Mailing address and scanning services

[Strolls]

I have three UK sites bookmarked for postal mail receiving addresses:

• www.BoatMail.co.uk
• www.ShipToShore.co.uk
• www.UKpostbox.com

Has anyone used any of them, please?

BoatMail have a pricing comparison page that shows them a bit cheaper than ShipToShore, but UKpostbox seem to be a bit cheaper still (if I'm reading it right?) because their 12-month "lite" plan includes free 35 scans per month.

Anyone got any thoughts, please?

Friends & family are not an option.

Stroller.






(I also have www.sbimailservice.com bookmarked, but they're in Florida, so not really suitable for me at present.)

 

[SlowlyButSurely]

We use Ship To Shore. Very very efficient and excellent service in our experience.

 

[lindsay]

If you want a London address to pick up mail as well as forwarding I have been very satisfied with Citibox, in Sourh Kensington or Mayfair, over the last 23 years, 20 as a liveaboard outside the UK.

 

[Yngmar]

Boatmail was very good, because you could talk to a real human and everything was very flexible. Unfortunately it recently suffered some disruption as the owner retired and passed it over to a new one, which went less than smooth (late notification, sudden change of address). No idea how the new one is as we haven't received anything yet (we arranged things to get as little snailmail as possible). Hopefully will be as good again now that the transition is done.

 

[Strolls]

If you want a London address to pick up mail as well as forwarding I have been very satisfied with Citibox, in Sourh Kensington or Mayfair, over the last 23 years, 20 as a liveaboard outside the UK.

£20 a month? That's twice the price of any of the others.

Since posting this last night I've also found www.ghostmaildrop.uk and www.ukmailboxdirect.co.uk

The former is reportedly a very helpful and friendly bloke, the latter very affordable.

 

[Twin]

Do you need UK one and with letter scanning? If not, then get free mailbox in Germany www.mailboxde.com and just forward consolidated letters every 2 months (free storage period). It will be way cheaper than monthly "plans" fees.

 

[Tucepi]

We have used boatmail for 6 months and for us the transition to the new owner was smooth and any mail received is scanned and emailed to us as requested. This all seems to be working for us so far. Having a UK address was important to us so now we have a Gloucester address.

 

[Mcp]

What do people use for a worldwide Phone number? So many times you are asked for an address and phone number as non-negotiable answers on websites?

 

[AndersG]

Most of the time I use 0123456789 as my phone number. If it's something I may want to answer such as banks, airlines etc I use my Tesco Pay as you go but I will normally only answer in the EU.
After Brexit I will probably get a Skype number and forward calls either to my Skype account or a local pay as you go.

 

[IanCalling]

I am very new to this live aboard stuff and I hope I'm in the right place to ask this question. If not then I apologise in advance.

I'm an Australian following a likely well worn path although I know no-one who has followed it. I have sold my home already and the rest of my things, that I no longer need, will be sold soon too. I'm headed for Europe to buy a sailing cruiser, something about 40 foot loa, and will live aboard for year or three and explore most everywhere I can think of. I will likely start off in Italy France depending on where I find the right boat.

A difficulty I haven't solved yet is about boat insurance. I've contacted Y and they've responded with questions of their own. They say they don't deal with Australian boats or Australian addresses.

I've replied that I shortly will have no Australian address and while my citizenship will remain Australian (why would I want to change), the boat will remain registered in the same European country it is already registered in, but I will have no fixed address beyond a sibling's mailing address in Australia which, I suspect, Y won't like. Is it acceptable to use a service like these three as a formal address for me in Europe for purposes like insurance and whatever might be needed or is that frowned upon? Also are there such services in the mediterranean too as that's likely to be more practical to start with - my sailing skills have a fair way to go before I would poke my nautical nose beyond Gibraltar.

Hope someone can help. My aim is to be safe and careful, not to "swindle" the system.

 

[Ningaloo]

I suspect your first problem may be trying to register your new boat without having an address or being "resident" in the country that you want to register it in.
You may also encounter issues with Schengen visas as it can be difficult to get one that allows stays of more than 90 days in every 180.
And if you register the boat in Australia you may run into VAT issues after keeping a foreign boat in the EU over 18 months.
I'm interested to see what responses you get as my own plans are similar although I do hold dual UK/Aussie citizenship and I am in the process of establishing residence (and a home) in Australia having sold up everything (except my boat) in the UK.

 

[IanCalling]

I've seen issues with registering in France, where you must be resident, and I think the same applies in Italy. But registering in Holland or Belgium seems to be a workaround. I suppose you could choose Delaware or the Cayman Islands by that shouldn't be necessary. No good registering in Australia because insurance is difficult - Y won't talk with you. Seems you need at least a real Europe address and it also seems that the Dutch registration mechanism gives you a new, "dormant" UK company identity, and address, to get around the problems. Short question is that Aussies do this so it must be possible. I wonder that, if you found a good boat to buy in, say, France, then the broker must know a way else he loses a sale.

As for VAT, or GST as it is in Australia, that is based on the boat being "imported", not registered, so if you keep moving from country to country there should be no problem. For example, If you are brave enough to sail to Australia then GST is deemed payable 6 months after arrival - unless you head off to New Zealand for a few months and then head back and the clock starts ticking again.

As for Shengen "visas", I didn't think they actually, physically exist. I thought it was more a treaty that allows people to cruise around without a visa at all - to encourage tourism. I thought the rules were implicit rather than dictated by a physical "visa". I think it amounts to be cruising and not living in any one country's waters for too long. But if you sail to UK, or Malta, or Cypress, that are not treaty signitories, for a while, does that not set the clock back to 0? And as for enforcement, I suppose they will kick you out, or not allow you to reenter so you go someplace else anyway.

I suspect your first problem may be trying to register your new boat without having an address or being "resident" in the country that you want to register it in.
You may also encounter issues with Schengen visas as it can be difficult to get one that allows stays of more than 90 days in every 180.
And if you register the boat in Australia you may run into VAT issues after keeping a foreign boat in the EU over 18 months.
I'm interested to see what responses you get as my own plans are similar although I do hold dual UK/Aussie citizenship and I am in the process of establishing residence (and a home) in Australia having sold up everything (except my boat) in the UK.