Online postage forwarding services in UK?

October 4, 2010 3:25 PM

I am looking for a service which can receive my postal mail and forward it internationally. I have seen some companies [eg 1,2,3] advertised which offer to scan envelopes and then forward/shred/open and scan contents according to instructions issued from a website. Has anybody had any experience with services of this sort?

I am looking for a company based in the UK but am interested to know how people have found these services wherever they are. I am aware that the Royal Mail offer a forwarding service which can work internationally - but this seems to be set up for people who are simply moving houses - rather than moving between more than one location regularly. It also lasts for no more than 2 years. The companies I mention above seem to be quite small and I am trying to gauge their reliability.

posted by rongorongo to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

previously.
posted by jeb at 3:30 PM on October 4, 2010

I was a customer of Earth Class Mail back when I needed such a thing and was satisfied with their service. It's a bit expensive if you get a lot of mail, but works as advertises.
posted by Jacqueline at 3:39 PM on October 4, 2010

I created the Earth Class Mail website - originally. It has gone through many changes since then.

They were not very easy to work with (details cut out, enough said), but their technology and approach seemed quite exciting. Their warehouse which used mail handling robots on vertical grid tracks to collect and archive mail was one of the more interesting sights I've seen as part of my job.

I'd use them if I needed a service like that. It really isn't the sort of all-too-common sweatshop "let's hire temps and pretend they are automation" operation that I had suspected before visiting the main warehouse.
posted by Invoke at 4:06 PM on October 4, 2010

Look at services that work with folks on long sailboat cruises.
posted by sammyo at 6:19 PM on October 4, 2010

Earth Class mail works fine for me. They even deposit my checks. Never had a problem with them at all. When I'm in San Francisco I pick up my mail locally, otherwise they process it.

I don't know about the UK, but in the states it was pretty easy to rent a mailbox and have them forward your mail to you wherever I was. I did this for maybe two years, cost me around $300 USD a year.
posted by Ookseer at 10:55 PM on October 4, 2010

Thanks for the responses above. I have now been using Ukpostbox for the last month or so. They have been fine and I would have only a couple of caveats for potential customers: first the cost of forwarding letters can mount up to a significant additional cost if you want to do it a lot. Secondly, if you want the service where they open and scan your mail then you mist, obviously, trust whoever is doing this to keep and details confidential.
posted by rongorongo at 7:46 AM on November 6, 2010