I receive mail for my mom at my home address. She doesn't get a whole lot, but I have it come to me so I can file away important things for her as she has limited storage space at the nursing home, and I hand deliver cards, etc. when I visit her. It's also the address Social Security has on file for her.
I am moving out of state and did a change of address with the post office for my own mail to get forwarded. But in order to get her mail to continue coming to me, or to have it go to the facility instead, the postal service requires a credit card to prove identity.
I am my mom's POA and cosigner on her bank account, but she no longer has any active credit card accounts.
Maybe I'm overlooking something?
If I could figure out how to delete my original question, I would...
In November did the same when my office moved to a new location. Also got a notice from the Post Office asking if we did request a change of address. The Post Office did forward to various vendors change of address so we were still getting catalogs.
GardenArtist, I also noticed that our office didn't get our usual bulk of holiday cards by vendors who mailed to the old office address. Those apparently went back to the vendors with the yellow strip giving our new address.
forward request in person. The postal clerk may need to make a copy of the POA to attach to the forward request, they did take a copy of MILs death certificate and staple it to the forward request.
instead I’d suggest you find a privately owned shipping & postal business that rents mail boxes. Should you have a college or university In your city, there will be one or more close to campus. Personally I would not go the UPS free standing franchise stores unless there is one that has existed since forever and will be there till forever.
You go & rent a box there. You have to do it as USPS regulations requires the renter to show valid ID. But its for mail addressed to you & to mom. Let them know it, owner will be fine on this but you have to kinda make this clear. Pay rental as far out as allowed, usually it’s 1 year..... if they will do 2 pay 2 years.
Be friendly to staff, as you want this such that they look out for what’s delivered & can send you an email if something interesting comes in and they might also gather up all mail every 4-6 weeks and ship it off to you via the CC you have on file with them. !voila! Your a regular customer! No worries!
I’d suggest that you do a cheap monthly magazine subscription in your & moms name at this address. Her name first on it. This way the store gets used to regular mail coming in both the names. Comprende?
Then you move all addresses for mom that you can to this box address. In theory it’s supposed to be Jane Smith, 12345 Main St, PMB 678, Whatsamatta, USA. But you want to put it as Suite #678 as it looks less like rented “box”.
if she’s on Medicaid, I bet state can send to her AND to you all correspondence. Medicaid for my moms state did this, so it was dupes on all. On banking what I did was open my own account at the bank mom had since forever. And had all her accounts with her name & address come to my address as the c/o address for mailing. I wouldn’t want banking info ever going to the NH.... just so much gets sent out. If mom hasn’t authorize you to be her POD on all her banking, please do this before you move (while you still have same state ID). As you have an account at the bank already it will be a smooth transition when mom passes away.
I have had to deal with the post office, medicare, social security, insurance companies and etc to receive my bro's bills and so on. It was really a pain with his moving to assisted living but hoping to go back home, and not giving up that address as well as new assisted living and then the address for me, as Trustee of Trust, to get all bills coming here. It basically came down to contacting each entity over a year. Then when he DECIDED to stay in AL, we changed SS address, which changed medicare and again all stuff flowed to him, and had to be changed. Of all the things involved, the post office turned out for me to be one of the most onerous. I would imagine towns and facilities vary? Because where my bro is it was as simple as going in and changing address with the poa papers. Wishing you good luck.
I also took a conformed copy of my father's DPOA and showed it to the postal folks. Easy peasy.
What I didn't expect to encounter later was that the post office apparently made a decision only to forward business and only some personal mail. Magazines were forwarded, even junk mail and charity solicitations, but absolutely none of the Christmas mail, even though the duration for the forwarding hadn't expired. Cards sent earlier were received, but not the holiday cards.
No one ever asked for a credit card to verify ID. I believe that I did show my driver's license though.
You might want to consider sending card notifications to family and friends, just in case.
I still find it peculiar if not ridiculous that junk mail would be forwarded, but not something as obviously personal as hand addressed holiday cards.