I’ve received a couple of requests from blog readers to share some information about banking while traveling around the country in an RV. Hopefully I can offer some useful insight into the topic.

In my seminars for new RVers, I always suggest that while they may have a good relationship with their hometown bank, if it does not have nationwide branches, it may not be able to serve their needs as fulltime RVers. I have always suggested getting an account with one of the big nationwide banks such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America, which have branches in many different states.

For Terry and myself, operating a business on the road, getting access to our money is never a problem – there are ATM machines in every grocery and discount store in America, and we can get cash back at Wal-Mart, most grocery stores, and even at the post office. Our problem is sometimes getting money into the bank! If we are not in a location where our bank has a branch office, sometimes we have to mail in a deposit, which can be problematic.

Things have gotten easier over the years as technology has improved, but I remember once years ago when we had a successful vending experience at an RV rally and mailed a batch of checks to our bank in Arizona for deposit. The bank officer we worked with was on vacation, so the Priority Mail envelope with our deposit sat unopened on her desk for two weeks until she returned. We actually mailed the deposit from Biloxi, Mississippi and traveled all the way to Phoenix before the deposit was entered into our account! These days our bank has a central mail deposit address we can use, which has simplified things greatly.

A great option for RVers is to join a credit union which belongs to the nationwide Shared Network. This is a network of independent credit unions that work together to serve customers who belong to any member credit union. So if your home credit union is in San Diego, California, for example, you can still transact business at a Shared Network member credit union in Elkhart, Indiana, just as if you were at your own branch back home. With over 3,000 locations nationwide in the Shared Network program, it’s pretty easy to find a member branch anywhere you are traveling.

Membership requirements for credit unions have eased over the years, and it’s not hard to qualify. In fact, if you are a member of the Escapees RV Club, you qualify to join the Community Resource Credit Union in Texas, and can join online. Another benefit of credit union membership is that they are often easier to work with than traditional banks, and because they are there to serve their members, not make a profit, their auto and RV loan rates are usually lower.

These days, with direct deposit, online bill paying, and online banking options to check your balances and transfer money around, and other new technology, many people find that they seldom actually have to go into a bank to transact their financial business. For RVers, that makes like much easier.  

Thought For The Day – We could learn a lot from crayons: Some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and they’re all different colors…. But they all have to learn to live in the same box.

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Terry said we surprised the folks at Tra-Tel RV Park when we pulled out yesterday. Our site was pretty tight, and we had to back out and swing around to get out, and then swing back around a large rock to get out. Apparently most people need to jockey their RVs around a bit to get out of the park, but with Miss Terry’s expert guidance, we were out quickly and smoothly.

Once we left the park, we pulled off the side of the road to hook up the van. I have to tell you, after hassling with our old Brake Buddy auxiliary brake, I sure love the SMI Stay-In-Play unit we replaced it with. No more lugging the heavy brake in and out of the cab of the van, no more fiddling around with fitting an arm over our brake pedal and adjusting it to work. We just turn on the SMI, do a quick brake light check, and off we go.

Well, we do when the brake lights work. This time around, we had turn signals on the van, but no brake lights. I discovered that one of the brake lights on the bus was out also. So I removed the lens cover and jiggled the light bulb, and it was just a loose connection. I put everything back together, and voila, it all worked!

Then I scanned through our tire pressures on our PressurePro tire monitoring system, thanking our pals Mike and Pat McFall once again for convincing me how handy it is, and off we went.

We had a quick and easy 90 mile run on Interstate 10, got onto the 202 Loop just outside of the Phoenix metropolitan area, and scooted around the south side of town, arriving at Pacific Manor on Apache Trail just over two hours after we hit the road. Traffic was light, the bus ran fine, and it was a good day for traveling, even if it was a relatively short distance.

We had one little mishap just after we got on the surface streets, when I turned a corner and one of our cabinet doors sprang open and dumped a pile of canned goods and other food items onto the floor. Fortunately nothing broke open or spilled, so clean up wasn’t much of a problem. It’s just one of those irritating little things that happen sometimes when you live and travel in an RV.

Compared to the time I pulled out of an RV site in Wyoming and swung too early, banging the back end of our first motorhome against the concrete utility pedestal; or the incident early in our fulltiming days, when I pulled out of an RV park with all of our window awnings still out, this was no big deal.

As Miss Terry says when I pull dumb stunts like that, “Nick happens.”

Thought For The Day - Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

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