In what could be the ultimate bridge between the past and the future, Mailbox Forwarding says they can let you read your paper mail on your computer. This is definitely a service that would be used by those following the Four Hour Workweek, because it allows you to have a mailing address, but read and keep track of all of your mail from anywhere with an Internet connection. Seems very cool, but does it really work, and what are some examples of how it could benefit you?
Overview
It’s been a long time since the Internet hit the tipping point and more people were using email than those who weren’t, but the USPS is still around, despite everyone saying it wouldn’t last. Sure, they’re struggling, and have for years, but paper mail still gets delivered. They’ve threatened taking away Saturday delivery, but they somehow manage to keep running at a billion dollar deficit, all the while raising the price of a postage stamp to try and increase revenues. Apparently they’re not going anywhere any time soon, and Mailbox Forwarding is here to help you deal with your real mail needs.
The Claim
Mailbox Forwarding claims that no matter what you have sent to your virtual mailbox, they can handle it. This includes all of your paper mail, but also includes packages. This allows you to send everything to one address, and then use your account like a command center to determine what to do with it. If something is junk you can have it shredded and recycled. If you want to read something, you can have it opened and scanned so you can read it in your email. If you want it forwarded on to another address, it can be done. You can also receive faxes with their service.
The Cost
It’s $14.95 per month to use Mailbox Forwarding, which if you compare this to other mailbox services is a very reasonable price, considering most other services don’t include scanning and shredding and recycling as part of their price. You can get your first month free by entering the promo code “freemonth” when you’re checking out.
That’s if you’re happy with a Michigan mailing address. If you want to have a Florida or a California address it will cost you extra. This doesn’t seem like a very good business model as far as scaling things goes. They should have it set up so that it doesn’t matter which state you’re in, you should be able to use it at no extra charge regardless of where you’re located. It’s clear their headquarters is in Michigan, but that doesn’t mean they need to be charging a surcharge because you want an address that isn’t in Michigan.
The Commitment
You don’t have to be signed on for any long-term contracts, you can cancel your service at any time, and any further mail will be forwarded to you for up to 6 months, at your expense, so you’d want to get the address changed at the time you cancel.
Evaluation
Sometimes it’s hard for a business or an individual to avoid paper mail. Between junk mail and important bills and paperwork, it’s not like you can just function without a mailing address. More and more files are being sent electronically in PDF format, but until the day comes when everything can be sent that way, it’s still necessary to deal with snail mail. If you’re always on the go ordinary mail can be quite inconvenient, because it means you have to stay in one place if you want to receive it. With Mailbox Forwarding you can literally go anywhere and not worry about missing an important piece of mail.
One concern that people may have is they don’t like the idea of someone opening their mail, and scanning it. This is just something that you’d have to get over if you want to use the service, because until they figure out how to train helper monkeys to open mail and scan it, you’re out of luck. You’ll just have to trust that the employees there just open and scan, and not open, read, and scan. Unless you’re receiving rather sensitive material, or the secret recipe for KFC chicken, you’re probably alright.
Final Mailbox Forwarding Review
Mailbox Forwarding is receiving our Thumbs Up review, based on the price as well as the amount of features it includes, and how handy it is. They’re still a relatively small start-up, but we suspect that this is a sound business model and they should be expanding into other markets soon, with other addresses available to sign up for. Right now they have three to choose from, Michigan, Florida, and California. It seems the next logical addition would be New York. If you don’t care where your mailbox is located, go with Michigan for the most cost-effective option.
Our Recommendation
Try them out for the free month, but be prepared to stay on, especially if you don’t mind having your mail sent to a Michigan address. If you’ve always wanted to blur the line between your real world mail and your email, this is the way to do it. Whether you want to give the appearance of having a real world presence, or whether you just want all of your mail sent to one address and then you can decide what to do with it from there, this is set up to take care of anything you can think of.
I’m an expat and have been using MBF for 8 years. I’ve set most things up to receive electronically, but there’s still a few pieces of physical mail. They scan, I save the PDF on my computer. Once in a while the bank sends me a new credit card. MBF forwards it to me. It costs about $60 to do so (priority mail) but it’s worth it. Standard mail would take longer and doesn’t have tracking.
One complaint: I entered a different card to use for my monthly payment with them. The next payment however came out of old card which caused me a lot of difficulty. It was why I updated the card info in their system ahead of time in the first place – to avoid putting charges on the old card. When I went back into my MBF account, my new card info wasn’t there, only the old. When I asked MBF, they said: “We had a database problem and had to restore from backup.” Yet they never advised their customers. A database restore rolls all customers back to a certain point – and ye they never thought they should let their customers know. If they had, I could have updated my CC info again before billing time.
We are expats from California, living in Spain, and have been using the service for 2 months now. We simply couldn’t be happier! The toughest part of using the service is the USPS itself – it seems to take them FOREVER to forward mail to Michigan from California. Anything that we have changed our address on gets there just fine, it’s just the items that the USPS has to forward.
I like that you always know what something is going to cost before you spend the money. For example, we needed to have an item forwarded to us here in Spain, and when you set up the forward request, they provide a link to USPS, FedEx, etc, in order for you to make the decision. I’m glad they did because instead of spending $165 for FedEx Ground, I was able to choose USPS International Priority for only $35.
Their support has been quick and responsive when needed.
I can’t say enough about how much we love the service, and how easy it has made our transition overseas!
I have used them for a couple years without problems, then they stopped notifying me when mail arrived, thus racking up charges. I tried to get it resolved but did not get an answer. Most recently I forwarded some mail to myself and received a package with someone else’s mail. It was a set of checks from their newly opened bank account! I notified mailboxforwarding and they asked me to shred the mail for them and said the customer “didn’t want the mail” and hadn’t been paying on his account. Meanwhile, where did my mail go? Still unresolved after several interactions. If it goes well, it goes well. But things can go quite wrong also.
Good commentary . I was enlightened by the specifics – Does anyone know where I might be able to obtain a fillable USPS PS 1583 document to fill out ?
Suppose your bank mails you a bank card?
I was a customer of Mailbox Forwarding, and the treatment they subjected me to is making me do something I don’t remember doing in the recent time – writing a review to warn others. Mailbox Forwarding and I had it off to a great start: the good pricing, the features, I was in love. I didn’t mind they didn’t have a number to call. Or that their emails were all signed “Support” with no name. I didn’t even mind when I sent them a pre-addressed piece of mail asking them to affix a US post stamp on it and deposit it in the mail – and they charged me the handling fee AND double the cost of the post stamp claiming “it’s because we’re not set up to affix post stamps”. Apparently the handling fee was not enough – the post stamp also needed to cost 200% of the retail price. I wonder why it was 200%, not 300% or 400%. They just decided it’s going to be double the cost. OK. So for four months, while being out of the country, I was using Mailbox Forwarding to receive, forward and exchange paperwork with various authorities, and the end result was supposed to be my APOSTILLIZED divorce decree from the Secretary of State. This was no little thing to complete, and I was so happy I was moving close to having that precious paper on hand, as it was necessary for renewal of my passport abroad. And finally, I got notification from Mailbox Forwarding that yes, I have a letter from the Secretary of State. Ecstatic, I ordered that piece of mail scanned so that I could see that this was indeed my apostillized divorce decree. Mailbox Forwarding scanned the thing – but here’s the unbelievable part – they ripped off the Secretary of State’s guilded seal, unsealed the pages – – now this apostille, unsealed, was worth nothing – four months of work out the window. With no word of apology Mailbox FOrwarding said verbatim, ‘No one said to not cut it. In order for us to scan, we have to have the individual pages.” Yes, they could have removed a staple. But, sorry, to break an Apostille seal – that’s just negligent and thoughtless. We finally agreed that they would reimburse me for the costs of all the mailings leading up to the Apostille, and they credited me with $28 – the price of four months and still being stuck with an expired passport. The amazing thing was that as they issued the credit, they cancelled my account. Things still didn’t end there. At termination of contract, they are obligated by law to send whatever mail they had collected for a person up to that point. I provided the address and requested tracking service, to which they responded – and it was their last email, verbatim: “Too late. We already sent you all your things by first class. And you can call me Ziploc. You are not a customer anymore.” ‘Call me Ziploc’ – that was their answer to my earlier question what the name of the person was. I never received my remaining mail from them. I’m most sure they just threw it away. I hope that brought them a sense of redemption. Good job, Mailbox Forwarding! Stay away from them by all means.
Dear customers,
I am a private investigator hired by a customer of Mailbox Forwarding. After a 2 month investigation, I have determined that Mailbox Forwarding is mail fraud. It appears to be a scam to cash checks and steal valuables. This company is in violation of Federal law. I have reported this fraud to my colleagues at the US Postal Service, which is beginning an official investigation with the cooperation of the FBI and the IRS. I am sorry to be bearer of bad news, but I recommend that you cancel all payments immediately. Credit card companies will honor your request even if the company ignores it, as it did for my client.
I was pretty happy with it and it seemed to work very well. I’m abroad and was getting a couple of pieces a mail a month. I did notice that my billing seemed to be increasing – to around $30 a month after a while.
The problem (and it’s well hidden away) is that they charge nearly a $1 for any retained piece of mail. Therefore if you don’t shred items out of your Q after having them scanned you get charged.
While I understand their other charges I doubt that it really costs them $1 to keep an item for a month and this is how they drive their profitability
I’ve been using a virtual mailbox service for almost a year now and have been quite pleased with the result. The one thing that my service doesn’t have that Mailbox Forwarding does is the fax feature – a feature that I think is pretty cool, but one that I don’t think I would ever use.
The hardest part about using a virtual service is getting it setup. The USPS requires a notarized Form 1583 before they allow companies like this to scan and open your mail. There are quick work arounds, though, especially for those of us who are already abroad, which I detailed in the article here:
There are a number of alternative companies that do this same service, but Mailbox Forwarding is certainly a good one. Thanks for the review here!
I just signed up for their free one month trial and my bank card was immediately charged $39.95. This caused me an incredible hardship as I’m on a very strict budget. I sent them an email for a refund. The msg on the screen showed me to expect a reply in one to two days. As I’m sure you all know, billing issues using your bank card are not solved in a day…..usually it takes several days or even more.
I’m hoping this will be corrected ASAP but now I’m worried I can’t trust them to bill my card properly or process a check that comes for me. I’m already starting to regret signing up for them. This service is supposed to cause less headache not more, isn’t that correct?
I’ve been a customer of mailboxforwarding for 3.5 years. I use them for incoming letters for my business. Most of it they scan, and the rest I have them forward internationally at need.
Their forwarding prices for envelopes are standard USPS (which is cheap) + handling, which was much lower than many others at the time I investigated.
Happy customer here!
p.s. if I know I’m getting a credit card or other super-sensitive information, I have them forward it to me unopened. They claim to have video surveillance of the mail scanning area, but it seems prudent to be careful.
I have been using TravelingMailbox.com for over a year now and the service is flawless. I left mailboxforwarding.com because they have no customer service via phone. I can contact Traveling Mailbox by Phone, Live Chat, Email, and Skype when I am overseas. They typically respond to my emails within an hour, sometimes immediately! I highly recommend Traveling Mailbox.
I also just wanted to take a minute to mention to anyone wondering whether Mailbox Forwarding is safe to check out that it definitely is. I’ve been a customer there for over a year – signed up with them initially when I started growing my web-based affiliate advertising business into more than just a hobby and noticed that there were more and more public places that I had to post my address (my home address, at that time). I didn’t want my home address used and listed for everything concerning my business and multiple websites, so I opened a mailbox with them because I wasn’t keen on making an extra trip to check a physical box once or twice a week when I work from home most of the time anyway. They’ve handled several dozen pieces of mail per month, as well as sent checks directly to my bank and mailed me several packages, all with no problems or concerns at all. They seem to have done a good job designing their software so that pretty much everything I’ve needed has been handled quickly and efficiently without any need to contact them or have any special handling requests. Basically, like Google, where the costs are kept low because the automated system can handle things all on its own 99% of the time. I’ve found their service to be cheaper than a UPS store box would have been and way more convenient, so if you’re considering giving it a try, I’d encourage you to go ahead. Like they explain on their website – they won’t be “reading your mail”, they’re too busy handling hundreds of scans per day and running it all through high-speed scanners to care to spend the time snooping around anyone’s mailbox contents anyway.
I’ve used mailboxforwarding for 18 months and absolutely love it. They are reliable and do a great job. You can’t beat the price and service. I also highly recommend them (enough to leave a comment here…)!
I have been using Traveling Mailbox for the past year and I love it! They provide phone, email, and live chat support which none of the other companies provide all three. I get email responses on the weekends too. Highly recommend folks!
I’ve been using this service for several months now and love it. it’s incredibly convenient, fast, and works well from half way across the world (I’m in Asia). Highly recommend this service to anyone looking into it.
I am beginning to ponder the credibility of this company. I am panicking because I returned a wedding band set valued at over USD $1000+ to be returned to Amazon. Fedex confirms it was delivered and signed for by “Nate” but they mysteriously lost it. And I have orders valued at over $3000+ going to them now and now am wondering about my stuff. I am wondering if they are stealing my valuables.
I used this service for a bit and in my opinion, it was absolutely horrible. The whole company is shady, they ONLY respond to questions, etc. via email. You cannot event talk to someone on the phone. You also can’t actually go into the place where your mailbox actually is, even if the address is local for you. Actually, just so everyone knows, for the two locations outside of Michigan, their employees don’t even work at the box locations. They farm it out to another company that they hardly even know the people that work there and call it their “partner.” So you really aren’t even hiring the sketchy company they say you are hiring.
MOST IMPORTANT THING THEY DON’T TELL YOU ON THEIR WEBSITE – IF YOU HAVE EITHER OF THE BOX LOCATIONS OUTSIDE OF MICHIGAN, ALL OF YOUR MAIL (IF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER) COMES TO YOUR BOX LOCATION, THEN IT MUST BE SENT TO MICHIGAN, AND THEN IT FINALLY COMES BACK TO YOUR BOX ONE-TWO WEEKS AFTER IT WAS FIRST MAILED. THEN IT TAKES THEM 1-2 DAYS TO UPLOAD IT TO YOUR ACCOUNT SO YOU CAN SEE THE SCAN. IF YOU WANT YOUR MAIL DELIVERED WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME, YOU DON’T WANT TO HIRE THESE PEOPLE. THEY ARE ALSO COMPLETELY NON-RESPONSIVE. I FELT SCAMMED BY THESE SHADESTERS.
I have been looking at three of these types of companies for the last few days: mailboxfording, earthclassmail and virtualpostmail. Earthclassmail is definitely the heavyweight of three. Mailboxfordwarding seems to come in second in terms of business size and features. Virtualpostmail is the best when it comes to price.
I’d love to test out virtualpostmail but I am very concerned about how long this company is going to be around. They have a small to medium size office in walnut California right next to the post office. I doubt they own the space given that there are several units similar to their office sharing the same land and it looks like the type of units that are leased.
Question, what happens to my mail if they go out business or if the landlord decides to sell the office space or hammers them on the new lease agreement?
The other issue I have with these types of companies is that there doesn’t seem to be whole of information available regarding the company, such as number of employees, capital, number of clients etc.
Mailboxforwarding.com is a black box, with no customer support. I am trying to sort out where is my mail for several days with them, there is no help whatsoever. They have 2 complaints with BBB and it seems that there is a website called mailboxforwarding-sucks that details also the problems another customer encountered with these guys. I think this company should not even be listed among the options for mail forwarding.
It looks like it’d be a great use for someone on the move just like me. I’m moving to another state soon but for about a month or two I won’t have a permanent address because I’ll be crashing at my sister’s. I don’t want to change the address again and again, so signing up for mailbox forwarding would eliminate that problem. No matter where I go the mail is always delivered and ready for me to review. It sounds good to me.
I run an online marketing/sales business – where I am the only employee – and I spend much of my time traveling. Thought this sounded like the perfect solution for me so I signed up about a month ago after reading this review. So far I have no complaints. The service works exactly as described, and I’ve been able to blur the lines between physical mail and email, which is exactly what I needed. They were even able to forward a package from Amazon along with my mail when I needed it sent to a hotel. Certainly recommended for anyone who wants to get rid of the hassles of dealing with traditional mail in a world going increasingly digital.
OK I gotta say this is pretty darn cool. I’m not sure if I will give this a try – just don’t like the idea of sending my snail mail to some service to have them then re-transmit to me but this is still a very cool idea and concept. Glad I found this and will definitely share with friends.
You hit the nail on the head saying it bridges the past with the future. How come no one thought of this before? Might not be for me but I can see many people giving this a try.
i;m currently trying them out using their free trial. I recently set up a home run business for my wife and we didn’t want to be giving out our mailing address to everybody that needs to send us stuff. So we’re trying this service out and it’s working really well so far. I’m pretty certain that we’re going to take it up as a full time service – it saves us a lot of time and hassle having to sort through our mail the old fashioned way 🙂