Among friends that begin to consider the implications of my fulltime RVing plan, the most common question is, "How will you get your mail?" I'm far from the first person to face this issue, and, thankfully, there are a number of solutions available. I'll review them in this post, and discuss how the answer is linked to a much more important question with long term consequences. Clubs for RV owners have a role to play, so I'll mention a few of them, too.
Mail has to go to an address, and RVs don't have one - at least, RVs that travel. I'm renting out my house, so my mail can't go there, and even if it could, I can't just let it pile up for months at a time. A rented P.O.Box would have the same problem. I wouldn't dream of burdening a friend or relative with receiving and forwarding my mail. Of course, I'm going to convert as much correspondence / billing as I can over to email; most of it already has been. But some things can't or won't go electronic, and it's often the unexpected item in the mail that is the most important. Thankfully, it didn't take much searching on the web to turn up several companies and organizations that have been providing mail forwarding services to RVers for years.
The way it works is that you join up for a month or a year at a time, and the forwarding service provides you with a new address to use, just as if you were moving to a new house. If I really wanted to, I could get a new address in San Diego, the city where I live now, but I don't think I will, for reasons I'll explain below. So, with the usual hassle of change-of-address cards and so forth, all your mail goes to the new address, which is actually occupied by the mail forwarding company. They'll receive packages for you, too. Most commonly, they'll collect it all for a period of time you've specified - a week or a month - then package it up and forward it along to the latest address you've given them. That can be the address of a friend or relative's house where you are, or expect to be, visiting, or the address of a commercial campground where you're staying. Many services offer other features as well, such as discarding junk mail (you specify what), scanning and posting return addresses on envelopes so you can see what you've got waiting, reading urgent letters over the phone to you, or even scanning the entire contents of the envelopes and posting them to a secure website only you can access.
The most helpful article I found, lists a dozen different services, offering a variety of options and rates. Since I'm new to these things, I'll feel more comfortable going with one of the better known, highly recommended services. A couple of the best are associated with RV clubs, so let me take a detour now and write about clubs for a while. From what I've seen, the most established, most widely used organization for RV owners is the Good Sam Club:
The major draw of this club is the discounts members get. Here's just a sampling of what they offer:
- 10% off at affiliated campgrounds
- 3 to 4 cents off per gallon at affiliated gas stations
- up to 65% off on some prescriptions
- discounts on various services Good Sam offers (such as mail forwarding)
Good Sam has a close affiliation with Camping World, a major RV equipment and supplies retailer. Good Sam membership gets you discounts at Camping World:
- up to 30% off in-store purchases
- 25% off LP gas
- Good Sam exclusive coupons
- Free shipping on Camping World orders over $99
- 8% instant rebates on purchases
- Free dump station use
- $39 flat fee for installation of any purchased product
How much does all this cost? As little as $20 per year if you join for 3 years. To me, that's a no-brainer. I think it's priced to be attractive to occasional RVers, but going full time, I'll easily get my money's worth. Also, they make a point that there's a social contract between members: you're supposed to help one another out, whether it's getting directions or fixing a flat. If that happens, it's just icing on the cake.
There's other desirable services they offer that are not part of the basic membership. One is RV roadside assistance with unlimited towing miles. At $80 per year that's well worth it for the peace of mind. Even though my Sprinter will be new, new vehicles are known to have kinks to work out. Another extra cost service they offer is mail forwarding. It seems you have to join the club to get all the details and pricing information, but it appears they compete very well on both.
Another highly recommended club is Escapees RV Club.
They don't offer all the discounts that the Good Sam Club has, and their annual fee is $35, including a discount if you're already a Good Sam member. Instead, Escapees seems more focused on organized social and educational activities such as their Escapades and Boot Camps (RV training, not physical training!). But their big draw appears to be their mail forwarding service, which is for members only, very inexpensive, and is highly recommended by multiple sources. The recommendations are so good, they were my top choice until I saw that they don't offer the mail scanning and posting service. I think that's important to me, but if a year of experience proves otherwise, I'll come back to them.
Before I leave the subject of clubs, let me mention one more that has no connection with mail forwarding, but that I definitely intend to join, the Vagabundos Del Mar.
If the name doesn't give it away, the logo certainly does; this is a club that specializes in trips to Mexico and points south. They have a wealth of knowledge about such trips, will help you get insurance, and organize several caravan tours a year. For at least my first few trips south of the border, I want to be with a group of RVs, and this seems like the ideal way to do it. Just to give a sample of the tours they have in 2014:
- Cabo San Lucas and back
- A 60 day tour that takes in a lot of historic Mexico
- Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala
- The beaches and whale watching in Baja California
- Mexico's Copper Canyon
There's one more factor to consider in selecting a mail forwarding service: the state your new address will be in. Why does that matter? Because setting up a new address could be the first step in changing your official state of residency. And why does that matter? Taxes. There are several states that have no state income tax. In contrast, California, my current state, has one of the highest rates of income tax. Even with my reduced, retirement income, I could be paying a couple thousand a year in California income tax. That's not a huge amount, but it's one meal at a really nice restaurant every week of the year. I don't see trying to escape that tax as dodging; I won't be using any of the California services, so why should I pay the taxes to support them?
If you closely examined the list of mail forwarding services I linked to earlier in the post, you may have noticed that three state names kept popping up: South Dakota, Texas, and Florida. These aren't the only states with zero income tax, but when other factors such as how easy it is to register your vehicle, get a drivers license, and establish residency are considered, these three are the most favored by full time RVers. California of course, or any other state collecting tax, is reluctant to lose that income, so you have to build a fairly airtight case that you truly are a resident of another state. That means you have to take all the steps I mentioned above, plus several more, before they'll let you - and your income - go. Even if I follow through on all of that, it's not clear it will be enough. I intend to retain ownership of my house in San Diego and use it as a rental property. California might see that as maintaining enough of a link to continue taxing my income. Eventually, I'll need to consult an attorney about this. The other wrinkle is that when I decide I've had enough of traveling ( I'm hoping that's ten or twenty years away ), there's a good chance San Diego is where I'd like to settle, so there's a question of whether it's all worth the hassle. I'm going to take some time to decide; it'll be a year or two on the road before I would start to take any formal action. In the mean time, though, if I want to keep that option open, I ought to start laying the groundwork in the right state.
There are reasons to choose one tax-free state over another. Some require you to show up periodically to have your vehicle inspected or renew your driver's license, others don't. Your state of residence can also affect your health and auto insurance rates, even if you don't actually live there most of the year. Florida is just too far from the Southwest where I plan to spend most of my time. I'll continue to visit Nebraska as long as my sister's family is there and South Dakota is right next door, but other than the Badlands and Mount Rushmore, I've got no real reason to go there. I have several friends in Texas and the state has a great system of parks, so that's the direction I'm currently leaning. I went to college in Texas and came to love the ethos ( though I probably just forfeited any chance of becoming a true Texan by using the word "ethos" in a sentence ).
Given the boundary conditions of wanting a service that scans my mail and posts it on-line, and wanting an address in Texas, one service is at the top of the list: Traveling Mailbox.
They're far from the least expensive service, but if I can view my mail on-line, I'll save more than the difference in forwarding postage.
Once again, writing this blog has served its purpose. When I began the research for this post, I had no idea which service would be right for me. Now, after completing the post, I feel fairly confident in my choice.
In the next post, I'll go over the details of my first planned trip, to the Northwest in July and August. On the horizon are a second visit to Sportsmobile in Fresno to finalize my conversion instructions, and the arrival of my Sprinter at their factory sometime in mid- to late April. Exciting times!
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