BootsnAll's Travel Community

Hi all

I'm sure this has been covered lots of times before but I can't find where.

So,

I was just wondering what people do about their mail from home.

I'm going to cancel as much as I can, and forward my post to my sisters. But I'm not sure if I should actually register my sisters as my address.

What have other people done?

Cheers

Dante

I had someone go through my mail and am glad I did so...some unexpected stuff came up that needed dealing with.

Yeah, I'm thinking that I could do with someone doing that. I'm forever getting bits that I'd forgotten about.

It's always good to have someone checking your mail, so you find out about anything unexpected, but then I just pay things online, since I don't trust anyone else to make the payments promptly.

But I keep my bills simple. Most things are automatically charged to my credit card, so all I have to do is make sure my cards get paid.

If you're giving up your current home, definitely register you sister's address. But if you're going to be moving back to the same place when you return, setting up forwarding with the post office should suffice.

I was planning to change my address to that of my parents while away next year. I'm sure they're just dying to get more mail (and junk)!

I switched as much as possible to the Internet for my communication needs.

I did credit card, banking, investing, and communicating all with Internet/email on the road. I even did my income taxes online from Thailand!

Thankfully, Mom was willing to accept and hold the inevitable stray paperwork that filtered through.

I have someone living with me and they took care of the mail. Not trusting them to remember to pay bills, I pre-paid the usual ones before leaving. Like credit cards, phone, gas etc.


Have a nice day, Whistler.


If you can keep a sense of humour and see the funny side of life, you will never be old. SMC.

My sister has agreed for me to use her address for mail, which is handy.

Though she seemed more keen on making sure I'd made a will, I think she's under the deluded idea I have something to leave.

Dharker--

If your sister is paying your bills, make sure you fill out a power of attorney for her. I did one for my mom and this allowed my mom to go into my bank account, pay my bills, etc. I never removed my mom's name from my bank account so she still has access, which is great for traveling.

Some other things to keep in mind: If you change your address there might be some side effects that might not be so common sense. If it's an out of state address, you will be subject to a new state's tax laws and other things like that. Sometimes that matters to people, sometimes it doesn't. Also, even if you change within the same state, you will have to do things like register to vote in the new county. I missed that one and couldn't participate in the election this past November. (Fortunately enough other Americans picked up my short-sighted slack with that one...)

I think Cherie's idea about the power of attorney is a good idea as long as you completely trust the person. A "special power of attorney" might be an option as well - providing that power for a specific purpose for a specific amount of time.