Everyone loves to travel to get away from it all – only to find out that one of the best things about travel is to share it with friends and loved ones back home. Fortunately, between email, social media, apps, and virtual programs, it’s easy to check in and say hello anytime. But every now and then it’s nice to get a real letter from home. Or occasionally it might be a necessity. Legal and financial documents keep coming no matter where you are.
If you are thinking about a long term trip or even making the switch to live as a digital nomadHere’s how to get your mail while traveling overseas.
Remaining mail
Poste restante is one of the oldest methods of receiving mail while traveling. The name is French for “remaining mail”. However, it is now the international term for “general delivery”. When you use poste restante, you are essentially asking the post office in a foreign city to keep your post at the central post office for you.
Post Restante is a great system for backpackers and nomads with no fixed address. ((this article has some amazing stories about women who traveled in the pre-smartphone era, when poste restante was a real lifeline.) When your mom really wants to send you a birthday card and you’re pretty sure you’ll be there Helsinki or Melbourne In a month she can send it in for just the cost of an international postage stamp.
In order to send letters and postcards via Poste Restante, the sender must write down the following address:
Full name of the recipient
Remaining mail
Name of the city’s central post office
City, country and zip code
A quick Google search is all it takes to find the official address of a city’s central post office.
Note that you must appear within 14 days, otherwise there is a risk that your emails will expire. Of course, you also need to know in advance when you will be in a particular city to let your friends and family know. You need to take the time to go to the central post office (which may or may not be central). And sometimes you have to go back multiple times if your email hasn’t arrived yet. Despite all of this, poste restante is a simple and inexpensive way to collect mail from family members and friends while traveling abroad.
Poste Restantes now closed private counterparts
Poste restante was once so popular that the now defunct Thomas Cook company offered a private version of it in its international travel agencies. This also applies to American Express, which kept mail in its worldwide travel agencies as part of its customer letter service for cardholders. Unfortunately, these programs no longer exist, although you occasionally hear them referenced in travel stories. However, there is an alternative that has taken its place: private virtual mail services.
Using Virtual Mail Services
While nothing can rival the joy of opening an actual letter from a loved one, the truth is that most people don’t need to have their mail physically. You just have to know what it is saying. This is where virtual mail services come into play.
For a monthly fee, you can get a physical address from a virtual mail service. All bills, mortgage statements, credit card papers and even birthday cards can be sent to this address in your home country. The company’s employees open your emails, scan them and send them to you electronically. You can then instruct them to destroy the documents or hold them for your return. You can even have them forwarded by courier. Is it the same as holding a note from your mother? Not even close. But it’s a brilliant solution when you need a secure address to send legal and financial documents to.
As part of your subscription package, you authorize your virtual mail service provider to open your mail. There’s even a form for it: USPS Form 1583. Giving someone else permission to open your email is serious business, and this form requires authentication – something else you can do virtually.
What to Look for in a Virtual Mail Service
The virtual postal service is booming. Travelers have more choices than ever before, and it’s important to look past the monthly price to see what you’re really getting. Does your virtual postal service provider offer a PO box address or a street address, for example? If you receive packages or registered documents, an address is essential.
They also want to ask about their online portal. Does it allow mobile answers? Do you have an app? When they’re built into popular programs like Evernote or Dropbox, that’s even better. Can they still do old school tasks such as B. Deposit checks into a bank account or send faxes?
Don’t hesitate to ask them how they choose their employees. Privacy and convenience are important, and you need to be comfortable knowing that someone else is reading your email.
So choose a place
Price points and services aren’t the only considerations when choosing a virtual mail service. If you’re a long-term traveler or a digital nomad, in the US you still need a physical address to call home for residential purposes. For example, you need a place where you can get voter registration cards and tax files. If your virtual postal service address is to be your address in all respects, choosing a state with low tax rates or strong social services may matter to your final decision.
Alternatively, there are virtual mail services that can offer their customers an impressive mailing address if all they want is to feel fancy. If you’ve always wanted a Wall Street business address, a virtual mail service can make it happen.
Further options: Amazon Lockers and DHL’s Packstation
Of course, you cannot scan and review all emails online. Sometimes it’s big, bulky, and urgent. For example, if you need a replacement part for your tent, you will no doubt want the ease of instant shipping with a service like Amazon.
The Amazon Locker program and its competitor, DHL Packstation, work a bit like community mailbox programs. However, instead of going to a post office or apartment lobby with your key, go to a central location like a grocery store, supermarket or library and collect your package from a locker using a digital code.
On the plus side, these programs are the perfect solution to tricky shipping problems. Even if you have a permanent address, there is no guarantee that you will be home when a package arrives, and figuring out how to get it can be difficult. Depending on your life situation, a locker or packing station can also be a more private and secure alternative to home delivery.
On the other hand, these programs are only available in selected countries. First and foremost, they must be near a Locker or Packstation location. But they might work for some travelers, and they are well worth researching.
The solution everyone forgets: reduce your emails
However, the easiest way to deal with your mail is to avoid receiving it in the first place. Almost all invoices, bank statements and insurance papers can be sent electronically. Even birthday cards can be designed and sent electronically, as can e-gifts such as Amazon gift cards, Starbucks gift cards or vouchers for travel experiences. You may find that after using virtual services for about a year, you can reduce your email to such an extent that you no longer have to worry.
