I have been travelling around weeks at a time but I want to travel for a year - my issue is mail - how do people sort this as I have no one who can forward or read mail for me
Bicyclecamper said
12:59 AM Nov 15, 2022
Get yourself a Post Office box, and get it redirected every month to a new place where you will be. It wont be cheap to redirect although I think pensioners get a discount.
86GTS said
05:15 AM Nov 15, 2022
Set up all of your bills as automatic payments from your bank account. We hardly receive any mail.
Or set up a system where you receive your bills by email & pay them with a debit card on the internet.
Mail volumes over the past 15 years have dropped dramatically.
Australia Post makes most of its money from parcel delivery by contractors theses days.
Dougwe said
08:12 AM Nov 15, 2022
Welcome to the Gang Tel, enjoy here and out in the playground.
Most of my stuff is now done online but the Govemint doesn't seem to know how to arrange that for you, so for that snail mail, I get sent to a daughter's address (I make sure they understand it's just a postal address and I don't live there). I keep her supplied with Pre-paid Express Post envelopes that I can arrange through my OZ Post account and sent to her, she takes a pic of mail and sends that to me. I deal with it if I can, then get her to send to me at a pre-arranged Post Office of my choice. I go in with ID and collect. Has worked for me that way for 11 years now with no problems.
Keep Safe on the roads and out there.
Cuppa said
10:15 AM Nov 15, 2022
Like others we have as much as we can done online as possible, so receive very little mail, which is sent to a PO.Box.
Most recently a letter arrived in our PO.Box calling me up for jury service, needing a response within 14 days. Our system worked well, & I was able to gain exemption quickly & easily online.
We are lucky that we have friends who monitor our mailbox for us. They throw out any junk mail, & email us if there is anything else asking us if they want them to post it on to us or to open it & email us a photo of the contents. I think in 5 years we have only once had them forward stuff on to us. The rest sit's in a cardboard box awaiting our return.
However, our friends too are RV'ers who like to get away now & then for a few weeks/months at a time, so are not always home to monitor our PO.box. so we needed a 'fallback system'.
We considered the cost of a mail forwarding service - there are many to choose from, but we have ended up not needing them. Instead we went out of town to a nearby small village general store/sub post office with a few PO.boxes, close to our friends - they have their own mailbox there too, so collect our mail when they collect their own.
This works well, because having been introduced to the general store's owner/post mistress by our friends (who have been customers there for decades) she agreed to hold our mail for us & to open it/forward it similarly to what our friends do, in their absence.
It was done properly, we had to provide written permission for her to hold/examine/forward our mail to us, & left her with a kitty to pay any forwarding expenses (& a preparedness to top it up if/when required). Our friends let us know when they will be away & during that time we phone the store once in a while to see if we have any post we need to deal with before our friends get back home again.
As it has turned out, due to the small amount of mail we receive, we have never yet needed to ask the store owner/postmistress to open or forward anything in 5+ years, but it's reassuring to have this facility which you wouldn't get at most larger post offices.
Cost is the annual 'lease' of the PO.Box & the rest is just postage costs for forwarding mail - depends how much you get sent on to you, for us probably less than $25 total in 5 years (We left a 'forwarding kitty with our friends too). For most needing action an emailed photo of the contents has been sufficient. Of course if you use a mail forwarding service the costs are higher because you are paying those operating it for their time & it's a service aiming to make a profit.
So some sweet talking at an out of town village sub post office may be worth a shot. Otherwise a similar service with a mail forwarding service will cost something like $300 to $400 a year, plus scanning/mail forwarding costs - variable according to how much mail you get.
-- Edited by Cuppa on Tuesday 15th of November 2022 10:35:33 AM
dorian said
10:33 AM Nov 15, 2022
I wonder how Centrelink corresponds with homeless people. One day I hope to be one.
Cuppa said
10:40 AM Nov 15, 2022
dorian wrote:
I wonder how Centrelink corresponds with homeless people. One day I hope to be one.
Don't know, never had anything to do with them, but would hope they know what email is is.
woolman said
12:24 PM Nov 15, 2022
We used a mail redirection company for 15 years
Tel Fraser said
08:41 PM Nov 15, 2022
Thank you people - I am lucky I dont have any bills etc just one offs like car and caravan rego etc -
Cuppa said
09:36 PM Nov 15, 2022
Tel Fraser wrote:
Thank you people - I am lucky I dont have any bills etc just one offs like car and caravan rego etc -
They can be done online - at least if registered in Vic. I imagine other states would be similar?
Ivan 01 said
11:16 AM Nov 16, 2022
Here is the first page of a search for companies that may redirect your mail.
While it might be cheap to have a friends aunties cousins sister empty and forward your mail box, this system can easily fail.
I have been travelling around weeks at a time but I want to travel for a year - my issue is mail - how do people sort this as I have no one who can forward or read mail for me
Or set up a system where you receive your bills by email & pay them with a debit card on the internet.
Mail volumes over the past 15 years have dropped dramatically.
Australia Post makes most of its money from parcel delivery by contractors theses days.
Most of my stuff is now done online but the Govemint doesn't seem to know how to arrange that for you, so for that snail mail, I get sent to a daughter's address (I make sure they understand it's just a postal address and I don't live there). I keep her supplied with Pre-paid Express Post envelopes that I can arrange through my OZ Post account and sent to her, she takes a pic of mail and sends that to me. I deal with it if I can, then get her to send to me at a pre-arranged Post Office of my choice. I go in with ID and collect. Has worked for me that way for 11 years now with no problems.
Keep Safe on the roads and out there.
Like others we have as much as we can done online as possible, so receive very little mail, which is sent to a PO.Box.
Most recently a letter arrived in our PO.Box calling me up for jury service, needing a response within 14 days. Our system worked well, & I was able to gain exemption quickly & easily online.
We are lucky that we have friends who monitor our mailbox for us. They throw out any junk mail, & email us if there is anything else asking us if they want them to post it on to us or to open it & email us a photo of the contents. I think in 5 years we have only once had them forward stuff on to us. The rest sit's in a cardboard box awaiting our return.
However, our friends too are RV'ers who like to get away now & then for a few weeks/months at a time, so are not always home to monitor our PO.box. so we needed a 'fallback system'.
We considered the cost of a mail forwarding service - there are many to choose from, but we have ended up not needing them. Instead we went out of town to a nearby small village general store/sub post office with a few PO.boxes, close to our friends - they have their own mailbox there too, so collect our mail when they collect their own.
This works well, because having been introduced to the general store's owner/post mistress by our friends (who have been customers there for decades) she agreed to hold our mail for us & to open it/forward it similarly to what our friends do, in their absence.
It was done properly, we had to provide written permission for her to hold/examine/forward our mail to us, & left her with a kitty to pay any forwarding expenses (& a preparedness to top it up if/when required). Our friends let us know when they will be away & during that time we phone the store once in a while to see if we have any post we need to deal with before our friends get back home again.
As it has turned out, due to the small amount of mail we receive, we have never yet needed to ask the store owner/postmistress to open or forward anything in 5+ years, but it's reassuring to have this facility which you wouldn't get at most larger post offices.
Cost is the annual 'lease' of the PO.Box & the rest is just postage costs for forwarding mail - depends how much you get sent on to you, for us probably less than $25 total in 5 years (We left a 'forwarding kitty with our friends too). For most needing action an emailed photo of the contents has been sufficient. Of course if you use a mail forwarding service the costs are higher because you are paying those operating it for their time & it's a service aiming to make a profit.
So some sweet talking at an out of town village sub post office may be worth a shot. Otherwise a similar service with a mail forwarding service will cost something like $300 to $400 a year, plus scanning/mail forwarding costs - variable according to how much mail you get.
-- Edited by Cuppa on Tuesday 15th of November 2022 10:35:33 AM
Don't know, never had anything to do with them, but would hope they know what email is is.
We used a mail redirection company for 15 years
They can be done online - at least if registered in Vic. I imagine other states would be similar?
Here is the first page of a search for companies that may redirect your mail.
While it might be cheap to have a friends aunties cousins sister empty and forward your mail box, this system can easily fail.
Have a look here.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=mail+redirection+sevices&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-au&client=safari