Forward mail with temporary address change or Premium Service
 

Hello! I need mail sent to Illinois from The Villages for a couple of months. I see two options: 1) Temporary address change (which is free!) or 2) Premium Service (which is $24/week).

Can anyone tell me the benefit of the Premium Service? Are there things that won't send via the free forwarding? Does the Temporary Address change necessary for the free service cause other headaches? Thanks in advance for your help!

Answers at USPS.
I don’t have any mail worth $100 a month.

We just forward to FL in the winter and forward to UpNorth in the summer. The postal service is unreliable regardless, so I get everything I possibly can electronically. All bills are on auto-pay and all statements arrive via email. 99% of the stuff that gets forwarded is stuff I can go without.

We'll be heading back to Indiana in May after our first winter here. We're having our mail forwarded here. About how long before you go back north do you stop the forwarding? Thanks!!

I start my Forwarding about a week before I leave. That way I can make sure they actually stop delivering the mail here before I leave.

I've always considered a service like Affordable Virtual Mailbox | Traveling Mailbox

In addition to all the answers above the post office allows the option to mail preview (or informed delivery) so they take pictures of your mail and email it to you (one email) at the beginning of each day so you can prepare for what needs thrown out, LOL

While still snowbirding, I tried premium service one Summer. One week I received someone else’s mail. Lady Lake post office never answered phone, so I submitted my issue through usps website. Lady Lake PO then called me to tell me to just send the mail back to them. When I said if I received someone else’s mail, where is mine? They said until someone reports getting yours, we don’t know. There was never any further contact from USPS on the matter. I have no idea if I ever got my mail or not. Needless to say, I did not use premium service again. I now use informed delivery and try to do as much as possible electronically

Whatever you decide on, sign up for USPS Informed Delivery. You'll get a daily email, with photos of each piece of mail that you receive. I save the emails with important mail (1099's, etc.), for tracking purposes if it doesn't arrive. Once it arrives, I delete the email.

With the free service, magazines will be forwarded for the first month. After that, they are trashed. For $24/week, we can buy lots of magazines. We use the free service all the time since we travel north in the summer. Have had very few problems. However, all our bills are on autopay or done electronically so we don’t have to worry about being late.

FYI - the post office has one more step now when you forward mail *temporary or permanent* After you fill out the change online you now must go to the PO to show an ID to prove it was you who made the change, The PO will send you an email with a bar code to show to the PO along with your drivers lic. Needless to say the ladies at the PO weren't real happy as it will add to their workload. I had to do this in Jan 2024 when I returned to TV and put in a request to forward mail from Il to Fl.

1. Sign up for “Informed Delivery” online at USPS.COM.
2. Get all the apps for your mail senders and enroll in paperless statements.
3. For the short time period, can you have a friend pick up your mail and bulk mail the important items and trash the unimportant each week. Even UPS or FEDEX will be cheaper than $24/week

Fill out the form on line from the USPS. Don’t use the post card you can get from the post office. We have had an issue with mail being forwarded for 5 years now. Definitely sign up for informed delivery. We did a change of address for 11/1 and finally got mail 1/15. Be sure to tell the mail person at your local mail station here when you leave and when you are back in TV. The USPS is very unreliable and even if you drive to the PO in Lady Lake, they are rude and useless. Our PA post office at least answers the phone but still had no idea where our mail was. We just got a Xmas card forwarded yesterday that was post marked 12/14. Good luck.

Temporary Change of Address
 

Temporary Change of Address doesn't send the Junk Mail. I used TCOA while snowbirding for 2 years. Just make sure you give yourself a minimum 2 week leeway in setting your stop forward, or else mail will trickle through after you are gone from the address.

A lot of full-time RVers use these services.

We have found the Premium Forwarding to be more reliable. Rather than mail trickling in one piece at a time (and wondering if they got it all, which was our main issue), every Wednesday, your mail for the week is put into a priority mail envelope and mailed in a batch. You get an email notification so you can then track that envelope and know when it is arriving. Not cheap, but gave us some peace of mind. We found that the post office was less likely to “miss” pieces with the Premium. Just be sure to time your stop date appropriately.

About 10 days

Mail forwarding
 

I've done the free, actually $1 fee, in both directions(Pa to and from FL) for 14 years with no problems. There is a 7-10 day delay and it's for first class mail only.

I get that email and it isn’t accurate everyday. Don’t rely on it. Put everything on auto pay and give a temp address change to other things. I’ve dont it with no issues

IF a you have a friend here. Give then the key. The can sort the mail and send it to you every two weeks. Much cheaper option and no junk. Take them to dinner when you return

Forward Mail
 

We forwarded our mail for over 6 years the best way is to start forwarding 1 week ahead of you leaving. And remember it will take about 10 days to get to the forwarded address.
Then stop the mail about 10 days before you return, it takes that long for mail to completely get to temporary address.

I’ve discovered that when you forward your mail, they don’t scan it into informed delivery.

I use the temporary address change and have informed delivery so I know what to expect. Been working great for over 5 years, two times away 2 to 3 months.

Mail
 

We use temporary for years

We started using the premium forwarding service after some of our mail that was supposed to get forwarded never did. And I agree, it is costly.

This is my 4th season of mail forwarding, Pa to Fl. In the past it took about 7-14 days to receive, this year is the worst & the postal service confirmed yesterday that nationwide is about a month behind. When you forward it no longer goes to your local PO it goes to a regional center then they forward. I have not received a monthly statement for December, sent in early Jan.
So, I will be stopping a month before I return. PO says they agree.

I start forwarding my mail 3 or 4 days before I am leaving. Has worked fine for me.

Postal service says give them two weeks to start getting your mail to you. If it goes longer they say give them a call. You can go into the system now and set the date you want it to stop. You can also set the end date while in the system setting the start date. We found the service to be unreliable so we don’t use it anymore

I always do temporary change of address and never have a problem

If you are going to a temporary address, like a vacation rental or an AirB&B, do not forward mail. The credit bureaus will put that address in your credit record, and you will never be rid of it. Never, not in at least ten years.

I do it on line 10 days in advance. Cost $1.10. I also tape a note blocking my mailslot for postal worker to redirect my mail. I continue to check my mail until the day I leave. I use Informed Delivery app to see what to expect. Takes a week before mail gets to new location.

Informed Delivery
 

Thanks for the idea Ropnrose. We have Informed Delivery and unfortunately I didn’t save the email that contained the scan of a very important 1099. The dashboard for Informed Delivery does not show more than 7 days of mail so was unable to send a lost mail notice through the dashboard. I generated a lost mail email through USPS. Just a run around. I now will no longer receive this 1099 via mail. My mail is still missing so lesson learned! BTW, mail for informed delivery is scanned in a regional facility which is Orlando for us.

We stop ours at least a week prior to going home.

We use the free service (actually $1). They won’t forward junk mail, flyers, etc which we don’t care about. It does take a long while sometimes especially from MI for things to catch up. I get USPS informed so I can see daily what to expect. I really don’t care about the stuff that they said I should receive and haven’t but I do receive all important pieces on mail like tax information, voting, etc. I too get all my bill online with email reminders so I don’t have much need for any mail but there is always that one thing I missed!

The bigger question is evaluate what you are receiving by USPS. You can get almost everything meaningful by email (bank statements, credit card statements, utility bills, etc.) and then just do the free forwarding service for what might fall through the cracks.

This is the way to go; IMHO.

I stop mine one week in advance. I've done this for about 25 years and it works for me.

It works fairly well through the temporary address change which I believe was $1.10 the last time that I did it. On the other hand, just spoke with a friend whose card was sent around the world (sort of) to me and landed back at her home. It's a bit of a crap shoot, but mostly works for the temporary address change. Never tried the $100 one.

Don't bother with mail forwarding (use USPS Informed Delivery)
 

1) Don't pay for premium weekly service. They will box up everything including junk mail, magazines, etc. I believe you ALSO play for the weight of each shipment.

2) Getting USPS forwarded to a rented house in The Villages may be tough. The mail doesn't come directly to the house. It is in the neighborhood mail station. Your landlord has the keys and mail addressed to you is co-mingled with owner mail. That's an assumption that you are renting.....Instead, have someone up North go through your mail and forward to a PO Box at the post office, UPS store, etc

3) Always sign up for the USPS "Informed Delivery" service. You will get a daily e-mail showing you scanned copies of each piece of mail coming to your house up North. I then have my sister pull what I consider vital, and she sends it to a permanent resident friend here in The Villages.

USPS forwarding works, but not ideal for rentals
 

Yes, this is a good approach. But just remember your USPS mail sent to The Villages (if renting a house) is a PIA for the owner/property manager and may get mail well after your departure. Just have somebody grab vital mail up North and forward to a PO box in The Villages