Mail Forwarding during thru hike

[Coffee]

I'm in the process of switching all the physical mail that I can to electronic delivery but there are certain pieces of physical mail that will still be sent to me during my hike. My plan was to temporarily change my address to a relative's home and have them scan and forward important looking mail to me at places along the trail. However, now it seems that they might also be away from home for extended periods while I'm away. Does anyone have favorable experience with a mail forwarding company? I know that there are services available where mail can be bundled up and forwarded but not all of these seem suitable for thru hiking since the assumption is often that there is a fixed forwarding address (like a vacation home). Any ideas? Fwiw, I'm most concerned with missing important mail from friendly folks like the IRS, county property tax assessments, jury duty notices, official documents from my HOA, etc...

[perrymk]

If there i an HOA it sounds like you might own and not rent. My plan (should I ever get to thru hike) is to get a house sitter and have them handle mail forwarding. Another option is to hire someone to check your mail. Barring a friendy neighbor, one can always hire a security company.

[Sly]

Some companies will scan your mail for viewing, forward selected mail and shred the rest. Here's one of them

http://www.mailboxforwarding.com/

[Just Bill]

My mommy did it for me.

These days though, I'd likely hire my accountant (or a slow attorney) to do it. Assuming some of those documents show up you will need someone to review/pay them as well, a temporary power of attorney for your accountant would handle those situations without having to carry your checkbook or forward mail back and forth. You could hire a neighbor or service to toss the junk mail and CC offers first to save money, then forward the rest.

I have a house, a rental, and a company- even then- if you really think about it, little mail of importance shows up. When it does, might as well cut out the middleman. You could also contact these few places directly and provide an e-mail. Taxes go through mortgage anyway for me, HOA can be paid in advance and in the unlikely event of a resolution or special assessment by the board they can notify you via e-mail, accountant would handle IRS anyway.

If you commit a felony you don't need to serve jury duty, saves me lots of time.

I would try as hard as you can to put as much on autopilot as possible.
And realistically- what actually happens in six months that you can't clean up when you get back.

[Coffee]

Thanks for the feedback. I figure that I can put most things on auto-pilot. It is just the unexpected things that concern me such as an IRS audit, special HOA assessments, jury duty, etc. I am leaving my condo unoccupied during my thru hike so I don't have a renter. I concluded that it wouldn't be worth trying to rent it out for five months dealing with move in/move out fees, moving fees, storage, tenant credit check, hiring someone to "manage" the property, etc. I am probably going to sell my car prior to my thru as well. The thru hike has been an impetus to simplify my life as much as possible, a good goal in itself.

[Connie]

I have everything inportant on direct payment, from my account, including rent.

I used mail forwarding service, getting "junk mail" and not getting bank statements.

How about a house-sitter?

I have never tried having mail forwarding dates critical on USPS forwarding, you might inquire?

[royalusa]

Might want to check on some of those "important mail" examples you listed, as they may not be permitted to be forwarded. I know our county property tax assessments are not allowed to be forwarded, though that could be just our county's internal policy. In incidents like that, we physically change the address to person handling our mail and then when we get home, we change it back.

[Sly]

Might want to check on some of those "important mail" examples you listed, as they may not be permitted to be forwarded. I know our county property tax assessments are not allowed to be forwarded, though that could be just our county's internal policy. In incidents like that, we physically change the address to person handling our mail and then when we get home, we change it back.

While the USPS may not forward them, I would think a private service would.

[Spirit Walker]

Since the post office will only hold mail for a month these days, finding someone to take care of your mail while you're gone is important. On our hikes and other travels, we forwarded our mail to family members (different person each time). Some were better than others at paying attention. (We had one issue with a bill that didn't get resolved until we got home.) Professional mail forwarding services aren't very expensive and we will probably use one in the future. I know at least one will scan the envelopes of incoming mail and forward those to your email. You let them know which letters you want to have opened or forwarded. A lot of full time RVers use this kind of system. As royalusa stated, some mail won't be forwarded. We had a credit card come in while we were gone that we needed. (They wouldn't let us renew it early and it expired in July.) When we asked about it, the bank said that credit cards are returned to the bank and never forwarded. Good thing, but I wish we had known before we left. Fortunately, we had a back up debit card. We've also contacted people ahead of time to let them know we would be on the road and to ask if they would email us things like tax bills and insurance renewals that come due while we are away. So far, people have always been willing to work with us.

[Spirit Walker]

One helpful thing to do now is contact all magazines and catalog companies and request that they stop all direct mailings. That cut down 80% of our mail.