as the main office only offers 30 days. He said he does this for some other folks on his route. Ah, well. We already setup the mail forwarding to my son's house so we should be good to go.

[WpgCruise]

If only we were allowed to just shoot them...

 

Who knows, they might be having the same thoughts about you.;)

[Thrak]

Who knows, they might be having the same thoughts about you.;)

 

Possibly. However, they are the ones that the entire street wants gone. We've lived here for 28 years and have excellent relations with the rest of the neighbors.

[caribill]

If only we were allowed to just shoot them...

 

You need to move to Texas.

[myfuzzy]

Luckily, our son still lives at home, so we always have someone to get the mail, feed the cat and clean the litter box, but, I always have my neighbor keep a watch out for the large "junk" mail that may be left outside the box, or any other mail that may be left.

 

But, I live in an apartment complex of say 30 buildings of 12 apartments in each building. As tenants move out, mail is still left for them. even though their name has been removed from the box. A few weeks ago, one of my neighbors was looking for the mail and was asking the rest of us if we had gotten any, and the answer was NO, so the next day she called the post office to find out what the story was and was told that the carrier could NOT find our building and returned all the mail to the branch......