That being said, I am sorely tempted to open up a credit card with only the mail forwarding address just to deal with those vendors and shippers who will only ship to your billing address

My billing address for all my credit cards is my mail forwarding address. Everything works fine that way.

I'd like to know of any that banks and credit card companies would accept as your actual residence address. Not sure that exists.

It has never been a big problem for me and I've used mail forwarding services as my address for over 20 years. Regions bank did want to have a residence address but was OK with a agent for a mailing address.

USA box worked fine for me. $10/month. They scan and email you the unopened envelope. $32 to get all your mail sent via DHL.

Went paperless on all accounts so would only get a few shipments a year for things like a new atm or credit card. Even filed my taxes using that address.

USA box worked fine for me. $10/month. They scan and email you the unopened envelope. $32 to get all your mail sent via DHL.

Went paperless on all accounts so would only get a few shipments a year for things like a new atm or credit card. Even filed my taxes using that address.

The problem I've had with that approach is pretty much all of my bank cards seem to be mailed in non-descript, plain envelopes that oftentimes don't even mention the name of the issuing bank on the outside of the envelope.

Thus, if your mail service is simply sending you a scan or a photo of the front of an unopened envelope, at least in my experience, you have virtually no way of knowing from the outside whether or not it's a bank card inside or something entirely different.

It's not like the banks exactly want to advertise on the outside of their envelopes -- "Hey Thiefs, Here's a credit or debit card inside for you to steal."

Yes but you know if a card is expiring and what else would it be?

USA box worked fine for me. $10/month. They scan and email you the unopened envelope. $32 to get all your mail sent via DHL.

Went paperless on all accounts so would only get a few shipments a year for things like a new atm or credit card. Even filed my taxes using that address.

The problem I've had with that approach is pretty much all of my bank cards seem to be mailed in non-descript, plain envelopes that oftentimes don't even mention the name of the issuing bank on the outside of the envelope.

Thus, if your mail service is simply sending you a scan or a photo of the front of an unopened envelope, at least in my experience, you have virtually no way of knowing from the outside whether or not it's a bank card inside or something entirely different.

It's not like the banks exactly want to advertise on the outside of their envelopes -- "Hey Thiefs, Here's a credit or debit card inside for you to steal."

That and fact that they usually will not scan mail that is in the format where mail it is printed using an impact printer through the envelope, like when they send you the PIN number !