Updated on October 9, 2020
Virtual mailboxes are becoming more and more popular in recent years. It’s like a digital post office. They receive all your mail and packages, scan it and send you the picture of it.
After that you can decide how to deal with it. You can ask them to open the envelope or forward this mail to another address, or simply recycle the unwanted pieces. Here are a few things you should consider when you sign up for the virtual mailbox service so you can choose the one that works best for you.
Services
First, you need to decide what services you need. All virtual mailboxes have standard features such as receiving your mail and packages, scan of the outside and inside of the envelope. However, there are also other unique services that different digital mailbox companies can provide and you need to consider them as well.
- Check deposits. Virtual mailbox can deposit checks on your behalf. If you have an online business and you get a lot of checks in your mail, this feature would be a must for you. It’s a simple and convenient way to manage your checks. Whenever they receive a check for you, you can ask them to have it deposited into your bank account and it will be mailed out within one business day.
- Package Forwarding. Not all virtual mailboxes deal with packages, some of them only manage mail. So if you want to receive and forwards packages, you need to check if they have this feature.
- Packages consolidation. If you know that you will receive a lot of packages, you can ask them to combine it in one and send it to you. This way it will be much cheaper. So if you need this option, consider virtual mailboxes that can provide it.
Price
Fee is another thing to consider. Some mailboxes don’t have any monthly fee and you pay only for what you us. For example, scanning fee (it can be around 1$ per page), mail forwarding fee (approximately 1-2$). Those virtual mailboxes that have monthly fee can include scan and mail forwarding option into the package. Monthly fee varies widely from $10 per month to 100$+ /month.
As you can see, each digital mailbox is better for different usage. If you know that you will get a lot of mail and you need them to be scanned, it’s better for you choose the one with low scanning and mail forwarding fee or if you usually don’t have a lot of letters, you don’t need to pay monthly fee, just choose the one where you can pay per one of mail that you will receive.
Choosing virtual mailbox can be very difficult knowing that there are so many good options. You have to think what exactly do you need and what service you want. This way it would be easy to find the right provider for you. The best virtual mailbox is the one that works best for you.