money and paperwork management
 

i will be renting or selling my flat this year to head off on my bike for six months, or possibly a year . but my question is, how do you keep your finances in order while on the road ? for instance how can i pay my credit card off in full each month without being in the same country as my bank ? and how can my bank get in touch with me if there are any problems while i am on the road ?
and another thing , what can i do with all my paperwork that requires that i have an address, like my bikes v5 registration and insurance papers, credit card statements, and all the other bloody mountain of paperwork that i will have to deal with that requires a permanent address ?
sorry if this all seems obvious to some of you, but the paperwork is turning into a major headache .

pick a family/friends address and register everything there (dvla, credit cards, etc). Get your credit card and bank account switched to an Internet friendly one, eg. Egg do all the statements online, as well as payments. Even take out a new account/card just for your trip - more secure than leaving an your real bank account open to key-logging abuse. If you're off for a year or more, you'll have to SORN your bike with the DVLA. Otherwise they'll fine you.

I found banking was fine as long as money was going into the account all the time, and the credit card was paid via Internet. I kept a rough handle on how much I was spending each day. I switched my credit card limit down to about £1000, which meant I had a cap each month.

Easy - set it up so that it's automatically paid in full every month from your savings account. We do that anyway to make sure we don't miss a payment and have to pay interest!

Email. Tell them you're travelling for a little while, and give them your email address.

Send it to parents etc address. You just need someone that can open it and make sure there's no disasters you need to handle. Everything can be done via email these days.

What insurance? once out of the country, your bike insurance is invalid - cancel it.

as above

Mailboxes etc po box. Looks like a real address, and forwards to wherever you want whenever you want. We've had a couple for 20 years.

final suggestion - you had to know this was coming - get our How To DVD. We cover all sorts of details that every traveller needs to know.