How To Stay In Touch:
Mail, Telephone, Banking, Internet, & TV
By Robert Wells
As soon as you decide to move into your new vehicle home you will be
faced with the question of what to do about getting mail, maintaining a
phone number, and going on-line. If you are going to be a traveling
vandweller, where will you maintain your residency and how will you do
your banking? Fortunately, there is a fairly easy solution for all these
questions.
Mail:
When I moved into my van for the first time, I already had an
established resident mailing address. So I went and got a mail box at
the UPS Store and had all my mail sent there and filled out a change of
address form. The reason I went with them instead of the U.S. Postal
Service is that I like to order from the internet and the USPS does not
receive packages from Fed EX, UPS, or other freight companies. Since
many companies only ship through those carriers, the USPS was not a
good choice for me. That solved the problem of how to get mail, but I
still had the problem of what to do for a resident address since
sometimes you need a physical address and not just a PO Box. I like to
keep things as simple as possible, so I just kept using my last physical
address. Who would know that I no longer lived there? If mail
accidently was sent there, it would be forwarded to my new address. I
kept using that address for the next six years that I lived in that van,
and never once had a problem with it.
State Residency:
If you are going to be a traveling vandweller, you have an additional
problem of how to establish residency in a state, and how to receive mail
on the road. It is actually quite easy. The first thing you have to decide
is which state do you want to be a resident of. Some states have a
heavier tax burden than others, so that will be a top priority to anyone
with an income to report. Another consideration is the cost of vehicle
insurance since the rates vary a lot from state-to-state. A final major
consideration is vehicle inspections. If a state requires a vehicle
inspection before they will renew your registration for another year,
that is a major drawback. I don't want to be required to make a long
trip back to my home state just to renew my vehicle registration, when
another state will let me renew it online without driving back to the
state. Based on these considerations, four states are generally
considered the best choices: Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, and Florida.
None of them have a income tax and it is fairly easy to become a
resident. Of these four, South Dakota probably has the lowest
insurance rates.
Okay, so how will we get a resident address and receive mail once we
decide on a state? One great solution is to have a member of your family
or a friend receive your mail, and use their address as you own. But if
you don't have someone to do it for you, then you can use a mail-
forwarder. This is a company that lets us set-up a mailbox with them,
and as mail comes in for us, they hold it and then box it up and mail it to
us at an address we give to them. For example, I established residency
in Nevada and I have a mail forwarder in Pahrump, NV. It is a woman
who operates the company out of her home. She lets me use her home
address as my physical address, and my mail goes to a PO Box she set
up. She goes to the PO Box and gets my mail and holds it, waiting on
instructions from me on where to send it. She then calls me and tells me
I have mail, and if I ask her to, she will open it and read it to me. Click
here to go to her website http://www.jbmailroom.com/. If I want to
have her send that mail to me, I give her an address to forward it to.
For example, if I am in Colorado Springs, CO and I decide that I am
ready to receive my mail. I have several choices of how to get that box
from the mail forwarder. First, I can have it sent to Bob Wells, General
Delivery, Colorado Springs, Co. Nearly every town has a Post Office
branch that will receive mail addressed to Joe Blow, C/O General
Delivery. If there are multiple branches in that town, only a few will
receive General Delivery mail, so go to a branch and ask where you can
get General Delivery. Second, there are many mail-box stores such as
UPS Stores all over the country, and they will receive and hold mail and
packages for you for a $5 charge. So I go online and find the UPS Store
in Colorado Springs and call them and alert them I will be receiving a
package at their store. I will have my mail forwarder address the box
as "The UPS Store--Hold for Bob Wells." Third, a final choice is to go to
a RV Campground and check-in. They will receive mail for me. Once I
have decided on where to receive my mail from forwarder in Pahrump, I
call or email her and give her the address of General Delivery, the UPS
Store, or RV park I'm at, and tell her to send it to me there. She takes
the box of mail to the Post Office and mails it to me. The cost of this
service for me as of 2009 is $100 a year, and she requires a $25
deposit to cover the cost of the postage of the boxes she sends me.
Mail forwarding services like this exist all over the country in most mid-
size towns. Each of the best four states for full-time RVers have many
forwarders in them. The main one in Florida is Good Sams Club. You have
to join their club and then you can use their mail service (click here: http:
//www.goodsammail.com/). In Texas, the Escapees RV club is famous
for it's mail forwarding service (click here: http://www.escapees.
com/MailForwardingService.asp). South Dakota actively encourages out
of state RVers to make SD there resident home. They make it very easy
to become a resident so it has many mail forwarding services:
http://www.alternativeresources.net/
http://www.mydakotaaddress.com/SD%20Residency%20faq.htm
http://www.americas-mailbox.com/
I made my decision on the basis of price and location. Both the Good
Sams Club and Escapees require you to join first, and then pay for the
mail forwarding service. Because of that, they end up being the most
expensive. If you want the services those clubs offer, it may be worth
it to you to join them, it wasn't to me so I ruled them out. That left
South Dakota and Nevada as my other choices. I love the Southwest and
plan to spend my winters there for the rest of my life for these
reasons:
Because South Dakota, Texas and Florida were a long ways out of my
way, I rejected them. I often pass through or near Nevada, so it was a
logical decision as my state of residence. My only regret is that the
insurance rate on my truck went up but I think the cost of the gas to any
of those other states would have cost more. So when you are deciding
where to become a resident the top priority is location. If you are on the
East coast then Florida would be your best choice, if you are in the
Midwest then Texas or South Dakota are close. In the West, Nevada or
South Dakota are close.
Once you have decided on the state that works best for you, you have to
drive their and be physically present to get your first drivers license
and vehicle registration. In Nevada it was extremely easy. They don't
require any proof of residency, and I had a local physical address
through my mail forwarder. I walked into the DMV, surrendered my
Alaska license and plates and got new Nevada ones. On my old Ford
F150 the total cost was less than $100 and took less than an hour. Some
states require that you pay sales tax on the purchase cost of your
vehicle, which, if it was an expensive RV can be a lot of money. That is
something for you to look into before you decide on a state.
Telephone:
It's obvious that a cell phone is a great choice for vandwellers. Which
service is best is not so clear. If you use a phone very little, then a pay-
as-you-go plan like Tracphone or Net10 may be best for you. Ask five
people which one is best and you will probably hear five different
answers. These plans change so fast that it really isn't possible for me
to give details about which is best. I can say that the one I have heard
the most good reviews for is Net10, but it is really up to you to do the
legwork and learn the details and true costs of each plan. For people
who use a phone frequently, a contract plan with the big cell phone
companies like Verizon, ATT, Sprint, and others is probably a good
choice. They offer many plans and each has it's pros and cons. Again, you
need to determine what your needs are and do the research as to which
plan is best for you. For the traveling vandweller, my opinion is that
Verizon has the best nationwide coverage, Sprint is a very close second,
and ATT lags far behind both. But that is just my biased opinion and it
can be just the opposite in certain locations. They are all very good and
you can't go wrong with any of them.
Internet:
There are four main methods of getting internet access:
Banking:
Banking has become very easy over the internet and by using debit
cards. ATM machines make getting cash easy, and electronic payments
and bill pay make getting paid and paying others very easy. You can go
online to view your account, transfer money, and pay bills. While I write
only one or two checks a year and rarely ever go into a bank branch, I
sometimes do want a stick-and-brick store, so I choose Bank of
America as my bank because they have branches all over the country.
Television:
I like TV and wanted to be able to watch it even after I moved into my
camper. Fortunately, it isn't that hard. I bought a LCD with a HD digital
tuner built in. It has a terrific picture, it's small, light and doesn't use
much energy. I mounted it on a wall on a swing-away mount. I needed an
antenna so I bought a Winegard Roadstar, which is a round, omni-
directional antenna with a amplifier for better reception. I put it on a
metal mast that I can raise for better reception and lower for travel
faced with the question of what to do about getting mail, maintaining a
phone number, and going on-line. If you are going to be a traveling
vandweller, where will you maintain your residency and how will you do
your banking? Fortunately, there is a fairly easy solution for all these
questions.
Mail:
When I moved into my van for the first time, I already had an
established resident mailing address. So I went and got a mail box at
the UPS Store and had all my mail sent there and filled out a change of
address form. The reason I went with them instead of the U.S. Postal
Service is that I like to order from the internet and the USPS does not
receive packages from Fed EX, UPS, or other freight companies. Since
many companies only ship through those carriers, the USPS was not a
good choice for me. That solved the problem of how to get mail, but I
still had the problem of what to do for a resident address since
sometimes you need a physical address and not just a PO Box. I like to
keep things as simple as possible, so I just kept using my last physical
address. Who would know that I no longer lived there? If mail
accidently was sent there, it would be forwarded to my new address. I
kept using that address for the next six years that I lived in that van,
and never once had a problem with it.
State Residency:
If you are going to be a traveling vandweller, you have an additional
problem of how to establish residency in a state, and how to receive mail
on the road. It is actually quite easy. The first thing you have to decide
is which state do you want to be a resident of. Some states have a
heavier tax burden than others, so that will be a top priority to anyone
with an income to report. Another consideration is the cost of vehicle
insurance since the rates vary a lot from state-to-state. A final major
consideration is vehicle inspections. If a state requires a vehicle
inspection before they will renew your registration for another year,
that is a major drawback. I don't want to be required to make a long
trip back to my home state just to renew my vehicle registration, when
another state will let me renew it online without driving back to the
state. Based on these considerations, four states are generally
considered the best choices: Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, and Florida.
None of them have a income tax and it is fairly easy to become a
resident. Of these four, South Dakota probably has the lowest
insurance rates.
Okay, so how will we get a resident address and receive mail once we
decide on a state? One great solution is to have a member of your family
or a friend receive your mail, and use their address as you own. But if
you don't have someone to do it for you, then you can use a mail-
forwarder. This is a company that lets us set-up a mailbox with them,
and as mail comes in for us, they hold it and then box it up and mail it to
us at an address we give to them. For example, I established residency
in Nevada and I have a mail forwarder in Pahrump, NV. It is a woman
who operates the company out of her home. She lets me use her home
address as my physical address, and my mail goes to a PO Box she set
up. She goes to the PO Box and gets my mail and holds it, waiting on
instructions from me on where to send it. She then calls me and tells me
I have mail, and if I ask her to, she will open it and read it to me. Click
here to go to her website http://www.jbmailroom.com/. If I want to
have her send that mail to me, I give her an address to forward it to.
For example, if I am in Colorado Springs, CO and I decide that I am
ready to receive my mail. I have several choices of how to get that box
from the mail forwarder. First, I can have it sent to Bob Wells, General
Delivery, Colorado Springs, Co. Nearly every town has a Post Office
branch that will receive mail addressed to Joe Blow, C/O General
Delivery. If there are multiple branches in that town, only a few will
receive General Delivery mail, so go to a branch and ask where you can
get General Delivery. Second, there are many mail-box stores such as
UPS Stores all over the country, and they will receive and hold mail and
packages for you for a $5 charge. So I go online and find the UPS Store
in Colorado Springs and call them and alert them I will be receiving a
package at their store. I will have my mail forwarder address the box
as "The UPS Store--Hold for Bob Wells." Third, a final choice is to go to
a RV Campground and check-in. They will receive mail for me. Once I
have decided on where to receive my mail from forwarder in Pahrump, I
call or email her and give her the address of General Delivery, the UPS
Store, or RV park I'm at, and tell her to send it to me there. She takes
the box of mail to the Post Office and mails it to me. The cost of this
service for me as of 2009 is $100 a year, and she requires a $25
deposit to cover the cost of the postage of the boxes she sends me.
Mail forwarding services like this exist all over the country in most mid-
size towns. Each of the best four states for full-time RVers have many
forwarders in them. The main one in Florida is Good Sams Club. You have
to join their club and then you can use their mail service (click here: http:
//www.goodsammail.com/). In Texas, the Escapees RV club is famous
for it's mail forwarding service (click here: http://www.escapees.
com/MailForwardingService.asp). South Dakota actively encourages out
of state RVers to make SD there resident home. They make it very easy
to become a resident so it has many mail forwarding services:
http://www.alternativeresources.net/
http://www.mydakotaaddress.com/SD%20Residency%20faq.htm
http://www.americas-mailbox.com/
I made my decision on the basis of price and location. Both the Good
Sams Club and Escapees require you to join first, and then pay for the
mail forwarding service. Because of that, they end up being the most
expensive. If you want the services those clubs offer, it may be worth
it to you to join them, it wasn't to me so I ruled them out. That left
South Dakota and Nevada as my other choices. I love the Southwest and
plan to spend my winters there for the rest of my life for these
reasons:
- It's warm in the winter, but not too hot!!
- Higher country where the summers are cool are only a days drive
away. - There is an abundance of sun for free solar electricity and solar
cooking. - There is a huge amount of free land to camp on for as long as you
want. You can be with others in communities like Quartszite or the
Slabs, or you can camp alone without anyone within miles. - High quality and very cheap dental services are available across the
border in Mexico in towns like Algodones along with cheap
prescriptions and eyeglasses. - After awhile you start to find the beauty of the desert.
Because South Dakota, Texas and Florida were a long ways out of my
way, I rejected them. I often pass through or near Nevada, so it was a
logical decision as my state of residence. My only regret is that the
insurance rate on my truck went up but I think the cost of the gas to any
of those other states would have cost more. So when you are deciding
where to become a resident the top priority is location. If you are on the
East coast then Florida would be your best choice, if you are in the
Midwest then Texas or South Dakota are close. In the West, Nevada or
South Dakota are close.
Once you have decided on the state that works best for you, you have to
drive their and be physically present to get your first drivers license
and vehicle registration. In Nevada it was extremely easy. They don't
require any proof of residency, and I had a local physical address
through my mail forwarder. I walked into the DMV, surrendered my
Alaska license and plates and got new Nevada ones. On my old Ford
F150 the total cost was less than $100 and took less than an hour. Some
states require that you pay sales tax on the purchase cost of your
vehicle, which, if it was an expensive RV can be a lot of money. That is
something for you to look into before you decide on a state.
Telephone:
It's obvious that a cell phone is a great choice for vandwellers. Which
service is best is not so clear. If you use a phone very little, then a pay-
as-you-go plan like Tracphone or Net10 may be best for you. Ask five
people which one is best and you will probably hear five different
answers. These plans change so fast that it really isn't possible for me
to give details about which is best. I can say that the one I have heard
the most good reviews for is Net10, but it is really up to you to do the
legwork and learn the details and true costs of each plan. For people
who use a phone frequently, a contract plan with the big cell phone
companies like Verizon, ATT, Sprint, and others is probably a good
choice. They offer many plans and each has it's pros and cons. Again, you
need to determine what your needs are and do the research as to which
plan is best for you. For the traveling vandweller, my opinion is that
Verizon has the best nationwide coverage, Sprint is a very close second,
and ATT lags far behind both. But that is just my biased opinion and it
can be just the opposite in certain locations. They are all very good and
you can't go wrong with any of them.
Internet:
There are four main methods of getting internet access:
- Free WIFI: There are many places across the country where you
can get free wifi. The most obvious is libraries, they nearly always
have free wifi. There are several sites that list free wifi hot-spots
such as http://www.wififreespot.com/, http://www.jiwire.
com/search-hotspot-locations.htm, http://gwifi.net/. The problem
with this is that you may have to drive around looking for wifi and
waste time and gas. In some rural areas, there just may not be any
available. - Internet on your cell phone. You can use your cell phone as a
browser with most contract cell plans for a small fee ($25-$35
per month as of 2009).The Apple iPhone is a famous example of
this. Of course the obvious drawback is the small size of the screen. - Broadband using a data air-card on your laptop. This is what I
chose. I am with Verizon and I am extremely pleased with it. I get
broadband speed in nearly every town regardless of size. There is
a 5 gigabyte limit of use and then the fees become very high for
extra use. With normal use most people find 5 gigabytes to be
plenty. However, if you try to stream video, then you will probably
go over the 5 gig limit. The obvious disadvantage is the cost. As of
2009 it costs $60 a month with a two year contract. - Internet by Satellite. This requires you carry a satellite dish and
pay a monthly fee. To be honest, I couldn't afford the cost or the
space it required so I never even looked into it. You will have to do
your own research here.
Banking:
Banking has become very easy over the internet and by using debit
cards. ATM machines make getting cash easy, and electronic payments
and bill pay make getting paid and paying others very easy. You can go
online to view your account, transfer money, and pay bills. While I write
only one or two checks a year and rarely ever go into a bank branch, I
sometimes do want a stick-and-brick store, so I choose Bank of
America as my bank because they have branches all over the country.
Television:
I like TV and wanted to be able to watch it even after I moved into my
camper. Fortunately, it isn't that hard. I bought a LCD with a HD digital
tuner built in. It has a terrific picture, it's small, light and doesn't use
much energy. I mounted it on a wall on a swing-away mount. I needed an
antenna so I bought a Winegard Roadstar, which is a round, omni-
directional antenna with a amplifier for better reception. I put it on a
metal mast that I can raise for better reception and lower for travel
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Consider Giving a Small Donation to Help Support This Site