Mail and Addresses

[1jparker]

Hi all,

My husband and I have sold our house and plan on buying a live aboard boat. What do you all use as a mailing address? Do I get a PO box? If so, they ask for an address. Do I use the Marina? I won't be getting mail there. Any ideas? Thanks

[delmarrey]

Hi & welcome aboard!

Not knowing where you'll home port out of this is the easiest info I can give.>>> States With No Income Tax

[skipmac]

Lots of cruisers and live aboards have the same question and businesses have evolved to deal with the problem. One of the oldest and best respected is St Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs FL.

They will receive your mail, toss the junk, forward the important stuff or scan it and email it too you.

[1jparker]

Originally Posted by 1jparker

Hi all,

My husband and I have sold our house and plan on buying a live aboard boat. What do you all use as a mailing address? Do I get a PO box? If so, they ask for an address. Do I use the Marina? I won't be getting mail there. Any ideas? Thanks

We will be in Marblehead Ma on a mooring during the summer and at a marina in Salem during the off season. We own a place in NH, but I don't think we can declare NH our residency due to the fact that we will only be there during weekends in the fall and winter.
Any suggestions or places to go for advice welcome!

[Kettlewell]

This has become more and more of a thorny issue due to Real ID laws that now require you to "prove" your physical address before you can get a driver's license in most states. That rules out using a PO Box as your only address--you need a street address somewhere that is your "residence" address, and in many states a business address won't cut it--the computer will spit it out and say no go. If you currently have driver's licenses and an address someplace it might be worth it updating them so you have a few years before this becomes a problem again. My usual advice is to find a trusted friend or relative that will let you use their address as your "residence" and then have as few things as possible actually sent there. You can then use a good mailing service, like St. Brendan's Isle, to actually receive and forward the bulk of your mail. Some cruisers also use SBI as their "residence" address in Florida, which does have tax advantages, but wouldn't really work for you until you take off cruising. If you are staying in Massachusetts you will probably want to use the trusted friend or relative suggestion, and then get a PO Box or a UPS Store box for the bulk of your mail. You generally only need the "residence" address for your driver's license, car registration, voting, income taxes, and possibly your insurance. Here's a link to the Massachusetts ID requirements for licenses.

[Amapola]

We rent a box at our local UPS store and use their address. We pay all bills online so we get very little mail there. They will forward important mail to us wherever we are and save the rest for us to pick up.

[AnchorageGuy]

You will need not only an address but someone to handle the mail and send it to you when you need it. Most cruisers use a mail forwarding service if they are traveling. If you plan to stay in one place then a PO box will do fine. As for a physical address, if you are in a marina then that is the physical address or you might want to use a relatives address for drivers license, etc. If you are cruising and moving around then the mail forwarding service will provide both a PO Box for mailing and a physical address for drivers licenses, shipping UPS, etc. We have used NATO in Sarasota Florida for about 15 years. They have always been our permanent address, even when we are in one place for a year. Chuck