Please share your experience too. I see quite a lot of businesses that provide virtual mailbox services and it’s hard to pick.

I’ve been living outside of the US for the last couple years. And for now I’ve been asking friends and relatives to check my mail at my physical PO Box but it’s helluva inconvenient for everyone. So purely by chance I stumbled upon this virtual mailbox idea and so far I’m loving it.

I almost signed up for one service until I looked them up on Trustpilot and pretty much everyone was giving a lot of horror stories about that particular service. So I decided to hit the brakes for now and do the research first.

I need it basically for the following:

  • scan incoming mail that I can access via their website (hopefully in a secure way)

  • forward some letters to my friends address in the US upon my request.

  • it would be ideal if they can deposit an occasional check or two for me.

  • I don’t receive a lot of packages, but in case one comes it would be nice if they can forward it for me.

My concern is that most services have a limit on how many pieces of mail they can process per month. Tbh, I get maybe 2-3 important pieces of mail and the rest is just junk. I wonder if they will make me pay for 100 promotions from the insurance or credit card companies.

Anyways, your insight is appreciated!

  • SauntererSansTerre@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Most of them are not going to be allowed to open your mail or handle your checks. I use iPostal and they only scan a picture of the outside of the envelope so you can see who it’s from and decide if you want them to forward it or trash it, they don’t open the letter. Each individual piece of mail can be forwarded to any address you choose, you can have them send it to yourself or to friends. It costs $0 if you opt to have them trash junk mail but it’s usually $2 to have a letter forwarded domestically, more for a package or express shipping. And I think the whole service is like $9 a month.

    If you go with iPostal though be careful about the fake address you choose. For instance if you are going to get an iPostal in Baltimore, it might give you two or three Baltimore addresses to choose from (it’s usually like a Staples location). One of them will be eligible for both domestic and international shipping, one of them might only offer domestic. It sounds like you need to pick whichever one does International too