Sold home bought boat - now what?!

[Kettlewell]

Wow. New York sucks. Sorry you have such terrible living conditions and government overreach.

Federal laws. Patriot Act and others. Every bank and state must comply. Doesn't mean they all do, but it is the law.

[John_Trusty]

Thank God we have the Patriot Act so that terrorism can no longer be funded! /s

That’s the same US law that allows federal agencies to ask which library books I checked out? I’m with Chotu on this one, government overreach and ineffective at the same time. I think it’s my patriotic duty to foul up their databases however I can, without running foul of the man.

Anyhow, to OP, not having a physical land address works, but takes some care setting up, so ask. It’s not illegal for you and I don’t care if it irritates the banker or auto reg people (they work for me).

[dfelsent]

Kyc and aml are the abbreviations. Know your customer. Anti money laundering.
Like it or not they are the us law right now.

This is federal law not state.

Different financial institutions have different degrees of compliance. They all have auditors looking at their degree of compliance. Not all auditors are created equal. Sometimes auditors go out of business. Think Bernie Madoff. Arthur Andersen.

If an institution fails to comply it will eventually get fined or shut down. Some institutions get shut down because they are criminal enterprises. Some are just terrible business people. Some are terrible businesses but know which hoops to jump through and stick around.

But different states have their own regulations and compliance requirements.

Some states are lax and others run a tight ship. Some are sophisticated and some are not. This may be due to resource constraints or due to intentional blindness.

This is the regulatory and business environment we are working with. That’s why it can be a crapshoot.

I am NOT making political statements or judgements here, just observations on the state of the U.S. banking and finance industry.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Chotu

They have more than one name. PMB, PO Box. Same thing.



I think it might be fairly obvious that I am everywhere. I travel all over. I am not in any given place. I am moving.

I get that they have more than one acronym but I have not encountered PMB to the best of my recollection.

My observation is that you travel mostly on the east coast of the US.

The US is much bigger than the east coast and CF spans the whole world which is much bigger still.

[Kettlewell]

Like it or not we have bureaucracy and laws to deal with in this world. IMHO the easiest way to deal with bureaucracy all around the cruising world is to simply have all your paperwork in a row and have everything look totally like any other ordinary person that will be 99.9% of whom the bureaucrat deals with. The same applies for your mailing and residence addresses. It is the least hassle to just have everything look like 99.9% of the people. Once you start to deviate from the norm you will just create hassles for yourself. Having said that one of the easiest solutions is to use St. Brendan's Isle in Florida, which many cruisers on this forum do. They have a good web page on how to become a Florida resident. Personally, I found that you still end up with a few hurdles to overcome if you use St. Brendan's, but they are professional and one of the best options. For my own part I have found it is simplest, easiest, and cheapest to find a trusted person (in my case a relative) willing to let me use their address as my "home" address. Today it is very possibly to eliminate the need for almost all regular mail, meaning that address will get very little that is important. This way I look like 99.9% of the world to the bureaucrats and have the fewest hassles.

[Mr. Kevin]

Originally Posted by Chotu

As of this year, this is pretty accurate information.

I have had accounts for many years and when I went into change some things they were adamant about some physical address that was not my mail forwarding address.

So I just gave them when I lived at 25 years ago. Lol good enough. They didn’t care.

Wasn't the Partiot Act repealed in 2021? I run up against it occassionally for work and it ended a few years ago. Admittedly, there is the legacy where it amended other statutory instruments but it in itself no longer in force.

[Kettlewell]

Technically, the Patriot Act expired in 2020, but many of its provisions for things like address verification by banks and ID requirements for licenses have been incorporated into other laws like Real ID.

The Real ID Act of 2005 (stylized as REAL ID Act of 2005) is an Act of Congress that establishes requirements that driver licenses and identification cards issued by U.S. states and territories must satisfy to be accepted for accessing federal government facilities and nuclear power plants and for boarding airline flights in the United States. The requirements include verification of the personal information presented when applying for the identification document, security features on the document, and electronic sharing of databases between states. The act also made various modifications to U.S. immigration law regarding asylum, border security, deportation, and certain work visas.[1]

Enacted in response to the September 11 attacks, the provisions regarding identification documents were originally intended to take effect in 2008, but enforcement was repeatedly delayed due to widespread opposition and refusal by many state governments to implement them.[2] Eventually states began to comply in 2012, and enforcement began in 2014 for certain federal facilities. After numerous extensions, by 2021 all states and territories were certified as compliant except American Samoa, which remained under review. As of 2023, the final and most significant phase of the implementation, regarding identification documents accepted for boarding flights, was scheduled for May 7, 2025, after being postponed many times.

[Jamme]

According to EPIC (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elec...rmation_Center), “The Patriot Act was written with “sunset” provisions requiring Congress to re-authorize the program every few years. Although the Act expired in March, 2020 without being reauthorized, federal law enforcement agencies retain most of the authorities granted by the act.”

[Bunnellr]

Kind of a tangent, and I am not sure where you are leaving from, but have you considered changing state of residence?
I live overseas and changed from virginia to south dakota after fighting with VA over income tax. (I won). You need one night of residence.
Just a thought.

[Happ]

Originally Posted by SV Wavelength

We sold our home and bought the boat! The physical address we are using has a PMB; the problem is that many institutions do not recognize a physical address with a PMB and block the change of address. Is there an institution that has a workaround for this? THANKS

Get a private mailbox. A UPS Store will do it.

[slugsgomoo]

Originally Posted by Happ

Get a private mailbox. A UPS Store will do it.

While you can sometimes get away with it, the UPS store mailbox is exactly what they're talking about with a PMB. Banks and the government sometimes screw up and let you get away with it, but generally, they're up on it. We had a PMB (it showed up as 123 fake street #123 before the patriot act/REAL ID when it became PMB 123), and everything became way more complex.

Our solution to the issue now is to use my inlaws' address since it's been in the family for 100 years, and my brother-in-law plans to live there until he dies and he's younger than me.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

It's worked for us for decades for all purposes. Just renewed my drivers license and passport, changed my bank two months ago ... no problem. Do you really think the bureaucrats go on to Google maps to see what kind of building it is ?

Well, boatpoker, some do exactly that. Many institutions use a service or app to validate address entered online of transcribed from a form.

Some of the services (most, perhaps) will recognize a business address and return "invalid address" if they find an address of a mailbox service.

I was told in one instance that 1200 people were listed the same address, a small 1 story building in a non-residential zoned neighborhood. and this was checked by the address validation service.

[Cheyne]

Apple Credit Card and Citibank both didn't like it when I tried to use my UPS mail box for my personal credit cards, but had no problem with my credit cards attached to my business. Also the Credit Union we bank with balked at a personal loan we needed to bridge our repower costs. They accepted the address, but when I applied for the loan they came back with that is a UPS Store not a residential address. USAA on the other hand had no problems.

Also both Apple and Citibank won't take my PO Box from USPS as my address, but when they tried to ship me my new credit cards via USPS they get kicked back. Here in Urbanna we do not get mail to our residental address, but only to our PO Box. Neither would let me put that in as an address. I had to use our daughters house and then she dropped them in UPS to us.

Cheyne

[Kettlewell]

Neither would let me put that in as an address. I had to use our daughters house and then she dropped them in UPS to us.

I've run into some mailorder companies that will only ship to your registered credit card address no matter what. Notably major photography suppliers and Google when I tried to order a new phone. One possible workaround that I managed to pull off was by setting up accounts with UPS and Fedex and then changing the delivery address after they had accepted the packages, but it required good timing. Another annoying one is many banks and check printing companies will only ship to the address printed on the checks. There are always workarounds, but your life will be easier if you get a regular residential street address somewhere that can receive safely things like credit cards, your new checks, etc.

[DShant]

Just a quick note. These laws of course try to blanket the country but there are often problems. I had a house in the mountains in California where US Post would not deliver mail to your house and gave everyone a PO box. It was a pain in the butt as many companies refused to send things even though that was all we had.