Mail forwarding service for extended European trip

We talked to our postmaster and he was able to "ok" an extension of the permitted 4 weeks.

Our postmaster will extend our hold mail order longer than 30 days if we request it in person. It seems to help that we're going to be out of the country. Years ago, we used the Post Office's vacation forwarding service for extended in-country trips. It was an expensive mess, with some of our mail ending up with permanent address changes.

Lynne Martin of Home Free Adventures has a recommendation:

Friends ask us all the time what we do about our mail. In our case, it’s easy because my daughter Robin has kindly agreed to take it for us, providing us with a U.S. address and all that entails, like drivers’ licenses, voting, etc. Now we have found a service that will do all of that for a nominal fee and even forward packages to you anywhere in the world. I contacted them and it’s really TRUE! They will scan the return addresses on mail every day and email them to you anywhere in the world. Then, if you want them to open and look at it for you, they will do so, scan it, and send you the scan for $3. WOW! USA2Me.com

Mail forwarders are great - not real timely but great.

The big problem I see with this is you will need to do one of two things:

1 Forward your mail from your current address to your forwarder who will then forward it to you - this can take up to two weeks sometimes

2 Change you address everywhere so your mail goes directly to your forwarder and then to you.

Either way will not get your mail in a timely manner.

I suggest you go paperless now - with everything you can - set up online bill pay for everything and avoid the paper. Then find a family member or trusted friend who can pick up your mail once a week or so at yopur post office. Go through what is there with them via skype or other means and decide what mail you really NEED sent to you.

Go with what Christi said -- paperless makes things much easier. On my first trip (pre-Internet) we had everything forwarded to my mother-in-law and gave her specific (we thought) instructions -- open the BankAmericard bill and pay it, just hold onto everything else. Got home two months later and found the credit card had NOT been paid, but she had carefully reviewed all the junk mail ... With paperless billing/autopay, YOU are in charge.

I agree to go paperless as much as possible. My trips are about 90-100 days (Schengen and non-), so I hVe my neighbor pick up my mail and hold it.

I tried renting a mailbox for one trip, with a friend picking up mail once a week; it took two years to straighten out the change of address mess, which included important mail being returned to sender.

I think it depends on what you mean by "extended time". How long will you be traveling? We don't do paper bills so have no worries with having to get a bill and cut a check for services. When we traveled this winter I had a neighbor pick up my mail for a bit until a thirty day hold would have the bulk of our mail being delivered to us two days after we arrived home.

I get my mail at a private mailbox place that offers virtual mail. Virtual Mail is a service where every piece of mail is photographed. You get an alert when mail comes in and then you log into your account to see what mail has arriived. You can tell the service whether you want them to forward it to you, scan it, shred it or just hold it until you pick it up.

I also have all my bills paid automatically. I get to see the bills before they are paid but if everything is okay, I don't have to do anything--except make sure my checking account has enough money to cover the bills.

Forwarding mail internationally can get expensive which is why I like these two things.

I think you need to give a better explanation as to what you exact want to accomplish. All mail forwarded? Important mail - who decides. Time period?

When we are gone for an extended period of time we have the PO hold the mail. However, there will only hold a max of 30 days of mail so we arrange for a cousin in the area to pick up the held mail once every three weeks or so. Now since the mortgage, homeowners dues, and utilities are paid automatically, that leaves only the credit card that can be paid on-line when due. All credit cards are due on the same day so it is fairly easy to take an hour or two prior to the due date, check the cards and issue payments. That has worked pretty well for us over the recent years.

How long will this "extended European trip" be, and which countries will you be visiting? I assume you're aware of the provisions of the Schnegen visa? Also, are you going to be travelling with a laptop, iPad or other device to access the internet?

I agree with the others that setting up online access of banking, credit cards and other accounts of that type is a good idea. There is a slight risk however in accessing sensitive accounts via Wi-Fi. You could also set up automated payments as Frank II suggested. For other mail, have a trusted family member or neighbour collect and hold for you.