USPS Mail Forwarding vs. Temporary Change of Address
 

My husband and I will be snowbirds for the first time this winter in TV. In reviewing our options on the USPS website, there is a service called "Mail Forwarding" that costs about $11 per week for the PO to forward your mail, or there is a service called "Temporary Change of Address." Does anyone know the difference between the services and what is being offered for $11 per week that won't be done by using the "Temporary Change of Address" service? What do part-time visitors/owners select when moving to TV for several months?

YES. We are going through that very quandary today....leaving tomorrow. The process that they charge you for is collecting your mail for a week and sending it to you in a priority envelope. The process that is free is that until you tell them otherwise the mail is sent on to you at your winter place.

It seems simple to me, but I am blonde.

Appreciate any help too. PLEASE.

I was just going to inquire here about the same thing, thanks for posting. If time permits today, I am going to check the options out at the Post Office. It seems very confusing to me.

Temporary Address Change
 

We filled out a temporary address change when we were in Florida in Jan. and Feb. (I can't remember if there was a limit on the time allowed.)

Anyway, we had it start on the day our rental started and planned it to stop about one week before we left Florida. We filled out a card to hold our mail for the last week. Only first class mail was forwarded.

It all worked out well, and it was nice not having all the "junk" mail.

Went to the post office. For a fee they will send all your mail every Wednesday to your new address. The free service only includes first class mail. We are going to have all our mail sent.

:agree: We've used temp address change also and it went very smoothly both times. I believe magazines are sent the first month only, so be sure to submit an address change to the publisher for periodicals that you do want to receive after that. I couldn't figure out how to do that efficiently and ended up cancelling most of those. We've also made a concerted effort to get most of our accounts on electronic billing and that has made all the difference. Welcome!

When I left TV in April I asked the Post Office in FLorida to forward my mail to Canada for a six month period. And they did forward each individual piece of mail. For free.

Now I'm back in TV I called the post office and they said they'd remove the forwarding instruction.


Easy peasy.

Bills
 

Almost everything I pay is done electronically, so I don't have to worry about the bills when we're away. So much easier than the "old" days.

Paid-for magazine subscriptions
 

I'm only concerned about first class mail and paid-for magazine subscriptions being forwarded to TV. Did the post office forward your magazines? One of the postings indicates they only forward magazines for one month.

Ctgolfer,

When I went to my local post office again yesterday, I was told that ONLY first class mail would be forwarded. If, however, I chose the Premium Mail Forwarding service ($10.00 to activate and approx $12.00 weekly), I would receive all my mail. You might want to check out www.usps.com for more information.

Village friends who are snowbirds have discovered that the USPS does not forward all 1st class mail with the free service. To forward or not is predicated on instructions the mailer may have on the envelope. Our friends were not receiving financial statements. Signing up for electronic banking, automatic bill paying, etc. as another poster suggested would eliminate quite a few problems.

The quote below is from the USPS:

4.0 SENDER INSTRUCTION
Mail Not Forwarded
4.1
The following types of mail are not forwarded:
a. Mail addressed to “Occupant” or “Postal Customer.”
b. Mail with exceptional address format.
c. Mail showing specific instructions of the sender (e.g., “Return Service
Requested” or “Change Service Requested”).

The above was extracted from the following site:

http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm_old/F030.pdf

Temp vs permanent change of address
 

We have our mail forwarded with the free service. I really wasn't sure what the extra cost service bought - it seemed expensive considering you could get it for free and we get it more than once a week also. Our Mags get delivered for about 2 mts I think some seem longer and I try to have the address changed but its a pain finding how to do that for each magazine. Some mail that indicates DO not forward is not sent but I figure that out soon enough and have it resent if I need it. I do almost all our payments by auto pay from a CC or bank account so that eliminates a lot of worry.

Since we are here about 6 mts +/_ I wasn't sure if I should indicate a temp change of address (good for 6 mts then renew if I needed ) or permanent. I choose permanent this time and found out the Postal service sent a notice to everyone who sends me mail (banks. Mutual funds, stock, you name it ) that I have moved and now my permanent address is in Fl for most of this mail - which I didn't want. So now I will have to do another permanent change of address when I return to NY. Oh Well it could be worst!