Anyone here use a virtual mailbox to avoid giving out your real address? I used to have a PO Box, but they've gone up in price and the one I had was across town. I'm seeing some online that are $7/month and includes scanned images of mail that you can have forwarded to your real address.

If you've used one, which one and how was your experience?

SID,

After 3 renters showed up at my front door one night to pay cash rent, (our normal system at the time) the third guy said "Wow! You've got a lot of money in there!"

I then changed to a locking mailbox on one of our garages that faced a street.

A hundred years ago we started a private mailbox (PMB) with MailBoxes ETC which became The UPS Store. It is a legit USPS address property address and qualifies when cities demand real addresses, same as if you had a small office within a large office building.

With the new box our applicants could deliver their completed application and keys could be returned there - it would be put in our box. USPS recently clamped down and it will now only accept stamped, processed mail/boxes, not FedEx.

About $400/yr for the smallest box. They also accept our Amazon deliveries so drivers don't get my home address.

We now have a locking mailbox $100, on a house we use for storage centrally located in town for money orders, apps, keys...

The UPS Store box may be going bye-bye.

BRAD

If pressed for a physical addy I just use the one for my storage house.

Have heard that you can use the actual address for the post office as well.

My post office is a pain. Lobby closes at 3:30 during the week and the office closes up at noon for lunch, when most people are having their lunch break. But I have been using it for probably 25 years and don't want to change.

I didn't give enough detail yesterday. These "virtual" mailboxes DO OFFER a legit street address. Something that sounds like it would meet WI law requirements. Apparently, that's a thing for more than just landlords. Good ol' capitalism: Find a need; fill a need.

Anyway... sounds like no one has had experience with these. I'll check back once more at the end of today and see. It seems almost too good to be true, so I want to find out what real life experiences are like.

I know Brad has a system that works. I only do electronic debit, or the tenant takes cash/cashiers check to a branch of our bank. So payment receipt is not my concern. My concern is having a return address for undelivered mail, which is about the only thing I've found in my old PO Box in 3 years... and even then, only one or two items per year. Not worth $180 per 6 months, plus driving across town.

I know the prices at USPS are up, but I just consider it the cost of doing business.

For you Sid,

I know the prices at USPS are up, but I just consider it the cost of doing business.

For you Sid,

SID,

Perhaps you are referring to the services that scan your mail and email it to you?

USPS started offering this but not in my town.

CHeck out the services full time RVers use. MailBoxes Etc used to offer a service to bundle all your mail each week into a larger envelope and mail it to your home or wherever you will be if travelling.

We still like paper bills for utils, etc.

Another idea is to make an agreement with a bookkeeping office to use their address and put it in a box for pickup.

OREO,

This is my mailbox. I tested the models at Lowes by trying to reach inside. I liked their big one but it was not the right shape for my spot AND it looks really commercial, attracting vandals. I needed a flat wall mount design that does not attreact attention. The only letters on the box are the house address. I considered a sign NO CASH but went for boring, nothing special to attract attention.

Amazon $57 KYODOLED Steel Key Lock Mail Boxes Outdoor,Locking Wall Mount Mailbox

BRAD

Sounds like it may be worth considering SID. Let us know how it works out for you.

I put 2 mailboxes at my Airbnb that has a efficiency I rent out above the garage plus I have an office in the garage area. Warning: My town then started charging me a trash fee for the extra address. Cost me over $130 a year i think. Ticks me. But I do use that address on my leases. (Never get any biz mail there however. I also have a locking mailbox I label as "DROPBOX" attached to that garage at that address (not the P.O box) that keys, rent etc can be dropped into. (I do wish I had something that the Airbnb'ers could get a garage door opener from also) Tenants are to text me when they drop something in it. Works well for it's purpose. Got it from Lowes about $57 Item #423269

Sounds like it may be worth considering SID. Let us know how it works out for you.

I put 2 mailboxes at my Airbnb that has a efficiency I rent out above the garage plus I have an office in the garage area. Warning: My town then started charging me a trash fee for the extra address. Cost me over $130 a year i think. Ticks me. But I do use that address on my leases. (Never get any biz mail there however. I also have a locking mailbox I label as "DROPBOX" attached to that garage at that address (not the P.O box) that keys, rent etc can be dropped into. (I do wish I had something that the Airbnb'ers could get a garage door opener from also) Tenants are to text me when they drop something in it. Works well for it's purpose. Got it from Lowes about $57 Item #423269