- If you're looking for a way to create better privacy
around your home or business address,
or you wanna simply digitize your physical mail,
guess what?
It's a lot easier than you might think.
I've been using a virtual address for over five years now.
I absolutely love the anonymity and security it provides.
Nowadays, I never share my actual physical address
with anyone except my family, close friends,
and the necessary government agencies.
In this video, I'm gonna share with you
four of the best virtual address services
on the market today
and explain the strengths and weaknesses of each one
so that you can make an informed decision
about which one is right for you.
Welcome to All Things Secured.
My name's Josh.
And as you can tell,
I'm a huge advocate for virtual addresses.
I mean, not only are there a ton of privacy benefits,
there's also the added perk of being able to control
and view your physical mail from pretty much anywhere
that you have access to your computer or your phone.
And keep in mind, when I say virtual address,
I'm not talking about a P.O. Box, a co-working location,
or even a virtual office.
This is a unique address
where you or your business can receive any kind of mail
and have it either scanned, forwarded, or trashed.
So what I'm gonna do for you here
is list out the best virtual address providers
that I recommend.
And then if you stay to the end,
I'll explain how to use a virtual address
if you're doing this for the very first time.
So let's get started.
(upbeat music)
First, Traveling Mailbox.
I'm starting here because this is the service I use
as an address, both for my family
while we're overseas and for my business.
So, some of the pros here,
they have 2FA security for login,
which I think is really important.
When you wanna secure the mail that you have,
you wanna make sure that they have a secure facility
and that you have secure login.
They also allow you to connect with Evernote and Dropbox
so that you can put anything into those cloud services
if you want to inhabit just automatically go there.
They do check deposit.
You can even have them mail a letter on your behalf,
which I've never used, but it's not that expensive.
I think it's like a $2 to have them mail it
and $1 for every page that you have them print off.
Cons, things that I haven't liked about them,
particularly, is they have premium addresses
that are more expensive.
Which would be okay,
except in addition to being more expensive,
the mail takes a little bit longer
because everything is forwarded
to their North Carolina address.
So if you want speedy service with Traveling Mailbox,
you go ahead and get that North Carolina address
unless you absolutely need another city or state.
So I really think that the plans for Traveling Mailbox
are reasonable.
I've used them for many years,
and I really like the service.
(upbeat music)
Next we have UK Postbox,
which as you can tell from the name
specializes in addresses in the United Kingdom.
Now, one of the advantages of using a service like this,
is that they have pay-as-you-go options.
So, I have a UK address,
but I don't have to pay monthly for it.
Because I only pay whenever mail is received and scanned.
And so, it's great for, they great business options
for those that are doing business in the UK.
They also allow you to send letters.
But really it's that pay-as-you-go model that I really like.
Now, the cons for that
are that the price per letter received is a bit high.
So, if you receive a lot of junk mail,
or if you think you'll be receiving
anything more than seven pieces of mail per month,
you'll probably want to move over to one of their paid
monthly subscription plans.
I really like the UK Postbox,
if you're wanting an address in the United Kingdom.
(upbeat music)
PostScan Mail is the next one on the list.
And there are two features
that really stick out to me here in this service.
One is the international addresses that they offer.
And then they offer something called local pickup,
which I'll explain in just a second.
They have addresses in the US, the UK, Canada,
Czech Republic, and Switzerland.
And by the time you're watching this,
maybe they'll have a few more.
I really like having those different options
all around the world,
because it's not just US citizens
or UK citizens that wanna have virtual addresses.
The thing about local pickup that I like though,
is that if you want it to,
and there is the available address that's nearby your house,
you can actually use it semi as a P.O. Box, where you go
and pick those pieces of mail up directly yourself,
if you wanted to.
Now, some of these locations
might charge you a little bit for that pickup.
Or you can just have it scanned and you can use it
exactly like a virtual address anywhere else.
But I do like that option,
if you happen to live by one of their addresses
that you can do local pickup.
The cons is that they don't have fax
or check deposit features, which for most people,
including myself, really isn't that big of a deal.
(upbeat music)
iPostal1 is probably one of the biggest players
in the virtual address space.
They have more than 2000 addresses to choose from.
They have locations all over the US, Europe,
and even in China.
And one of the great things
is that they're probably one of the cheapest options
in this whole bunch.
You can find pretty much wherever you want to put it,
you know, wanna have a location.
They've got an app.
They've got all these great things,
these features that are pretty much standard
across all these services.
And they do it at one of the cheapest prices.
The cons is that all the phone fax features
are only available with virtual office plans,
which are much more expensive.
And in my opinion, aren't worth it.
So, if you're trying to do something with phone,
there are other options.
I've got a video about how I use virtual phone numbers.
You won't go wrong with any of these options.
So it's really just boils down
to which features are important to you.
Pricing, and of course, which address you actually want.
If you'd like another resource to use
is VirtualAddressFinder.com.
That's a database of all major virtual address companies
where you can search based on location
or the features that you need, if that's important to you.
For those of you
who have never set up a virtual address before,
let me walk you through the simple four step process.
First, you need to choose your address and create an account
with the service that best fits your needs.
It's usually a pretty fast process,
or at least it was for me.
The next step is where it gets a little more complicated.
Depending on the country,
there are certain requirements
that the government has in order for a company
to receive mail on your behalf.
For example, in the US
that means a notarized USPS form 1583.
In the UK, that means
sending in proper identification documents, and so on.
I got stuck on the USPS form 1583,
since I'm a US citizen who's living overseas right now.
I don't have easy access to a notary public.
Thankfully, there are newer services like NotaryCam
that allow you to notarize documents via Skype.
So, while there was an extra fee involved,
I think it was something like $25,
the whole process took less than 20 minutes.
Super easy.
Next, go make sure you download the app for the company
you decide to use.
All the services
that I've just mentioned earlier in this video
have their own iPhone and Android apps
so that you can easily check your mail
and request scans on the go.
It is incredibly convenient.
I'm telling you.
So I would encourage you to find a service
that offers a good mobile app.
And then turn on notifications
so that you know when you have a new piece of mail.
And finally, you need to slowly start changing the address
that you're giving out,
both for your personal and address and business purposes.
So, it'll take some time
for your mail to migrate from your physical address
to now your new virtual address.
But it will be worth it.
And eventually, you'll start receiving all of your mail
on your virtual address.
Trust me when I say that it's worth the switch.
It's really not that expensive.
And it helps you control your physical mail,
particularly, if you're living overseas.
But definitely if you want more privacy for your home
or business address.
Give this video a like if it was helpful for you
and leave a comment with any questions below.
Thanks for watching and make sure you subscribe
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