Mail Forwarding for Snowbirds
 

Hi - Buying in TV this month - will split my time with my home in Colorado (six months straight in each location). question- how should I manage my mail be forwarded Between these two locations? Will a forwarding request be accepted for a full six months? I’m concerned about my mail falling through the cracks somehow at either location. I’m sure others have this all figured out, and would appreciate your responses? Looking forward to meeting all my new TV friends and neighbors in a few weeks! 😀

To my knowledge yes, forwarding mail for 6 months will work, but be vigilant.

We watch our snowbird neighbor's house, and they forward their mail up north.
When they left, we found mail every day for a week in their mailbox.
We called our neighbors and apparently there's was a mix up on how they contacted the post office and the mail delivery person.

So to answer your question it can be done.

Thanks - and I will try to go paperless as much as possible with my bills and statements, and get everything on “auto pay”

Good Idea.
I know many of us seniors have a hard time with the internet, but I use autopay when I can but still get receipts sent by mail.

Reason being is, if anything should happen to me, my wife, (who does not use our computer) could pay our bills by snail mail.

Will you have a "house watcher" at both locations? We use a service in TV that checks our mail once a week and lets us know if there is anything important. Our daughter does the same at our house up north.

You can sign up and line and see the rules. USPS.com FAQs

We are snowbirds with a house up north and one in TV and we forward our mail. When transitioning, I set up the start date to be about 5 dates before we actually switch so that I can be sure that have actually stop delivering the mail. Also, I use the USPS's Informed Delivery service so that I am notified what is coming in the mail. With 2 addresses, you need 2 e-mail addresses to set it up. When we switch locations, we stop the southbound forwarding and set up northbound forwarding.

We are "Seasonal Also" 6 /6, We change the USPS forwarding 7 days in advance,
for both ways. Haven't had any problems so far. We do use "Informed Delivery"
thru USPS, seems to work O.K. Suggest doing the same. Good luck.

We forwarded between two location for six years.

Worked great, no issues.

It did push me to use more electronic billing, paying, communications.

Good Luck.

We are snowbirds as well. Using the "Forwarding" function from the USPS works for almost everything but there are a few factors that you should consider. First, forwarded mail is usually delayed by 7 - 10 days so any bills that are not on autopay may arrive late and be past due. The second, is that some mail (like new credit cards or income tax statements) will not be forwarded even if you have submitted an address change. For that reason, for my credit cards, bank, and financial accounts I logon to the companies web site and change the mailing address to the new address. That way, the mail is sent directly to my new address. I do this 2 weeks before I leave for Florida and again 2 weeks before I head back north. Two weeks gives anything that is already in the mail pipeline to arrive while I am still at the old address and send anything new to the new address. I also do this for magazine subscriptions because the post office will only forward magazines for 2 months. All other mail is forwarded using the US Mail website to request an address change and I also use the 2 week time frame for that as well. I use the US Mail website to request the address change so that I can make sure the address is correct. When I first started coming to The Villages, I used the free card at the Post Office and they must have incorrectly typed in the address and my forwarded mail wasn't delivered until I went to the Post Office and found that the forwarding address was not correct.

Keep it simple we get prepaid mailers from USPS and have a neighbor who picks up our mail, checks our home mail everything but junk mail when package full.
We usually compensate them with gift certificates of their choice.

Bingo, only we have it held for as long as possible and then put it on hold again. Our son picks it up once a week, sorts and tosses the junk. The rest goes in the prepaid mailer if we need it sent to us.
The post office hasn’t mastered forwarding mail, in our opinion, it was a huge headache.

Mail forwarding for snowbirds??
 

I believe you can only get mail forwarding for a max of 30 days. You have to actually do a "change of address". I usually start a week before I leave either house. It sometimes takes a couple of days for the mail change of address to start thats why I start a week in advance. This time, I started to use the postal service which sends you a email photo shot of your mail in the morning of your delivery. Its actually kind of cool, especially in The Villages. It could save you a trip to the postal station only to find you have no mail.
You can do everthing on line. When your leaving The Villages, The week before go to the postal station and talk with the mail person and fill out the paperwork directly with them.

Our mail solution
 

Hi, go to your local post office and ask about Premium Mail Forwarding. We have used this service for six years without a problem. Good luck.

I have nothing sent to TV home. My daughter picks up my mail at home.