We are going to be traveling and gone for about 4 to 5 months and wonder what mail forwarding services any of you full timers use ? I did a web search and there are many listed but not sure how to judge if any are good to use. In particular I saw one for a company called Earth Class Mail where they scan all your mail and you decide what you want forwarded. Has anyone heard anything about this service?

I just completed a trial with Earth Class Mail. If you get an account there, I highly recommend the address in Beaverton, OR. If you use an address, say, in Miami, it has to be shipped to Beaverton before any processing is done. So mail to Miami may take more than a week to be scanned. Beaverton mail was very fast though.

Overall the service is great, and reasonably priced. I did fairly exhaustive testing and was pleased.

Patster: We were on the road for over 3 months earlier this year and, for the first time, had mail forwarded. We are GoodSam members and used their service...... and it was good. You leave a forwarding card with your Post Office at home to a mail box assigned to you in Florida. Then you call an 800 # while on the road and give GoodSam an address to which you want mail sent. I think they say 3-to-5 days for delivery; but our mail was always waiting for us at the expected date. It worked well and we will use them again next year.

I'm glad someone brought up this topic, because I'm a "part timer" and the Post Office only "holds" mail for 30 days, so I have to come back home within 30 days. I was wondering how in the heck I could be gone for more than 30 days. I think I'm going to try that Beaverton service.

JJ