Has anyone used Earth Class Mail and what has been your experience? I'm about to leave on a RTW and am not sure what to do with my mail. I'm concerned that when I get back, it will be difficult to get my mail out of the Earth Class Mail System since USPS does not allow mail to be forwarded from commercial businesses like that. Also, was it difficult to get all the paperwork together?
Thanks!
HI, I am curious, what type of mail do you have? If you are concerned about your business mail,wouldn't you have a manager running your business while you are away? Can't you set up all of your bills to be paid by bank debit or credit card?
For personal letters, could you not have it forwarded to a family member or mail box until you return. This service seem interesting. I would be a little concerned about your privacy and account numbers and identity theft.
Thanks. All my mail is personal, but I just don't have any reliable family members to take care of the mail for me. With Earth Class Mail, I like the idea of seeing the contents of my mail all scanned in and viewable over the internet. However, I did have some issues in having to get documents notarized in order to use them and some concern over security. The concept might take off more amongst travellers, but I haven't heard of anyone using them yet.
I really think you can arrange to have your bills all paid up in advance or set them up to be paid by credit card automatically and then the credit card taken out of your bank account...or all on auto draft from your bank. All of friends and family would know you were out of town, so they wouldn't be mailing anything.
It seems to me that mail box places now can also arrange to read your mail or notify you if something looks important. Good luck.
Full disclosure, I'm the Earth Class Mail PR guy.
That said, and without launching into a blatant plug for our company, I want to refer you to a few travelers who have written (unsolicited) reviews of our service:
http://almostfearless.com/2008/07/10/how-to-travel-the-world-carefree-and-still-get-your-mail/
http://www.discoverbuenosaires.com/postal-mail
That's all.
If you want to know more feel free to contact me directly at jeff.wenker@earthclassmail.com
I've been using them for a few months. They're ok so far. If you have an 'issue' it is better to call in and deal directly with a person than to do the email thing.
Bear in mind the limit of the number of pieces of mail you can receive in your pricing structure, and realize that if you've filed a change-of-address and junk mail gets forwarded you're going to have to pay extra for receiving that garbage.
it will be difficult to get my mail out of the Earth Class Mail System since USPS does not allow mail to be forwarded from commercial businesses like that
I've been up against this too, so yeah, it is possible to lose touch with people (or vice versa), On the other hand, you purge the junk mail chain that's been following you around. Most personal contact is done via email these days anyway.