PO Box Address UK: What Are Its Benefits and How to Get One?
With millions of PO boxes in the UK, Royal Mail helps individuals and businesses keep their physical locations secure and private!
But how does a PO box address work?
And why don’t people want to share their mailing addresses with others?
Royal Mail has been using PO boxes for over a century, and the purpose has changed dramatically! This blog reveals what is a PO box address and how it helps companies and individual customers receive their mail items more efficiently.
Let us begin!
What Is a PO Box Address UK?
A PO box or Post Office box is a custom-addressed, lockable container for storing mail items. You can find it within the Post Office premises or other postal facilities. Royal Mail offers PO box services for people who want to redirect their mail elsewhere other than their actual delivery address!
A PO box address UK is different from usual postal addresses because they don’t have a street name or number. Instead, they have a PO box number that helps Royal Mail trace its location and deliver the mail pieces rightfully.
Originally, PO boxes were a way to help people living in remote areas receive their mail which was hard because of few delivery routes.
Today, postal services offer a UK PO box address for various purposes, including
- Allow people and businesses to have easy-to-remember, short delivery addresses.
- Let them stay anonymous and keep their locations confidential.
- Give customers the ability to collect their mail items 24 x 7 without being home when the carrier arrives.
Most PO box addresses enable customers to pick up the mail at any time of the day. But you must check this feature with your Post Office before purchasing the address. Some PO boxes have specific working hours and days, depending on the location.
Carry a valid, government-issued ID to collect your mail from the PO box address and ensure your item’s safety. Royal Mail only allows the authorised customer to pick up the items.
Why Do You Need a PO Box Address?
There is more than one reason for using a PO box address UK for receiving mail. You already know that it hides your actual address and reroutes your mail items to another address. Here, we explain why an individual or company may need to do that:
Privacy for Home-Based Businesses
Home-based businesses struggle to maintain professionalism and showcase themselves as a legit company. They also deal with problems regarding privacy and anonymous communications. A PO box address helps them keep their residence discreet at affordable rates.
Instead of posting their residential address all over social media and their websites, home-based businesses can use a PO box address UK to get their mail items. These types of delivery addresses also help them look authentic and reliable.
Managing Mail Items at Large Office Premises
Some large corporations use PO box addresses to handle incoming mail better and avoid losing crucial documents. Redirecting items to a different address allows them to secure everything and reply to every letter or package whenever they get the time.
Most call centres, solicitors, insurance agencies, etc., use PO box addresses the UK to protect their physical mailing addresses. They may also buy a PO box to avoid getting a long queue of visitors at their office daily by leaking their physical location.
Receive Crucial Mail While Travelling Abroad
Most people who sign up for a PO box address are frequent travellers. The new delivery location helps them continue receiving mail pieces while they are away.
The PO box services from Royal Mail help these travellers move to any destination for an unprecedented time without the fear of losing significant correspondence.
Moving Residence
Every year, nearly 4% to 5% of the UK population moves to a different country or city. It means that people need to reroute their incoming mail items constantly.
The Royal Mail PO box addresses enable such people to get a permanent delivery address instead of applying for an address change now and then.
Get an Official UK Address, Irrespective of Staying Anywhere
You would be surprised to know that many PO box address owners don’t live in the UK. They reside overseas and purchase a PO box with Royal Mail to receive local and domestic mail.
It is primarily true for international businesses that use a PO box address to establish their presence locally and build a broader customer base. PO boxes also benefit ex-pats who need a delivery address after they leave.
Disadvantages of Using a PO Box Address Compared to Street Addresses
Now that you know why using a UK PO box address can be beneficial, let us discuss the potential cons:
Size Restrictions
Remember that PO box addresses are for delivery of letters, postcards, documents, etc. Though some people receive parcels using PO boxes, fitting larger packages inside these containers is impossible.
Though PO boxes are available in multiple sizes, they range from 5 x 5 to 11 x 11. Individuals and companies receiving larger packages might have difficulties because the postal services might initiate a ‘return to sender’ process. However, the carrier might leave a note inside the box asking the recipient to visit the Post Office to collect the item.
Royal Mail does not have an extensive list of prohibited items for delivery to PO box addresses, so you must refer to the usual list.
Perishable Goods
One of the primary features of PO box addresses UK is that the recipients do not need to attend to the mail at the earliest. They can pick up the items whenever they have time or have Royal Mail forward them to their address. Either way, it makes the delivery of perishable products hard.
Some businesses, like food delivery companies, might block PO box addresses at checkouts. It means- a person or business cannot order food from their application or website using a PO box number. They must enter a valid, physical mailing address to complete the transaction.
Only Royal Mail Deliveries
Most PO boxes in the UK exist within the postal service facilities and only accept mail items by Royal Mail. They might not accept deliveries from courier companies like FedEx or DTDC.
So the carrier returns such items to the sender, resulting in several delivery failures. However, some couriers have permission to drop off mail items to the PO box address, so ensure to check such things with your Post Office beforehand.
The carrier can call the customer directly and arrange a different drop-off place if Royal Mail prohibits deliveries from a courier company.
How Much Do You Need to Pay for a PO Box Address?
Despite popular belief that Royal Mail offers PO box services for free, you must pay a specific amount to avail of these solutions.
The rates depend on the type of PO box address you select and the add-on services. You have three choices:
PO Box Transfer
It is one of the most commonly-used PO box address services that Royal Mail provides to individual and commercial customers. PO box transfer allows recipients to collect their mail items from the local Post Office whenever they get the time.
So Royal Mail stores your personal and PO box address mail together at the postal facility, waiting for you to come and collect them.
But, there is an obvious disadvantage- you must visit the Post Office to get your personal correspondence. But the plus side is that you can direct Royal Mail whether you want to transfer your mail to the PO box for collection or not.
You must avail of this service for at least three months, and the costs are as follows:
| Duration | Price |
| One Month (Using direct debit) | £43.50 |
| Six Months | £240 |
| Twelve Months | £426 |
PO Box Deliver
This Royal Mail PO box address UK service is affordable and convenient because it lets you get your mail at your doorstep. If you select this option, the Post Office forwards all mail items from your PO box addresses to your residence or office address. Ensure that you fill in the correct drop-off or delivery location as the forwarding address in your application form.
Companies or individuals that want to hide their location and don’t want to travel to collect their mail pieces can use this solution. Here are the prices:
| Duration | Price |
| One Month (Using direct debit) | £38.10 |
| Six Months | £209.10 |
| Twelve Months | £378 |
PO Box Collect
It is yet another option that most businesses opt for, primarily during peak seasons when they get a lot of mail items. The PO box Collect service allows customers to ask the Post Office to hold their articles for as long as they need. Hence, they need not worry about rushing to their PO box addresses soon after the carrier drops an item.
Here are the rates for the PO box Collect service:
| Duration | Price |
| One Month (Using direct debit) | £36 |
| Six Months | £174 |
| Twelve Months | £300 |
Please remember that these services don’t dictate the type of UK PO box address you have. They only discuss the delivery methods, and you must decide the start when you fill out the application form.
All the above services are available with advance payments, and you can save a lot by purchasing the 12-month packages.
How to Get a PO Box Address UK?
The application and allotment process varies depending on the selected location for your PO box addresses and the forwarding address. You can find the application form online and fill out the necessary information, like
- Your name (or company name).
- Desired PO box address location.
- Contact details.
- The billing address and other information.
- Plan and duration, etc.
If you apply online, you can only pay using a credit or debit card. And you must upload a valid ID if you want to apply for the PO box transfer service.
Some Post Offices also help people get a PO box address offline. So you can visit your local postal facility during working hours and enquire if you can get one at your desired location. Offline purchases can allow you to pay in cash unless you buy a monthly plan.
Please note that your payment card and the address you use during the application of the PO box address must be linked together. Once you submit the form and make the payment, it can take between seven to ten working days for you to get your PO box functional.
How to Ship to PO Box Addresses UK?
You are not alone if you don’t know how to send something to a PO box address in the UK. Let us compare street addresses with PO boxes for your reference:
Street address:
James Brown
8 Aspen Close
Heswall
BOURNEMOUTH
BH12 4DF
Royal Mail PO box address example:
Olivia Burton
PO box 7416
Sandbanks
BOURNEMOUTH
BH13 7PS
Use the correct postal address for sending mail and packages, irrespective of whether you have a PO box address or a regular one. However, updating your address databases from time to time and ensuring address data quality can be time-consuming and expensive.
If you need assistance to validate your mailing lists and want to avoid getting mail returns, use PostGrid’s address verification service. Our solutions can help you send mail to all UK addresses with a deliverability ratio of 99.99%.
Should My Business Get a PO Box Address?
Companies might have a separate mailing department to manage outgoing and incoming mail. All the mail items they receive go straight to this department, and the officials can distribute them to the concerned people later.
But others that don’t have a mailing department can benefit from getting a PO box address because it gives them the flexibility to manage mail items better. They can select the PO box collect option so the Post Office can hold their mail, and an authorised person can collect it whenever needed.
Is Using a Virtual Mailing Address Better?
There is a broad difference between virtual and PO box addresses UK though they serve the same purpose. A virtual delivery address offers countless features, like
- Notifying recipients whenever a carrier drops off an item in the mailbox.
- Give the option to get a mail preview (a scanned copy of the outer envelope or the document).
- Make mail shredding or discarding easier.
- Allow recipients to forward the items whenever required or store them for a long time.
You can log into your account and manage your mail pieces using the virtual mailing app.
A PO box address does not provide such advanced features because its primary purpose stops at mail collection, storage, and forwarding.
Using PostGrid’s Address Verification Solutions to Enhance Your Database
You need a service that can validate mailing lists and let you mail confidently, primarily if your customers use PO box addresses frequently.
PostGrid’s address verification API and software allow all companies:
- Add missing postcodes to enrich mailing lists and avoid mail returns.
- Conduct fuzzy matching on all PO box addresses UK to correct swapped characters, missing spaces, capitalisation issues, etc.
- Modify typos and spelling errors in the mailing lists.
- Include the correct PO box address numbers.
- Validate the addresses according to the Royal Mail address guidelines for speedier deliveries, etc.
One of our clients in the financial services industry was in the daunting process of moving 10,000+ paper-based entries to an online platform. They needed various address verification tools, from autocomplete to standardisation.
The motive was to filter out old and outdated data and ensure that the new system only has correct entries.
Many records they had were PO box addresses UK that needed more attention. Thus, they turned to PostGrid’s address validation solutions to enrich their databases, eliminate duplicates, and get access to mail-ready delivery information at their fingertips.
Two months later, they successfully adopted their new online data management system using PostGrid. They validated over 15,000 addresses within this time frame and continue using our services to cross-check PO box addresses and validate customer identities daily.
Conclusion
You may replace your street address entirely with a PO box address or use it as an additional delivery location. People have PO boxes even though they have a valid delivery address in the UK for security reasons. Or the reason could be that they want to separate their personal and transactional mail items.
Either way, a PO box address UK enables customers to give out their delivery addresses without fearing transpassing.
It is primarily helpful for those individuals and companies who constantly get unwanted visitors at their addresses.
However, you must mail to the correct PO boxes to avoid facing returns or lost items. PostGrid’s address validation solutions help businesses maintain a valid, deliverable database with PO boxes and street addresses.
Request a demo now to see how your business can use our address verification API to validate PO box addresses and enhance your database!
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