If your family is moving abroad, you need to have a plan for how to handle your American mail. You need to be able to view your mail and respond to it when needed, which may sound impossible if you’re in Spain and your letter is in America. There are a number of services that can help collect mail while living abroad, however, my personal favorite option is Traveling Mailbox. This service is affordable and easy to use, and I recommend it to anyone moving abroad.
How a Traveling Mailbox Works
A traveling mailbox is a wonderful service for frequent travelers or expats who need to be able to view their U.S. mail easily and securely. The traveling mailbox makes it simple to view your mail online and even respond to it, no matter where you are in the world. It doesn’t get much easier than that!
Simply follow these steps, and you’ll be ready to review your mail anywhere and everywhere:
- Subscribe to Traveling Mailbox. When you subscribe, you receive a new postal address to which you can have all your mail sent, regardless of your physical location.
- Send your mail to your new address by either providing your address to those who send you mail or filling out a change of address form through USPS.
- When your mail arrives, Traveling Mailbox will scan the envelope’s outside and send you the image. From there, you decide what they do with it. They can open and scan the mail, forward the item to your physical location, or securely shred the mail. You decide, and Traveling Mailbox will execute your decision quickly and securely.
Why I Love Traveling Mailbox
Using a Traveling Mailbox is an affordable way to avoid complications with receiving mail as an expat or someone living abroad for an extended amount of time. I love that you have complete control over what happens to the mail you receive and that you can look at your mail online from anywhere.
Traveling Mailbox gives you a physical address, not a P.O. Box, making sending all mail to your new address much more manageable. Plus, Traveling Mailbox is surprisingly affordable and offers customer support seven days a week. If you have questions or concerns about your mail, there will be someone available to help you out.
Features Included
Not only does Traveling Mailbox make it easy to view and respond to your mail from anywhere in the world, but it also offers you a bunch of other features with your new mailing address. Let’s look at the numerous features that come along with your Traveling Mailbox:
- Your mail can be opened and scanned into a PDF for easy viewing.
- Get the physical copies of your mail delivered to you, no matter where you are.
- Send the scanned PDFs to places like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Evernote with seamless integration options.
- Receive email or push notifications when you get new mail.
- Unlimited cloud storage for scanned mail.
- Discounts on shipping services.
- An easy-to-use mobile app that lets you view your mail on the go.
- Check depositing services for checks received in the mail.
- Forward packages from companies like Amazon to where you are.
- A virtual office that allows you to mail letters and send or receive faxes.
- Quick document scanning.
- The ability to create folders to organize your scanned mail in a way that makes sense.
- Junk mail can be marked easily, so it gets shredded quickly and securely.
- Live customer support is available through chat, phone, and email seven days a week.
Other Benefits of Traveling Mailbox
You get all these amazing services while knowing your mail is being handled in a secure location instead of being left in a mailbox susceptible to being tampered with or stolen. There’s no better peace of mind than knowing your mail is under surveillance 24 hours a day. I love that I don’t have to worry about my mail at all when using a Traveling Mailbox.
Plus, you don’t have to change your mailing address every time you move because you have one established with Traveling Mailbox. You receive a U.S.-based mailing address, making it simple to have mail and packages sent to you through their services. Their standard service offers you to choose an address based in Sanford, North Carolina. However, if you prefer, you can also pay an additional fee to have an address based closer to where you’re originally from.
A Traveling Mailbox can cost you as little as 15 dollars a month. This is a super affordable way to get peace of mind about your mail. Depending on the services you want to use, three tiers of subscription are available. Additional services can also be paid on an as-needed basis as well. The flexibility of services makes this one of my favorite services to use as someone passionate about moving abroad.
Wrap Up
One of the more difficult parts of moving abroad is ensuring you continue getting your American mail while living outside the country. Using a service like Traveling Mailbox takes all the uncertainty out of the process entirely. For a monthly fee, you can have an actual American physical address to send your mail to. Plus, you get the ability to have your mail forwarded to you wherever you are, along with many other great postal services.
I can’t speak highly enough about the peace of mind a Traveling Mailbox gives my family while living abroad. I consider it a must-have for anyone moving out of the country.
Personalized Support for Your Move Abroad
As you’ve seen, managing your US mail collection is just one of many logistics you must consider when you move abroad. Are you overwhelmed planning your move overseas? Family Move Abroad provides personalized guidance helping Americans and other nationals move to Spain. Contact Family Move Abroad to schedule a consultation.