What does everyone do with their mail when they go cruising? I will be gone
for only a month or two at a time. Is the easiest way to have someone stuff
a Priority Mail pack and send it weekly? We aren't on any set schedule.
I have as many bills as I can on automatic payment and charged to MC as I
can pay that online. There are always those ones that you have to write a
check for and mail that you do want.
Thanks
Phil

x-no-archive:yes "Phil" wrote:

What does everyone do with their mail when they go cruising? I will be gone
for only a month or two at a time. Is the easiest way to have someone stuff
a Priority Mail pack and send it weekly? We aren't on any set schedule.
I have as many bills as I can on automatic payment and charged to MC as I
can pay that online. There are always those ones that you have to write a
check for and mail that you do want.

Do you still have a house? We are gone for 6 months at a time. If we
are only gone for a week or so, I just have the mail held. Otherwise,
I have the mail forwarded.

The PO will do this for us since we have a house. For free. They
send it to one of our daughters who checks it over, throws out the
dreck (pre-arranged as to what that is), emails us of any problems and
the bank statement bottom lines, and pays on-line any bills that need
to be paid (like you I've got most of them on auto pay), and forwards
specified stuff to us whereever we are. I give her a check to cover
the cost of her mailing the stuff - mostly the bank statements that I
want to look at, questionable bills and some magazines that we like to
read.

grandma Rosalie
http://www12.virtualtourist.com/m/4a9c6/

Phil wrote:
What does everyone do with their mail when they go cruising? I will
be gone for only a month or two at a time. Is the easiest way to
have someone stuff a Priority Mail pack and send it weekly? We
aren't on any set schedule. I have as many bills as I can on
automatic payment and charged to MC as I can pay that online. There
are always those ones that you have to write a check for and mail
that you do want. Thanks
Phil

I don't know what _everyone_ does, but I know from my experience that
relying on a friend or a relative to handle mail will eventually cause you
problems. I had my cousin forward my stuff for the first 2 years I was out,
and eventually realized that it wasn't fair to him and didn't really work
for me. I then went with a mail forwarder in Florida and have had a pretty
good relationship and excellent results for many years now.

Florida doesn't have a state income tax - not that I'm all that interested
(smile).


--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.tripod.com

St. Brendans Isle gives excelent mail forwarding service. The UPS
Stores (formerly Mailboxes Etc) will forward mail but they are not as
flexable about delivery methods as St.Brendans.

OTOH, It probably would not be worth the effort for just a month or two.
By the time you got the addresses all changed you would have to change
them back. For that short a period you might even trust your brother in
law. :-)

Phil wrote:
What does everyone do with their mail when they go cruising? I will be gone
for only a month or two at a time. Is the easiest way to have someone stuff
a Priority Mail pack and send it weekly? We aren't on any set schedule.
I have as many bills as I can on automatic payment and charged to MC as I
can pay that online. There are always those ones that you have to write a
check for and mail that you do want.
Thanks
Phil



--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

On our circumnav, we had our son pay our bills and hold mail until
someone came to join us. It wasn't an imposition as he was also
house-sitting -- living cheap. This was in the dark ages (1995-98),
but when we go cruising in Fintry, we'll set everything up to hit
either a credit card or as a direct debit to a checking account. I'd
be surprised if there were any vendors, except perhaps local Mom and
Pops, that you couldn't set up for automatically paying.

There are services that will open mail and pay bills. Most larger
banks' trust departments also will do this.

For a month or two, you could simply prepay all the ones you haven't
set up on autopay and have someone just look over the mail to make
sure you don't get a jury duty notice or something else to which you
must respond.

If you know the amount (by telephone from your mail opener or by
calling the vendor), you can pay anything off the internet now using
either your bank's bill paying service, paypal, or quicken, or, of
course, by the old fashioned way of mailing a check.

Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com

"Phil" wrote in message m...
What does everyone do with their mail when they go cruising? I will be gone
for only a month or two at a time. Is the easiest way to have someone stuff
a Priority Mail pack and send it weekly? We aren't on any set schedule.
I have as many bills as I can on automatic payment and charged to MC as I
can pay that online. There are always those ones that you have to write a
check for and mail that you do want.
Thanks
Phil

I have been playing around with electronic bill payment systems for about
4-5 years. Trying different methods while I'm still at or near my home base.

About the only bills I can't set up for automatic payment are the utility
and cell phone bill.. I suspect if I needed to, I could have them
automatically charged to my credit card but I don't want them to have my
account number..

Otherwise I use eBill Pay through the USPS. Has worked very well for me for
that past 4 years. I can log into the site from anywhere that I have
Internet access and adjust any payment schedule.. I have found the USPS
service is better than most banks and credit unions because the money isn't
deducted from my bank account until the draft or electronic payment is
executed. Most banks want to deduct the money 10 days before the scheduled
payment due date. If there is a vendor/service that can't recieve elex
payments, then the USPS sends them a draft/money order instrument. I don't
remember the exact amount it cost per payment, but I think I am on a fixed
fee of about $5-6 a month for a half dozen payments.

I have never had any problem with this system and plan to use it while
cruising.


--
My opinion and experience. FWIW

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

x-no-archive:yes
"Steve" wrote:

I have been playing around with electronic bill payment systems for about
4-5 years. Trying different methods while I'm still at or near my home base.

About the only bills I can't set up for automatic payment are the utility
and cell phone bill.. I suspect if I needed to, I could have them
automatically charged to my credit card but I don't want them to have my
account number..

I have electronic bill pay through my bank. I can set up recurring
payments of the same amount for a specified number of times. For
instance the car insurance is semi-annual and 4 even payments each
time. The actual checks are sent from the bill pay service to the
person whose bill is being paid via USPS - the electronic part is just
my telling them to pay the bill and how much via the internet. I can
even send my grandchildren checks for Xmas if I want to by just
setting them up as an account.

I have a credit card with that bank and automatic deposit of our
retirement and SS to the bank. The credit card is automatically paid
from the bank account (separately from the electronic payment system).
I don't use any other card except in an extreme emergency (like when
Bob was in the ICU with a heart attack)..

The boat payments are automatically deducted from the bank account.
The house is at the end of a 30 year mortage and will be paid off next
month. Otherwise it has been an automatic electronic payment. We
don't have any car payments.

The electricity I have set on level payment - the same payment each
month regardless of the meter reading. Then I set the electronic bill
pay to automatically pay that amount. The electric company (a co-op
BTW) reassesses the amount in Feb and changes it if it is way to much
or way to little. Then in June the overage is credited or the
underage is paid off.

The oil company does the same thing with the heating oil. They figure
how much we used last year and divide that by 10 and we have the same
payment each month. Set up for automatic electronic payment.

The water bill is every quarter and it is the same amount each quarter
because we don't have a water meter so it is a flat rate. So that's
an automatic electronic payment every quarter.

The cell phones are charged to the credit card (above) as is my ISP.
The house phone is put on automatic pay once we leave at whatever the
cheapest rate is (paying for all outgoing calls) since we aren't there
to make any calls it should be always the same. There should be no
long distance bills because we aren't here to make calls. The cell
phone is no roaming and no long distance and as long as we stay within
a specified number of minutes is a flat rate.

Car insurance I set up for electronic payment also. Prescriptions are
charged to the credit card.

So the only things which I need to worry about are the safe deposit
box bill which comes in January, magazine subscriptions, some
organization dues, and paying off the last deliveries of the daily and
Sunday paper.

Otherwise I use eBill Pay through the USPS. Has worked very well for me for
that past 4 years. I can log into the site from anywhere that I have
Internet access and adjust any payment schedule.. I have found the USPS
service is better than most banks and credit unions because the money isn't
deducted from my bank account until the draft or electronic payment is
executed. Most banks want to deduct the money 10 days before the scheduled
payment due date. If there is a vendor/service that can't recieve elex
payments, then the USPS sends them a draft/money order instrument. I don't
remember the exact amount it cost per payment, but I think I am on a fixed
fee of about $5-6 a month for a half dozen payments.

My bank account isn't debited until the checks are cashed. The fee
for the service (which covers postage) is $4.95/month for about 20
checks a month. I've never gone over that number.

I have never had any problem with this system and plan to use it while
cruising.


grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id2.html

On Mon, 06 Oct 2003 11:52:52 -0400, Glenn Ashmore
wrote:

St. Brendans Isle gives excelent mail forwarding service. The UPS
Stores (formerly Mailboxes Etc) will forward mail but they are not as
flexable about delivery methods as St.Brendans.

OTOH, It probably would not be worth the effort for just a month or two.
By the time you got the addresses all changed you would have to change
them back. For that short a period you might even trust your brother in
law. :-)

We had a local Mailboxes Etc hold and forward our mail. Initally the
service was good, but while we were in Vanuatu a worker at MBE took
the liberty of keeping our mail, emptying our bank accounts, and
setting up new credit accounts at her home in our names... We only
discovered the problem when MBE contacted us because my bank refused
to pay MBE's bill because there was no money left in the account. I
haven't the time to type in the whole hariy story, but three years
after the fact we are still dealing with the fall out. So be
careful. Also, it is worth noting that when you are done with a
commercial mail service you will need to have them provide forwading
to your new address since the USPS will not forward or provide address
correction from a non-residential address.

Good luck!

--- Tom