US Mailbox Addresses And Forwarding

[bendejo]

Hello all.

I travel around but maintain an address in the US that is actually just a mailing address. The mail gets delivered, and every month or so my brother would go pick it up, thumb through it looking for anything important, and tell me if I had to know anything. All my accounts are handled online (bank, credit cards, stock broker). The IRS is the only thing I keep at snail-mail level.

My former mailing address went out of business, and I'm looking at new ways of dealing with mail handling. I've found a few, some mentioned here on TV, and I'm checking them all out. Some do forwarding, and I'm thinking of going that route and giving my brother a break.

Anyone who uses these mailbox and forwarding services have any experiences to relate, good or bad, about any particular service?

Currently under evaluation are:

http://www.usglobalmail.com

https://www.myus.com

http://www.earthclassmail.com

https://www.usa2me.com/

http://www.theupsstore.com/

[maxjay]

I used Mailboxes etc. for years, never had a problem.

http://www.mbe.com/

From looking at their website, it now looks as if they are global.

[Siki]

I have had a few experiences.

I used Mail Boxes Etc for a long time and they were very good. However, when that franchise changed hands the service went out the window. It seems to depend on who is running the business.

I then switched to Access USA. I stayed with them only a few months. They were absolutely terrible. Sent someone else’s mail to me at an incorrect address. This was only one of a series of frustrating and time consuming mistakes. They talk sweetly on the phone but don’t deliver.

Maybe you could just use your brother’s address. That is what I ended up doing.

Aloha

Siki

[Wrong Turn]

I have never used this service but some expats I was acquainted with have used this mail forwarding service out of Florida. Apparently, this service (and I assume the others) allow you to claim being a resident, or some similar circumstance.

I don't know what the policy is on posting links. Here is the link. If we are not supposed to post links, apologies (I'm still a newbie).

http://www.sbimailservice.com/

[honoluludave]

I have been using the the UPS store out of hawaii and never had any problems w/ them. You must leave a deposit w/ them to pay for your mail being forward. It can be rather pricey. But w/ UPS it is always reliable. They will not sort through your mail and not send you the junk-mail. Which can add to the weight of what is being sent to you.

[thaihome]

I have used US Global Mail for about 2 years now. Have no complaints. They send an e-mail when a letter arrives and using their secure web page give you the option of discarding it or sending it to an address of your choice with full choice of sending options from US postal service to courier services, like Fed Ex or UPS.

They charge your credit card for any costs. The address can be an “Apartment number” so it does not appear to be a post office box. This is handy as some things cannot be sent to PO box.

TH

[jfchandler]

Ditto re what ThaiHome says above, but in regard to USA2ME....

I've had an account with them for more than a year, and been pretty satisfied. You can contact them easily by telephone or secure message from their web site. The account includes all of those features mentioned above. I also love their web interface, which e-mails me and tells me the sender and weight of each piece of received mail, and allows me full control online of what I want done...

I started out with their Just Mail account (letters only), which was forwarding my mail to Bangkok via USPS Global Priority Mail, which typically took a week or more. But then at Christmas time, my monthly delivery took two months to arrive here, because of USPS delays (not those of USA2ME). So I switched to their higher level Gold plan, which delivers typically by DHL or Fed-Ex, and everything gets here in usually 3 days. In any of their plans, you can set a recurring frequency (ie monthly) or order individual shipments on demand.

For their Gold Plan, which includes a single shipment (letters or packages) per month of 1 lb., I'm paying $33 a month (which includes their entire service of mail managing and forwarding). Additional pounds per shipment run about $3 per pound extra.... I've never had any problem with them with missing or mis-directed mail. (1 lb. of letters is roughly equal to 20 standard business mail envelopes)

Also, you get a personalized mail address with a unit # that is accepted the same as an apartment number, so no problems with it being used for shipments or as a residence address...unlike P.O. Box options.

[Valjean]

I recently switched over to Earth Class Mail and have been happy. The optiion to have mail scanned rather than mailed is great. There are times when I have mail forwarded here to Thailand only to scan it and send back to the US. Saves that time and money.

[RouxTheDay]

Similar question, but slightly off-topic... receiving mail in the US is no prob as I will remain stateside about 60% of the time. However, I'm wondering what others' experiences have been with FedEx or UPS or DHL (etc.) for sending express/overnight packages from US to BKK as I will sometimes need to forward mail to my fiance after he relocates there. I'm wondering about cost, timeliness of delivery, etc...

Thanks for your feedback (and sorry if it's too much of a thread highjack)...

[jonniebkk]

I have been using the the UPS store out of hawaii and never had any problems w/ them. You must leave a deposit w/ them to pay for your mail being forward. It can be rather pricey. But w/ UPS it is always reliable. They will not sort through your mail and not send you the junk-mail. Which can add to the weight of what is being sent to you.

I agree. I also use a UPS Mail store in California for my USA address and mail forwarding. I am very happy with their service and consider it a bargain. A medium size box is about $ 125 or so a year and like you say, you leave a deposit for forwarding services. Once it is set-up, everything can be done by email. Every couple months (more frequent if you want) I email them and ask them for an inventory of my box. They send me a detailed list of what's in it and then I tell them to send, discard, or keep as appropriate. I also tell them what method to forward to me (next day, standard inter air) and they deduct from deposit.

Nothing could be easier.

[jfchandler]

I looked at Earth Class Mail too when I was shopping around to select a service like this..

Their mail scanning option is nice, and they have several packages at different prices depending on your volume. But as I recall, it is economical only if you want them to scan instead of mailing. If you want them to scan and then mail to you here, I believe you're going to pay more than other vendors. So it depends on your needs.

Another nice feature they have, as I recall, is the ability to select mailing addresses in some different states/cities. USA2Me and a couple of the others only have their business address in one state, so you're stuck with a Texas or Florida mailing address.

I recently switched over to Earth Class Mail and have been happy. The optiion to have mail scanned rather than mailed is great. There are times when I have mail forwarded here to Thailand only to scan it and send back to the US. Saves that time and money.

[threelegcowboy]

I looked at Earth Class Mail too when I was shopping around to select a service like this..

Their mail scanning option is nice, and they have several packages at different prices depending on your volume. But as I recall, it is economical only if you want them to scan instead of mailing. If you want them to scan and then mail to you here, I believe you're going to pay more than other vendors. So it depends on your needs.

Another nice feature they have, as I recall, is the ability to select mailing addresses in some different states/cities. USA2Me and a couple of the others only have their business address in one state, so you're stuck with a Texas or Florida mailing address.

I recently switched over to Earth Class Mail and have been happy. The optiion to have mail scanned rather than mailed is great. There are times when I have mail forwarded here to Thailand only to scan it and send back to the US. Saves that time and money.

EarthClassMail solved all my needs.

[cali]

Earth class mail rocks. All of my snail mail is scanned into PDF documents I view online for $10/month. In the rare event I want the physical copy, I press the forward button to get it to Thailand. It is all automated and managed online. They offer REAL addresses to choose from in many states that can be used for any type of mail or package, not just a limited PO box.

[bendejo]

Thanks to all who have responded so far.

Cynic that I may be (at times ) I'd been expecting tales of disappearing credit cards etc. I figure the people opening the mail and scanning it would be working for something near minimum wage, and the sight of fresh plastic and the numbers on financial statements would comprise a great temptation.

To the person who asked about express packages from US to Thailand, the only things I've had shipped to Thailand were packages sent by Barnes & Noble to Poste Restante Nana PO. Both times it took about 3-4 weeks, even when I paid more for expedited delivery, I believe shipped via USPS. Your question is relevant to this thread because it is good to know the best way to have the mail forwarded.

Someone I know involved in import/export tells me that with the post-9/11 security concerns, the private carriers (Fedex, DHL, et al) are going out of their way to make a good showing of how they are following the rules, and in some cases going overboard; he says it is better to go with USPS services.

But on this topic I'd be interested in hearing about experiences receiving packages in Penang, Malaysia in contrast to Thailand. I figure in any case, the least amount of hands the parcel goes through, the better it's chances of reaching you.

Anyway, I'd like to make a decision on this by the weekend, and so far Earth Class is the front runner.

[hotgeekus]

I use usabox.com , same thing, you get an email when the mail comes in, it is in Miami...

[Jingthing]

I use a friend's address.

I have heard horror stories about some credit card, banks, and brokerages not accepting these forwarders as legit addresses (they see them as post office boxes) and causing problems. Any experiences good or bad to report about this?

[jfchandler]

The USA2 Me and Earth Class Mail addresses are routinely accepted as regular apartment or condo addresses... I've never had any problem with anyone, bank or otherwise, declining to accept my (USA2Me) address or deliver to it.

[Jingthing]

The USA2 Me and Earth Class Mail addresses are routinely accepted as regular apartment or condo addresses... I've never had any problem with anyone, bank or otherwise, declining to accept my (USA2Me) address or deliver to it.

Thanks for the tip!

[jonniebkk]

I have heard horror stories about some credit card, banks, and brokerages not accepting these forwarders as legit addresses (they see them as post office boxes)

I don't know about about all the services mentioned so far, but UPS Store that I use, and many others, give you an actual street address (their storefront) and then a number (your box). So it looks like 1234 San Francisco Street, # 150, San Francisco, CA. It basically looks like either an apartment/condo or maybe a office building. Therefore, there is never any problem with not mailing to post office boxes.

[vagabond48]

I recently switched over to Earth Class Mail and have been happy. The optiion to have mail scanned rather than mailed is great. There are times when I have mail forwarded here to Thailand only to scan it and send back to the US. Saves that time and money.

I thought about Earth Class Mail and researched them. On the surface, it looks like a great concept but I am concerned about privacy and identity theft. I know what I read and what they told me about how secure they are but they are a small company so how can they guarantee that the letter contents you authorize them to scan and store on their computers will not be copied or stolen?

[jfchandler]

Just an update re this thread...

I continue to use USA2Me.com for forwarding my U.S. letter and document mail: about $20 per month flat membership fee for their Just Mail plan, which includes one U.S.P.S. Global Priority Mail flat rate envelope (non-trackable) sent to Thailand per month with a maximum weight of 4 lbs.

Of course, you can order more envelopes as often as you like, but you'll pay extra for those, I believe, about the regular $14 per envelope U.S.P.S. postage price. USA2Me also will scan and email you PDFs of any of your incoming mail for $2 per order, which covers up to 6 pages from a single envelope.

One of the reasons I like them for paper mail, apart from their pricing and very good web-based mail management system, is that no one is opening or looking at my incoming mail, unless I ask them to. Otherwise, they're just storing it for up to a month (included in the member fee), and then forwarding whatever I want in the U.S.P.S. flat rate envelope.

Over time, one thing I've found I don't like them for is sending packages because their system leans toward using DHL, Fed-Ex or UPS for package deliveries to Thailand. And that, in my experience, means exhorbitant Thai duty and customs fees on top of the shipping price you're paying to the carrier.

So for packages, I've been using Shipito.com, which operates out of the Los Angeles/South Bay area, and so far, they've been very good and economical about handling packages (though they're not really geared toward handling letter mail). They do offer all the Fed-Ex varieties, but more importantly, they make it easy to send regular air mail, Global Priority and Global Express Mail from the U.S.P.S. via Thai Post, meaning the duty/customs threat is greatly reduced.

Shipito.com also has a web-based mail management system that works very well, and every time a box comes in, based on its weight and dimensions, their system gives you all the details and then lets you see every available mailing option and the corresponding price. You pick the method you want, use your credit or debit card online to pay the required amount, and your package gets sent out.

Shipito.com has several different rate packages, depending on how much/how often you ship. The easiest one I started with has no monthly fee, one week free storage and an $8.50 service/handling charge per box sent, plus whatever the chosen postage is for your package.

But if you want them to combine/consolidate boxes to save on shipping costs, you need to go with an upgraded plan that costs $50 per year. That allows you during the year to have them combine as many individual boxes or orders as you like (within the international weight limit for Thailand which is 60+ pounds per box) for a service fee of $2 per box. Then you still pay just an $8.50 service/handling charge for the consolidated box sent plus actual postage. Of course, that generally is going to be a whole lot less expensive than paying to mail a bunch of separate packages every time you order something.

One of the nice features about consolidating under that plan is that they give you three different options (without any extra handling charge) for how to handle consolidated boxes. Those include 1) keeping the original shipping boxes, and combining them into one bigger shipping box; 2) removing the original shipping boxes, keeping the retail packaging, and combining into one box, or 3) removing both the original shipping boxes and their retail packaging, and combining only the contents into one box.

With both USA2Me and Shipito, I've had absolutely no problem with senders not accepting those as valid addresses. Both, like other similar services, give you your own address with a corresponding suite or unit number that functions just like an apartment or condo address.

[JimGant]

JFC,

Thanks for the comprehensive update.

What state is your USA2ME address in? And is it the only option you have?

(An earlier post mentions either Florida or Texas. Both sound nice, if you want to have an address from a state without an income tax....as some states are starting to go revenue hunting.)

Thanx.

[jfchandler]

Jim, USA2Me's address is Houston, TX... No choice or options with them re that...

Some of the other similar companies have Florida as their bases.

JFC,

Thanks for the comprehensive update.

What state is your USA2ME address in? And is it the only option you have?

(An earlier post mentions either Florida or Texas. Both sound nice, if you want to have an address from a state without an income tax....as some states are starting to go revenue hunting.)

Thanx.

[Digitalbanana]

you need to go with an upgraded plan that costs $50 per year.

For a one off consolidation they also offer a 10USD option upgrade so no need to pay for whole year.

[jazzbo]

I have a UPS Store mail box account in Florida with which I was able to set-up a commercial bank account... However, it required the filing of a US Postal Service Form 1583:

http://www.usps.com/forms/_pdf/ps1583.pdf

[jfchandler]

Shipito.com also requires the Postal Form 1583, as did USA2Me originally, as best as I can recall.

Shipito leans toward wanting the form notarized, which can be an expensive thing to do around these parts.

I have a UPS Store mail box account in Florida with which I was able to set-up a commercial bank account... However, it required the filing of a US Postal Service Form 1583:

http://www.usps.com/..._pdf/ps1583.pdf