Buying an RV is actually absolutely easy: all you need is your driver's licence ( in English ) and a mailing address in the States.
If your driver's licence is not in English, get an international licence, done. For the address there are several providers of mail forwarding services that fulfill the requirements . We used
Mail Service Center
8721 Santa Monica Boulevard
Los Angeles CA 90069-4507 USA
Tel. + 1 310 652 6921 Fax. + 1 310 854 5621 www.MailServiceCenter.com
Gio is a nice chap, absolutely reliable and easy to deal with. If you want to avoid getting certified copies of passports etc. just travel to LA, show up at his shop (behind a pizza shop, kind of) with your documents and a credit card and 5 minutes later you're done.
Banking:
We used HSBC as we were able to open an account through their Australian branch. They provided us with a MasterCard debit card that we use for all purchases we make. Some state parks only accept cash that we get from any almost ATM with the card. We transferred enough money for the trip so we got a good exchange rate.
Insurance:
We used Progressive, application was online and instantly confirmed. Cost was very acceptable and included road assistance to a degree. We also purchased Good Sam's RV club membership and road side assistance, mainly for the trip to Alaska, just in case. Cost was around $ 80, so we didn't want to take chances here.
Phone and Internet:
Verizon cellphone $ 20 on prepaid, $ 1 per day when used + 10 cents per minute. Internet is mobile broadband from Virginmobile, 5 GB data per month for $ 60. That gives us internet access almost everywhere where we can get cellphone reception. Speed is mostly good, seldom really poor. We use Skype for our calls to New Zealand and Germany.
