Receiving mail

[chrisrixon]

How reliable is it to receive mail while away?
Do you use Post Restante or c/o the marina?
(immediate interests are France, Spain & Portugal)

 

[ccscott49]

I use the marina addresses in Spain and Portugal, no problems so far. I believe you can use post restante, but I've never done it.

 

[colvic]

We use a padded envelope sent from the UK to the marina; takes on average 3 DAYS to get to us just outside of Valencia. Another couple have theirs delivered once a month via courier but that is expensive. Post hasn't let us down yet and our sone sends out my 8 weeks of prescribed medicenes (9) also in padded envelopes with no problems so far.

 

[Guest]

We use post Restante in France and American Express Spain/ France
(Offices will hold mail for up to 6 weeks) with out any problems.

Top tip- have sender use coloured envelopes (red/yellow were are colours) much easier to spot when they have been filed under the wrong name.

 

[AndrewB]

Thanks for a really good tip, as mail is regularly mis-filed. (After trying your surname, try your first name, boat's name, the sender's name).

Trouble with Poste Restaunte is that if waiting for something to arrive so as to be able to move on, you can waste a lot of time queueing daily in the post office. But its more reliable than marinas.

 

[MedMan]

Forget snail mail - this is the 21st century!! I have been living aboard in the Med for 9 months/12 for the last 4 years and I have not yet had any post sent out to me. I use e-mail for all regular corespondence both family and business using a lap-top on board linked via a mobile phone. I do my banking over the internet from Internet Cafes. It all took some setting up and preparation before I left but it works like a dream. My total expenditure on communication including Cards & postage, Internet Cafes, my mobile phone and my ISP is around £30/month.

David

 

[ccscott49]

Can you please give me details of your ISP and phone contract/local user, as I would like to get going with E mail on board, I have some details of Movistar, but no others as yet, Thanks, Colin Scott.

 

[MedMan]

After 4 years with CompuServe I now use AOL. Both have numbers in pretty well every country in the world so you are only making an in-country call when you log on, not a call back to the UK. I don't really like AOL but they do offer an un-limited usage package at £15/month for when I am back in the UK and a £5/month package giving 3 hours/month for when I am cruising. Unfortunately, CompuServe cannot compete with this and, in any case, CompuServe Classic (my old system) is not XP compatible and will not run correctly on my new laptop.

One2One are by far the cheapest UK provider when Roaming and, provided you have a dual standard phone (900 and 1800MHz) will allow you to log on to the same networks as Cellnet and Vodaphone. For example, logging onto the same Network in France cost me 18p/minute with One2One but 99p/min with Cellnet! Yes - you have read that correctly - the logging on to the same network costs 500% more with Cellnet!

Some people do favour using a local network, but we are happier with One2One. Our average bill is around £25/month. However, we keep the phone switched off and never, never take incoming calls. If you want to be able to receive calls then you will need to buy local SIM cards to give youself a Spanish number.

I have posted a longer reply on this subject under Mobile Phones on Scuttlebutt if you are interested.

Good luck,
David

 

[ccscott49]

Thankyou david I will look into this, but I think the local way is the only way for me, as I dont go back to UK very often and I can't get another UK phone, the residency thing!

 

[Boatman]

Colin, when you have said you are looking at local suppliers a word of caution, I use a Swiss network and am in Spain often where the other half is, Mobistar often has capacity problems and I end up switching networks to avoid Mobistar, I don't know what the cost structure is I just want to be connected. The other half has had similar problems as a local user. They also appear to have similar problems as an ISP, so I don't know what the real solution is.