Anyone have experience with Virtual Post Mail?

[Scuba]

After doing further research thanks to the comments of others, we decided the USPS Premium Forwarding service was really expensive. We were ready to go with UPS but then realized there are several digital mail management services available. They scan your envelopes and if you direct them to, they'll either forward specific pieces of mail or open them and scan the contents to you. This service seemed to have good pricing. Anyone used them or similar services?

 

[Sunset]

How is the USPS Premium Forwarding service , so much better than regular forwarding which only costs a total of $1.00 for 6 months or less.
It seems to me, the Premium service is slower, since they only box up your mail every Wed, and send it out. So anything you get on Thursday has to wait nearly a week to get boxed and then takes 1,2 or 3 days to arrive.

 

[Scuba]

For us there were three benefits of Premium service. One, the forwarded mail is tracked. Two, magazines are forwarded (although so is third class mail - major disadvantage). And three, our temporary landlord would likely appreciate getting one package a week for us vs several pieces of mail each day mixed up with his. The digital mail services seem better than either alternative. Minimal waiting to receive mail, and not wasteful shipping around piles of paper.

 

[euro]

After doing further research thanks to the comments of others, we decided the USPS Premium Forwarding service was really expensive. We were ready to go with UPS but then realized there are several digital mail management services available. They scan your envelopes and if you direct them to, they'll either forward specific pieces of mail or open them and scan the contents to you. This service seemed to have good pricing. Anyone used them or similar services?

I have no experience with the digital services but it is exactly what I have my DS or DD do when we are out of town. They check the mail, tell me about any non-junk looking envelopes. If I'm interested in any, they open it and snap a picture. That takes care of 99%+ of what I need.
I'd definitely be willing to pay for this service if My kids weren't available. What do those services charge?

 

[Dd852]

After doing further research thanks to the comments of others, we decided the USPS Premium Forwarding service was really expensive. We were ready to go with UPS but then realized there are several digital mail management services available. They scan your envelopes and if you direct them to, they'll either forward specific pieces of mail or open them and scan the contents to you. This service seemed to have good pricing. Anyone used them or similar services?

My concern about Virtual is they give you a California mailing address and California is notorious for trying to get people to pay state income taxes. I use an outfit that has a Texas address to avoid that problem. (Us global mail). I'm basically happy although neither Vanguard not American Express will accept a commercial mail service as an official mailing address so I'm still stuck with usps forwarding those two to the commercial service. All these services seem to provide good scanning etc though they are very expensive for physically sending on mail or packages if you request that.

 

[marko]

I have no experience with the digital services but it is exactly what I have my DS or DD do when we are out of town. They check the mail, tell me about any non-junk looking envelopes.

That's exactly what we had to do when we moved to France for a few years. (no DS/DD...we used Mom)

We had gone to the local post office to see about mail forwarding. The guy behind the counter looked at us, grimaced and said "That's probably not a good idea. Not only will we screw it up, but we'll screw it up royally".

 

[Scuba]

I have no experience with the digital services but it is exactly what I have my DS or DD do when we are out of town. They check the mail, tell me about any non-junk looking envelopes. If I'm interested in any, they open it and snap a picture. That takes care of 99%+ of what I need.

I'd definitely be willing to pay for this service if My kids weren't available. What do those services charge?

Cost varies between $10/month up to around $40/month depending on pieces of mail received. Prices include a limited number of scanned pages. Forwarding any items is extra and most will not physically keep your mail for free beyond 60 days. In our case, the USPS solution was about $250, UPS around $200, and this will be around $100-$150 depending on whether we need more than what is included in the package. I think $125 will cover our needs. Half the price of USPS and more convenient, less wasteful.

 

[Scuba]

My concern about Virtual is they give you a California mailing address and California is notorious for trying to get people to pay state income taxes. I use an outfit that has a Texas address to avoid that problem. (Us global mail). I'm basically happy although neither Vanguard not American Express will accept a commercial mail service as an official mailing address so I'm still stuck with usps forwarding those two to the commercial service. All these services seem to provide good scanning etc though they are very expensive for physically sending on mail or packages if you request that.

We live in CA so we liked that the place has the same state address as ours. Plus if we ever needed to go to their offices, we could.

 

[ItDontMeanAThing]

I've used St. Brendan's Isle digital mail service for 5 1/2 years without a complaint. Experience shows, as they've been in business since 1988. Located in Florida.

One drawback is the budget priced forwarding options, e.g. USPS Priority International, it takes 3 days for the package to reach Miami and a flight out of the US. On the other hand, they do offer the lowest priced USPS forwarding, unlike some competitors. Other drawback is they don't consolidate packages for shipping, unless one or more fits inside another one. Others companies will take your pile of packages and put them all in one box before shipping.

https://www.sbimailservice.com/

 

[audreyh1]

We used Escapees in TX when traveling full time. We still keep the account because it's useful when we travel domestically for long periods or want to hold mail for >30 days.