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CRUISING & MAIL: PART 3
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These thoughts were sent in by a reader who spends the entire summer cruising the coast. The reader asked that we withhold the name, which we have done.
February 28, 2002. We have Bank of America bill payer on an account that covers all the regular monthly bills: utilities, mortgage, VISA, etc. I get a little jittery about not seeing the VISA bill before it's paid, but so far it has been safe. Your way is definitely safer [we call the 800 number for a balance to pay -- ed.]. Like you, we purchase everything with cash or credit card when we're out.
This year I'm going to use a new credit card dedicated just to cruising expenses and limited to a low amount per month as a safer way for us. We have our mail forwarded to a box we pay for at the local Mail Box, where we know the people and trust them to sort out what's first class, any bills or incoming checks we missed, etc., and toss the second-class-on-down into a bin to await our return.
We call them when we know we'll be near a given post office within two weeks, and have them FedEx their collection of first-class stuff to us, General Delivery, Hold for Arrival, at, say, Bella Bella P.O.
As for magazines & other publications, we send their subscription departments requests for suspension for the months we'll be gone. We have great neighbors who check our mailbox every day for the stuff that gets past all these efforts. Whenever we can get to a land line, we call our bank and push buttons to find out our exact balance, and, if we need to know, exactly which checks and auto-pays have been deducted.
All this service is expensive compared to being at home, but we just figure it's part of the cost of cruising.v
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