Moving into a caravan. What to do with mail.

Tixy

Mrworth wrote: »

Many thanks for all your replies

So as a roundup:

I could use a family members address as my new address with the creditors.

My current financial situation will not effect any attempts they may make for credit, or effect their credit score in any way.

I could then use a mail forwarding service and a pobox in order to collect mail closer to the camp site.

Tixy: do you have any further evidence regarding your answer. I would love to read about this.

It is only a small caravan site, and the owner has stated he does not want to deal with the mail. Fair enough to me.

Thanks to all.

Any further suggestions?

And without wishing to appear rude. Do you think this is the most appropriate subforum here for this question?

Sorry - which bit of my answer? the not affecting the folks bit? or about it being harder to get new credit with a PO Box?

Years ago, people used to be linked if they had the same address. So if you got a copy of your credit file you would also see credit accounts for anyone else at your property.
But quite rightly the rules on this were changed and now your credit rating is only affected by joint financial products.
In fact it is quite possible for a married couple not to be financially linked on their credit files (if no joint mortgage, loan or overdraft), which can be really useful if one spouse enters a DMP or goes bankrupt whilst the other is in a better financial position.
There is no such thing as a blacklisted address for this reason (although people often think there is).

The only thing I would mention is if you happen to have the same first and second name as you father then occasionally people find that despite having to very different dates of birth their credit accounts sometimes get a little mixed on the credit files with one person's appearing on the file of the other. This is not common and can be easily fixed by contacting the CRAs, but it is something I have seen happen a few times.

I don't think there is anyway to show you are not financially linked to your parents. You could when using their address put c/o - care of but I don't think it would make any difference.
As adults you would be presumed to be independant from them financially.

If you were querying about the PO Box making it harder to get new credit this is just something I have seen mentioned on a couple of threads on the forum, eg someone saying they could not get a credit card as they only had a PO Box address.

Good luck with caravan living

chris1973

UnderPressure wrote: »

I dont have any advice to give however your post brought a smile to my face and I just wanted to congratulate you on taking what I think will be a very rewarding step in the long term, the caravan idea is excellent and indeed something I would be doing if we did not have 3 children what a great way to save money.

Some of these modern statics offer more square meterage than most 1 bed flats and for a fraction of the price I think its a great idea and wish you well in your new home

Hmmm, whilst Caravan living has many positives (Especially during the summer on a nice quiet child-free site!), and does save money in some areas its not without its problems neither is it as idealistic and dreamy as you suggest. I'm speaking from experience as I moved into a static caravan on a residential site at the tail end of Winter.

Basically if you are living in a caravan for 12 months, that means experiencing all seasons and also the worst weather that winter can chuck at you.

Is your Caravan a 'summer' caravan or one designed for year 'round living?, its important you find out if its a year round one, because that means its probably got double glazed windows and more importantly, roof and wall insulation.

If like me, you moved into / bought a summer van, then also like me, you may find it very uncomfortable during autumn / winter as there is no insulation and basicially in winter it is like living in an icebox - because thats essentially what a metal box covered all over in ice becomes - a big metal freezer, with you inside it.

I moved in after the worst of the Winter was over and to be honest I'm glad that I wasn't in there in Dec and Jan this year when the heavy snowfall and -18c night time temps were common over a few days as i'll probably have frozen to death. As it stood I was spending a small fortune in propane and electricity to heat the van, and still struggling to get the inside temperature above 18c or 19c on the -3 / -4c nights as with no insulation and wafer thin walls I may as well have just pointed the heater out of the window.

So its important you find out and plan now what heating your van has, and how well insulated it is, and also start budgeting for either additional heating or fuel to power existing one during what may be another cold winter.

My own van was a 'summer' designed unit, made in 1995. It came with a single propane gas fire (Widney 3kw output) and nothing else in either the bedrooms or bathroom(!). Water heating was by an ancient propane boiler and a fitted 4 burner propane cooker and small oven.

My van was on a site with a 3kw maximum power hook up, which literally meant choosing between a single additional electric heater and boiling a kettle - having both on at the same time would trip the remote RCD requiring the site warden to reset along with a £20 charge!.

The 3kw 1980's manufactured gas fire was completely inadequate even during early spring as it did little to raise the temperature in the van much above 15 or 16c, requiring a purchase of a 2kw portable oil filled radiator which had to be juggled with other power hungry appliances such as the microwave / kettle etc. Given that the bedrooms also had no heating of their own, you couldn't buy a 2nd heater and run it at the same time as the limited electricity supply made it impossible, so you basically had to carry the one oil filled electric heater between the living area / bedroom / bathroom - fine if there is only one person, but more difficult if you were a family / couple and were using different rooms at the same time!.

An electric blanket is also a must!.

I know that some modern caravans come with blown air heating and propane central heating and insulation which will probably be cosy and reasonably cheap to heat but there are probably a lot of caravans still out there that are still sparsely equipped with no insulation and are bloody miserable to live in during cold or wet weather.

I had the gas fire and cooker / water heater running, along with the 2kw heater and an electric over blanket and in total it probably cost me about as much as running the gas central heating back at my fixed address! but with only half of the comfort and convenience. Propane seems to be the most expensive part of the equation, I paid £53 for a 47kg cylinder and the damn things empty at a frightening rate even with one small fire, cooker and water heating, I can only imagine they will empty even faster with blown air heating and more than 1 gas fire connected!.

So to say a caravan would save money on heating compared to a properly insulated small cottage or 1 bedroom bedsit is probably living in fantasy island, certainly its cost me about the same in combined propane & electricity heating costs as it did in natural gas to run 3 / 4 radiators in a cosy little house. I didn't have to sit with my coat on in my house nor sit on the bog freezing my wotsits off at 6AM in an unheated bathroom on a freezing march morning.

So its important now, to ascertain whether the van is insulated, whether the bedrooms & bathroom are adequately heated and if not, how you intend to heat them and make the entire van comfortably habitable over consective days of what could be below freezing temperatures, because its only 8 weeks until Autumn is back with us!.

Fortunately i'll be back at home before the worst of winter sets in, but if I was planning to spend a winter here, I think i'd be seriously planning either a decent blown air heating system, or a woodburner (Yes they do fit them into caravans)

Also make sure you have a windscreen fitted under the van as draughts come easily through the thin floors and also consider a caravan roof snow screen to keep snow off the roof, as you really do get the icebox effect which simply negates all of your attempts at heating within, when you ge a metal roof covered in several inches of frozen snow!.

zzzLazyDaisy

If you are concerned about having post sent to your family's address, is there any reason why you can't just get a re-direction in place with royal mail and have your mail re-directed from your current rental address to a PO address near the site?

custardy

why not just arrange a free mail collect from RM?
you can collect your mail from the DO and it changes nothing else
you must collect the mail at least every 7 days
also remember letters addressed to you/or occupier will be delivered
thats assuming you are staying near the area you are in onw

if not then you could organise a redirection but there are obviously time restraints on how long you can run that

mostlycheerful

This may be the same or similar as what Custardy suggests : if either the post office where you used to live or the one nearest the caravan site offers the service you may be able get your mail delivered “Poste Restante” also known as “To be called for” and have it delivered for free to the designated post office which you can then pick up. According to the Royal Mail website they keep it for 2 weeks then send it back if you haven't collected it. Only some post offices offer the service and on the Royal Mail website it says “The Poste Restante service is subject to operational capability.” Also be warned that when I tried it my local post office said that they do it but when I sent a test mail they didn’t deliver it to the post office so if you find one that says they do it then perhaps put it to the test and send a test item first and check that they actually really do it as it would be a shame to lose your mail or have it returned to sender.

custardy

mostlycheerful wrote: »

This may be the same or similar as what Custardy suggests : if either the post office where you used to live or the one nearest the caravan site offers the service you may be able get your mail delivered “Poste Restante” also known as “To be called for” and have it delivered for free to the designated post office which you can then pick up. According to the Royal Mail website they keep it for 2 weeks then send it back if you haven't collected it. Only some post offices offer the service and on the Royal Mail website it says “The Poste Restante service is subject to operational capability.” Also be warned that when I tried it my local post office said that they do it but when I sent a test mail they didn’t deliver it to the post office so if you find one that says they do it then perhaps put it to the test and send a test item first and check that they actually really do it as it would be a shame to lose your mail or have it returned to sender.

thats fine for personal mail
but I doubt you would get a company doing that

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content3?mediaId=80600750&catId=600012