Getting mail whilst abroad
To save missing important mail, we would like to get our mail sent to us on site in Spain. Don’t want o hassle our neighbours. Anyone got any recommendations? Any ideas gratefully received. We are away 3 months.
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Hi
Do you mean you neighbours will forward any mail on? If so then surely you're leaving to them to decide what gets sent? Otherwise you need to change your mailing address well before you leave to the site you'll be staying on. We overwinter at the same site in Spain every year and I change my mailing address a month before we leave. If there's any mail delivered after we've left the site in Spain they will send it on to any address I supply.
JK
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My brother visits when we are away, usually once a week, and has our permission to open any mail which looks important (ie in a proper addressed offical looking, or hand-written envelope). Even then it's amazing how much is rubbish. Our bank statements and other financial information is all kept deliberately paperless. He then scans anything we actually need to read and emails it to us. That takes in hospital appointments, etc, and we get notice immediately so that if we have to ring to cancel we can do so without penalty.
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I forward mail to my brother to whichever campsite he happens to be at. If in Sicily the mail can take up to 10 days to be delivered. In Germany the average is 4 days. As a non homeowner I don’t think he gets junk mail. I don’t open any of his mail, it’s not my business. He always reimburses me the cost.
Brother lives full time in his MH
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Agree with everything Valda as posted you need to go paperless with anything important and from someone who lives in Spain wouldn't trust the Correos with anything, not had a card delivered for birthday/anniversary from my children for the last three years. The people who work for Correos are not under contract and come and go on a weekly basis much like our zero hour contracts in the UK and not very trustworthy, If I have anything of importance my daughter who's address I use then Whatssap me a photo.
Phil
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What are you expecting that will require urgent attention. The easy answer is to get as many payments onto direct debits or standing orders and as has been said go paperless for all bank accounts and credit cards. Even credit cards can be set up to either pay the minimum monthly amount or paid in full. If you don't already have one get a decent Smart phone and download all the banking apps before you go and most payments can be done that way or take a laptop and access things via that route. There should be very little beyond that requiring attention.
David
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We do similar, our daughter visits once a week to water the houseplants, take in the mail and generally check the house.
She opens any proper letters and will scan and e mail anything essential.
All our payments are on DDs and all banking etc on line, but we choose to also have paper statements for some credit cards just in case we do not have internet all the time. She will send amount and payment dates so we can ensure there is enough money in the bank when required.
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snap! daughter pops in to check the house and mail, roughly sorts it for us on our return.....
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Thanks everyone. I’m not stupid you know! I am paperless for everything I can be. I have direct debits etc. Do you never get important mail you’re not expecting? I have no immediate family and the neighbours who look after the house are elderly and I wouldn’t want to burden them.
I appreciate the useful insight that some wouldn’t trust the Spanish postal service.
I guess we’ll do what we’ve done before and just come back to it.
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"I’m not stupid you know!"
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Islandlassie
I am sure no one is suggesting that but posts are taken at face value and without more information the replies will be more generalised and may verge on teaching grand mother to suck eggs if you see what I mean. I am trying to rack my brain as to what things I get in the post that would cause a problem if not answered. Anything to do with medical could be one, perhaps an unexpected appointment? Most Health Authorities now use text messaging to alert people to appointments so at least you would get 24 hours or perhaps a weeks notice. Registering to vote might be another. The only other things I can think of is if something happens to your house but no doubt your neighbours would keep you informed. Perhaps if there was some planning matter that needed your attention but its not a long list. I would concentrate on enjoying your stay.
David
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I had a letter letting me know that an old friend's husband had died. She didn't have my mobile number. Fortunately my brother had opened it, and rang me so I was able to respond. Had it waited for three months until we got home I would have felt absolutely dreadful.
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DK I too can't think of anything that would surprise me.
Unfortunately we don't get text messages re health appointments in our area
but what we do is inform any departments that we are waiting for appointments the dates we will be away, so hopefully no surprises when we get home. All banking done online, insurances too. Neighbours both sides have OH's mobile number, they also have my sisters home number.
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I came back from an 8 week trip this Autumn to find a speeding ticket on my door mat - not the sort of thing that you want to leave lying around for too long
Fortunately, not my car, speeding in a town that I have never been to
Since then I have received "Notices of Intention to Prosecute" for the car jumping a red light and having been in an accident without stopping - identity theft - something that you need to attend to fairly urgently
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You can pay Royal Mail to redirect internationally and you may think it's worth the £144.99 they quote for redelivery to an EU address. (It's cheaper for a non EU address for some reason!!)
https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/redirection/0 -
Not so easy for my daughter in London to pop in to our house in Cornwall, so an alternative would be to pay Royal Mail £34 to redirect everything to her for three months and let her sort the wheat from the chaff and e.mail anything important to us.
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Do you have a family solicitor........the one who holds your wills and Powers of Attorney.......pretty sure they would be happy to communicate anything important to you by e mail for a fee. Get your mail redirected to them while you are away and ask them to open it all.
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Or maybe mail re-direction is a service the Club could offer to its members.
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Sounds an eminently practical solution for those nomads who forget where they live.
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As we lived a 180 miles away we had my mums mail redirected when she became unable to deal with it. Over the two year period of the divert, I had to put in two complaints about clearly addressed important letters not being forwarded. There were also other instances of non important ones that I didn't chase up. So far from an infallible system.
We know more or less if we are expecting anything that needs to be dealt with, such as road fund tax, and as our sons live close they pop in to check for it and Whats App a photo.
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