Preparing for my first assignment

NedRN · Sep 22, 2014

Mail? Seriously? That is so 1990!

Obviously, friends or family is best if you cannot get everything done online. Past that, some use USPS premium forwarding but that is fraught with some risk as some mail that cannot be delivered is returned. Summons for example, and a lot of financial institutions do the same. So many travelers use Mailboxes USA or similar service.

Personally, I think those options are costly ($20-$50 a month or whatever may not sound like much, but think about multiplying that by 12 months a year). I'll take my risks with summons and such (plus I have a family member empty my mail once a month - the box goes inside my house), and handle all my business needs with autopay. Even my property tax is paid automatically. Some people prefer to pay manually, but virtually every service will send notifications emails and you can use your bank's billpay service (most are free now). Every couple of years, I may need to update a credit card expiration date, but that is all I do, at home or on the road. I get maybe one important piece of mail not even once a year.

None of this is recent, I've been doing this since I started traveling in 1995. I admit I had to write a few checks in the beginning, mostly at tax time, and use snail mail to send them, but I haven't written a check for several years.

HikingNinja, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, APRN, NP · Sep 23, 2014

I love my mailbox service. No junk mail. Important items are scanned and I have a pdf copy for my records. I can have mail forwarded or held. If I get a check I can have it sent to my bank for deposit. Just Google online mailbox services. It does cost $20 / month but it's worth it to me.

raindrop · Sep 23, 2014

Never heard of this! Awesome!