Banking

[caysea7254]

We will be starting our fulltime adventure in Jan or Feb of 2019 or whenever our home sells. Trying to get all of our info together. Must be honest we are very overwhelmed right now because it seems so complicated getting everything in order of what to do first ,second, and so on. So what does everyone do for their bank? We are going to domicle in South Dakota, so do we get a bank in that state or is it ok to go with USAA? Im not sure what all we will need when we want to establish residency in South Dakota. I just got off phone with USAA and bank account easy enough to open, but they seemed to hesitate about Truck insurance if we were not going to reside in one primary state. Are we not suppose to mention we will be fulltiming for banks or insurance companies? So confused! Read where its a good idea to have a bank in the state where you domicle. Info please! Thanks Tara

[doxiemom11]

We are domiciled in S Dakota. We have our drivers licenses, voter registration, vehicles titled and plated and our insurance there. We kept the credit union we have had for years in MI. We do everything online, so it doesn't matter where I am actually at. Sign up with a mail service first - get your address and change your address on everything. They can then help you get your vehicles registered and plated before you ever go there - if you wish. When you go, you will need a receipt from a campground or hotel in both names. 2 pieces of mail each that has been sent to your new S Dakota address ( that's why you start it early - we picked mail up in person when there so we had this), your passports or birth certificates, your current drivers licenses. I think that was all. Our mail service recommended a local agent who wrote full-timers rv policies. We are very pleased with them. I contacted them before we went (by e-mail) and got quotes. We went personally and started the insurance when we were there. We use My Best Address in Sioux Falls and Dougherty Insurance Agency. The mail service website has information about establishing residency and what you need as well as forms that you can print off.

[caysea7254]

Thanks again to everyone that took their time to give us good advice! Banking will be with usaa and definitely going to call Miller insurance. I did go on sites that were suggested and read and reread and feel a little less confused. Dh will be covered by medicare but I'm not eligible yet,but my dh company it letting me carry single coverage with them til I reach medicare age. So thankful! If they wouldn't do that we would of had to domicile in florida a use they have best insurance for coverage. Thanks again! I'm sure I will have more questions! Tara

[arhayes]

caysea7254 wrote:
We will be starting our fulltime adventure in Jan or Feb of 2019 or whenever our home sells. Trying to get all of our info together. Must be honest we are very overwhelmed right now because it seems so complicated getting everything in order of what to do first ,second, and so on. So what does everyone do for their bank? We are going to domicle in South Dakota, so do we get a bank in that state or is it ok to go with USAA? Im not sure what all we will need when we want to establish residency in South Dakota. I just got off phone with USAA and bank account easy enough to open, but they seemed to hesitate about Truck insurance if we were not going to reside in one primary state. Are we not suppose to mention we will be fulltiming for banks or insurance companies? So confused! Read where its a good idea to have a bank in the state where you domicle. Info please! Thanks Tara

I'd suggest you review the domicile info from Escapees, the RV Full-Time organization at https://www.escapees.com/education/domicile/ and from the State of SD website as well. You do not have to be a member to review this. There are considerations to keep in mind if you will be doing financing, etc in the future. If you do change residency to SD, you may also want to execute wills, etc with a SD lawyer.

As for banking, I used the same Credit Union in Alabama for 45 years but left Alabama 44 years ago and never went back. I primarily use USAA Savings Bank now, but have been a USAA member for over 45 years. I have never visited a "branch" and have managed to buy homes, boats, RV's and vehicles and insure everything.

In your case it may seem daunting since you've never moved, but many of us have made the leap from property ownership to being footloose and fancy free. It is definitely doable and not that hard....just be sure you have covered yourself.

[Imbriaco]

We too are starting a year long RV adventure without a permanent residence. Only issue I've identified so far is the insurances. As others have said, everything is on line with electronic billing and statements. Auto insurance seems to want a residence address as that's how they price out coverage. But the bigger issue for us is medical ins. We're not medicare age so have to buy on the open market. and at least with the blue cross plans, they're all regional and you have to access routine care in your "home" region. Not very helpful if your homie is on wheels.

[2gypsies1]

We full-timed for 16 years and our domicile was Texas (Escapees). During that time we used Fidelity, Vanguard, Bank of America and Wells Fargo with no issues. None had their home office in Livingston, Texas.

Vehicle insurance - we always went through Miller Insurance, Oregon. They understand full-timers. You definitely need to tell them you are full-timers.

[caysea7254]

Thank you everyone for all of the great information. We really appreciate all of your knowledge that you share. This gives us different options to look at. Thanks again, Tara

[kerrlakeRoo]

You mention USAA so something else you may want to consider if you are eligible are the military Credit Unions. If you will be using FamCamps as you travel, you can visit local CU's for ATM transactions as needed with no fees.

As you look into the moves needed for your upcoming journey, check out escapees.com as well as www.militarycampgrounds.us
You may find assistance on many areas there.

[Optimistic_Para]

caysea7254 wrote:
but they seemed to hesitate about Truck insurance if we were not going to reside in one primary state. Are we not suppose to mention we will be fulltiming for banks or insurance companies?

You got a lot of good advice about banks. Let me add something about insurance. You absolutely have to tell your insurance company you are full-timing. Fail to do so, and get into an accident, and you have given them an excuse to deny your claim and leave you twisting in the wind.

Many regular insurance companies don't want to insure full-timers. It's very much a niche market. But there are companies, and agents, that specialize in this kind of insurance. One such insurance agency that is highly thought of by the Escapees RV group is the Miller Agency. You could call them and just get a quote.

http://www.millerrvinsurance.com/

There are, of course, other companies that specialize in RV insurance that you can check as well.

But before you do that, I suggest you take a look at this web site:

http://www.rv-dreams.com/rv-insurance-coverages.html

This is actually the best information I've seen on the various kinds of RV insurance that you might need.

[Dutch_12078]

We have an account with a regional bank that has excellent online banking, plus two credit union accounts, one in upstate New York and one in Virginia. They also have excellent online banking and we've never set foot in either one of them. The last time I was in one of our regional bank's locations was a few years ago to get a document notarized because the real estate office I normally use was closed. All three of our banks have apps that support photo check deposits, so we only rarely need to do a mail deposit. We use "Unit #" in our address, with no complaints so far.

[donn0128]

There is no need to change banks. Heck we still have our bank from our home, but live a hundred miles away. Large banks dont give a hoot where you live as long as they have a current address. If you dont already, pick a large bank like BofA, Chase, or USBank. You will then always have ready access to dan nite tellers for no fees.

[TenOC]

1. I have keep my credit union account in OH for 10 years of FT. All my "banking" is by internet or auto-drafting.

2. I do have a Bank of America account that I open before I started to FT only in case I need to ever walk into a real bank.

3. I also use Fidelity's (where I have a small mutual fund account) Cash management to pay bills online out of my "savings" account.

Most important once you FT I have found that if you do any "banking" type activity like open a new account. It is best to leave the PMB # off you address since a number of financial transactions are required to check that your address is a real address. Thanks to 9/11. If you leave the PMB off or replace the PMB with Apartment # all works ok. Once you open the new account you can then add the PMB number.

[2chiefsRus]

caysea7254 wrote:
So what does everyone do for their bank? We are going to domicle in South Dakota, so do we get a bank in that state or is it ok to go with USAA? Im not sure what all we will need when we want to establish residency in South Dakota.

I would start by finding out the answer to what information you will need to domicile in South Dakota.

We already had a mail forwarding service set up before our house sold because we were on a three month trip in our rv when our house went under contract. We came home and cleared out the rest of our stuff and stayed until the closing and then hit the road again. Our mail was already forwarded from the house address to our mail forwarding address so it was just a matter of contacting everyone we received mail from and changing our address to our new address provided by the service. If you haven't done so already, I would highly suggest setting up as much stuff as possible as paperless online. Try to stop as much hard copy US Mail as possible.

[NMDriver2]

Use a bank with nation wide free ATM's and on-line banking. We use Bank of America but only go in the building if we need a cashiers check or to withdraw more money than the ATM will allow. The branch where our paychecks go to is in CA but we live in NM and travel world wide for months at a time. No need for a local bank unless you just like visiting with the tellers.

[wildtoad]

As far as banking is concerned just make sure they have a nationwide presence, online access to ALL your accounts, you switch all your statements and correspondence to electronic. We don’t and never will fulltime but want anytime anywhere access to banking services. If you don’t already, and you take maintenance drugs you should switch to a nationwide pharmacy as you can get your drugs anywhere. Doesn’t work for controlled ones though.

I have heard that full timers without a permanent address can run into issues getting insurance, loans, other items. Not their doing.