Mail forwarding is something we considered before moving to Uruguay. Of course we have an address here in Uruguay, and we do receive mail here… BUT… We soon found out there are several reasons to forward mail through a mail forwarding service.
The biggest reason we decided to use a mail forwarding service is that our US Banks require a US physical address for our accounts. In addition, various other businesses we work with require a US address on file as well.
The second reason we decided to use a mail forwarding service is that we quickly found that many websites we love to shop on don’t ship to Uruguay. The ones that do ship products to Uruguay tend to have an excessive charge (I was quoted $320 for FedEx to ship a case of Agave Nectar to me! It was “only” $90 for the USPS slowest of slow shipping methods).
Before we decided on moving to Uruguay, neither one of us had ever used a mail forwarding service, because we never had a reason to forward our mail. The most we had ever done was put a in forwarding slip at the post office.
We researched a couple of different mail forwarding services. What we were looking for was for a mail forwarding service that was easy to use and transparent. The mail forwarding service we decided on using was Earth Class Mail.
The mail forwarding service we chose, Earth Class Mail, lets us check, manage and forward mail from anywhere in the world, via our computers. So whether we’re in Uruguay, or on a weekend adventure somewhere else in South America, we can access our mail and have it forwarded to us as long as we have Internet.
So we’re going to review the plan we chose to use with the Earth Class Mail, mail forwarding service. Getting started with Earth Class Mail was pretty easy. We first picked the plan we wanted. There are three options: Essential mail forwarding plan, ValuePlus mail forwarding plan and Professional mail forwarding plan. We use the ValuePlus mail forwarding plan for a few reasons:
- There are three of us (the Essential mail forwarding plan allows only 1 recipient; ValuePlus mail forwarding plan allows up to five)
- The maximum amount of mail pieces received and scanned per month is 100… that is plenty for our needs (you pay a per piece fee if you go over that)
- We got a discount by choosing a longer subscription (12 months; you get an even better discount for 24 months)
- And, as with all of the mail forwarding plans, we get unlimited shredding, unlimited recycling and free storage for one month
We then had to choose our address. You can either choose to have PO Box or a physical address (or both, depending on your needs and budget). PO Boxes are available at no additional cost. Physical addresses require an additional monthly fee (ranging from $9.95 to $29.95, depending on location). UPS and FedEx won’t deliver to a PO Box and our bank requires a physical address, so we chose to have both.
After that, we had to have a form notarized to give Earth Class Mail permission to receive our mail. And, of course you have to remember to provide your address to friends, family and businesses you work with. After that, we were all set to go.
Once the mail forwarding kicked in and we started getting mail, we realized how easy the service is to use. When Earth Class Mail receives a new piece of mail for us, we receive an email. We then login to our account to see the scanned image of the envelope and can choose to have them:
- Scan the envelope’s contents so we can view it online
- Have the envelope/package forwarded to our location.
- Forward the electronic document (PDF) to anyone we want
- Shred personal information
- Recycle junk mail
- Have the originals archived with Earth Class Mail
We’ve found that by Earth Class Mail’s mail forwarding rates are reasonable. We pay about U$S 50 to have a FedEx Priority envelope forwarded to us in Uruguay. And, we paid as little as U$S 6 for a small package to be Forwarded down to us via USPS
If you’re a European citizen, I also noticed that Earth Class Mail could get you set up with a street address in various European countries and cities.
Overall, we’re very happy with the Earth Class Mail, mail forwarding service and recommend it to anyone that is planning to live or travel abroad.