How to reliably receive mail during absence?

[Barley]

Hello,

does anyone know of a reliable way to receive mail (including bank credit cards from European banks) in Chiang Mai?

 

I would like to change my banking address to Thailand and therefore my credit cards would be sent to Thailand.

 

But I will be out of the country a lot too, and therefore I am worried that when I have mail sent to where I will stay, it might not get reliably handled by the people who work here.

 

What do you think?

[Dante99]

PO Box

[rawhod]

Before you change your banking address to Thailand, check that the bank will in fact send cards to Thailand.

 

A few years ago I was told by a bank adviser to change my address to Thailand so that I could get a replacement card and pin after my account had been locked after an attempted illegal access. When no replacement card arrived I spoke to the complaints and they told me that the advice was incorrect, they would not send cards or pins to Thailand as the postal system was deemed insecure. I used my daughters address in the UK but I was 6 months without online banking access. They did reimburse me for the cost of the telephone calls and a little extra compensation.

[scorecard]

28 minutes ago, rawhod said:

Before you change your banking address to Thailand, check that the bank will in fact send cards to Thailand.

 

A few years ago I was told by a bank adviser to change my address to Thailand so that I could get a replacement card and pin after my account had been locked after an attempted illegal access. When no replacement card arrived I spoke to the complaints and they told me that the advice was incorrect, they would not send cards or pins to Thailand as the postal system was deemed insecure. I used my daughters address in the UK but I was 6 months without online banking access. They did reimburse me for the cost of the telephone calls and a little extra compensation.

" Before you change your banking address to Thailand, check that the bank will in fact send cards to Thailand."

 

And check if your banks etc., will accept a PO box number (anywhere) as your address.

 

Credit cards are very high risk for banks and not surprising they want an actual address for any follow up. 

 

Edited August 23, 2018 by scorecard

[ThaiPauly]

Post in Thailand is horrendous and getting worse.

 

It was my birthday nearly a month ago and 75% of the cards that were posted to me from the UK never arrived.

 

I have no idea why it is getting as bad as this.

 

The only letter guaranteed to arrive even though it is sent through the normal postal system is my Tax Return, even though they spell the address wrong, they just use the village name, no Chiang Mai, no Thailand no Postcode

 

Amazing !!!

[Burma Bill]

From experience of living in Thailand for nearly 20 years, I personally have found renting a box at my local post office the most reliable. I pay Thailand Post 200 baht per year for a numbered box (PO Box) and you are provided with your own key to open it. If you are on your travels your mail will be safely stored until you collect it. When I had my own box outside my house mail went missing, was damaged and even left opened. Check with your nearest post office. You can use your normal address and the PO box number need not be shown - the post office will know.  

Edited August 23, 2018 by Burma Bill
additional information

[ThaiPauly]

3 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

From experience of living in Thailand for nearly 20 years, I personally have found renting a box at my local post office the most reliable. I pay Thailand Post 200 baht per year for a numbered box (PO Box) and you are provided with your own key to open it. If you are on your travels your mail will be safely stored until you collect it. When I had my own box outside my house mail went missing, was damaged and even left opened. Check with your nearest post office. You can use your normal address and the PO box number need not be shown - the post office will know.  

Wow, I had never heard of this before.

 

I will be down to my post office tomorrow to rent one

 

Thanks a lot for the heads up

[Expatthailover]

3 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

From experience of living in Thailand for nearly 20 years, I personally have found renting a box at my local post office the most reliable. I pay Thailand Post 200 baht per year for a numbered box (PO Box) and you are provided with your own key to open it. If you are on your travels your mail will be safely stored until you collect it. When I had my own box outside my house mail went missing, was damaged and even left opened. Check with your nearest post office. You can use your normal address and the PO box number need not be shown - the post office will know.  

Nice post

[Barley]

Thanks, guys! Very helpful info! :)

[kmw]

Myself being an expat I have never had any issues with replacement cards or sensitive documents for the last 3 years, I pay extra for my bank in Australia to send via DHL, only downside is that any parcels always get held up at customs, but envelopes always arrive usually within 24-48 hours,

 

Thai post and EMS I try to avoid 

[leither69]

Paperless statements doh!!

[scottiejohn]

12 hours ago, ThaiPauly said:

Wow, I had never heard of this before.

 

I will be down to my post office tomorrow to rent one

 

Thanks a lot for the heads up

+1

[elgenon]

18 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

From experience of living in Thailand for nearly 20 years, I personally have found renting a box at my local post office the most reliable. I pay Thailand Post 200 baht per year for a numbered box (PO Box) and you are provided with your own key to open it. If you are on your travels your mail will be safely stored until you collect it. When I had my own box outside my house mail went missing, was damaged and even left opened. Check with your nearest post office. You can use your normal address and the PO box number need not be shown - the post office will know.  

Wow, living in Thailand 20 years, just joined Thai Visa, and hit a goal !

[MrBrad]

Talat Kam Tieng post office charges 500 baht a year, not 200.  I have an average-sized box, so what's the deal?   Nonetheless, 500 baht isn't such a bad deal for secure delivery.  In over 8 years nothing has failed to be delivered, as far as I know.

[Bill97]

Wow, I had never heard of this before.
 
I will be down to my post office tomorrow to rent one
 
Thanks a lot for the heads up

You gotta be kidding.



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[opalred]

in 15yrs the only mail received from oz was registered mail 

all mail posted ordinary mail was never received

was told the post people take them looking for money 

[elektrified]

On 8/24/2018 at 1:13 PM, MrBrad said:

Talat Kam Tieng post office charges 500 baht a year, not 200.  I have an average-sized box, so what's the deal?   Nonetheless, 500 baht isn't such a bad deal for secure delivery.  In over 8 years nothing has failed to be delivered, as far as I know.

We have a box and have had it for 12 years. We have always paid 500 per year; billed once every 3 years..

 

We tried to reserve a box for a friend about a year ago at the P.O. where our box is. The manager told us that they haven't had a free box in 6 years now! Also when we first got our box, we were in the queue for over a year before they contacted us with a vacancy.

Edited August 25, 2018 by elektrified

[scottiejohn]

On ‎8‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 10:19 AM, Bill97 said:

You gotta be kidding.

I do not think we are kidding.

The surprise is to me that as a Brit is that a PO BOX does NOT appear to need a PO BOX number.  If true this is to me unusual. 

Most UK Banks will not accept PO BOX numbers for card delivery, except to a very limited number of countries (normally where that is the only method!).

[kmw]

6 hours ago, scottiejohn said:

I do not think we are kidding.

The surprise is to me that as a Brit is that a PO BOX does NOT appear to need a PO BOX number.  If true this is to me unusual. 

Most UK Banks will not accept PO BOX numbers for card delivery, except to a very limited number of countries (normally where that is the only method!).

Even if your bank does not accept PO BOX, just get them to send via courier, ie DHL, in the event you are not home or out of the country they can hold the item for you, and you can pick it up at the local depo,

 

All banks should be able to send via some sort of courier service, ie DHL, UPS, FexEX, Toll, TNT, if they cannot sell you may want to consider changing banks, as no bank that I know of will purely rely on public post services 

[Burma Bill]

On 8/24/2018 at 1:13 PM, MrBrad said:

Talat Kam Tieng post office charges 500 baht a year, not 200.  I have an average-sized box, so what's the deal?   Nonetheless, 500 baht isn't such a bad deal for secure delivery.  In over 8 years nothing has failed to be delivered, as far as I know.

Interesting and I do not know why. I live in Issan and my first PO Box in Chumphae cost 200 baht per year.  I moved to Phu Wiang and my new PO Box also cost 200 baht per year.

[Bill97]

Interesting and I do not know why. I live in Issan and my first PO Box in Chumphae cost 200 baht per year.  I moved to Phu Wiang and my new PO Box also cost 200 baht per year.

Far too advanced. We have people here that do not know there are PO Boxes!


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[scottiejohn]

6 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Far too advanced. We have people here that do not know there are PO Boxes!


Sent from my iPod touch using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

It is not quite too advanced to discover that you can have a PO BOX without having a PO BOX number as part of your address.

The Only PO Boxes I have ever come across, and I have used them in other overseas countries before!, have all had a PO BOX number.  As I have said earlier, and having spent some time working in the UK Banking Industry, they will not allow the use of a PO BOX Number for card/2FA authentication devices to be used. Also the UK banks will normally only send to the ONE address (private accounts, not business accounts) you have registered with them either by Normal or courier mail. 

 

[Dante99]

On 8/25/2018 at 5:32 PM, scottiejohn said:

 

The surprise is to me that as a Brit is that a PO BOX does NOT appear to need a PO BOX number.   

 

Where did you get that idea? 

[scottiejohn]

On ‎8‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 11:52 AM, Burma Bill said:

Check with your nearest post office. You can use your normal address and the PO box number need not be shown - the post office will know.  

This is from post number 8!

[Barley]

So I am in Chiang Mai now and would like to get a PO Box per your advice.

Does anybody know which Post office has boxes available?

I live in the northwestern part of the old city.

[Mapguy]

What would be the benefit of having a PO box address without a number?

 

Otherwise, it would be useful to expand the number of post office boxes available AND have the post office ensure that boxes are accessible after office hours even though window service might be closed.  An example is the Talad Kamtieng post office which closes the gate on the parking lot at some point soon after closing time. The CMU branch boxes, on the other hand, are accessible after hours. Very practical.

[Mapguy]

On 10/31/2018 at 7:26 PM, Barley said:

So I am in Chiang Mai now and would like to get a PO Box per your advice.

Does anybody know which Post office has boxes available?

I live in the northwestern part of the old city.

Try the Talad Kamtieng branch, but see my post above.  The web site for the postal service is informative and easily accessed --- with telephone numbers for the branches.  No need to go all over town inquiring.

 

By the way, I have never lost anything in the mail here, sending or receiving, that I am aware of after many years, and that includes delivery to residence as well as PO address.

 

The most annoying inconvenience is the lack of appropriate and sufficient formats on many web sites of senders.  Sometimes a residential address can really get mangled.  Nonetheless, Thai Post has come to the rescue on more than one occasion.

 

For those complaining about residential delivery, maybe you should give your postman a New Year's tip!!!  I haven't, however!

Edited November 3, 2018 by Mapguy

[Dante99]

33 minutes ago, Mapguy said:

What would be the benefit of having a PO box address without a number?

There are no PO boxes in Thailand without numbers.  Some got confused into thinking that because a writer was not clear enough for them when he suggested that his PO knew where to send his mail even if it did not have his PO box number on it, they knew his address and Box were the same person!  Works for smaller PO branches with low turnover.  He never said he had a box without a number, just that the PO employees did not need the number to get his mail to him. 

[MrBrad]

Not having a post office box number can be handled in this method which used to be common for backpackers and other world travelers:

 

poste restante

1. (not in the US and Canada) an address on mail indicating that it should be kept at a specified post office until collected by the addressee

2. the mail-delivery service or post-office department that handles mail having this address

US and Canadian equivalent: general delivery